These Pineapple Macarons are filled with the easiest pineapple buttercream and jelly filling and are decorated with a simple royal icing design to look like the cutest little pineapples.
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If you’ve ever wanted to learn to make shaped macarons, these adorable Pineapple Macarons may be one of the easier shapes to make. You’re making a simple round macaron shell, adding a bit of green batter for the top, and then decorating with royal icing. I’ve even provided a downloadable template below to help with the shape!
How to Make Pineapple Macarons
- Prepare the dry ingredients – Weigh and sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together.
- Make the meringue – Whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks. The meringue should clump up into a ball inside the whisk and the peak should stand straight up when you lift the whisk from the bowl.
- Combine dry and wet ingredients – Add the dry ingredients into the meringue in three parts and fold until the batter runs off the spatula slowly without breaking easily.
- Pipe the shells – Place the template under the silicone mat and pipe the orange batter first. Allow the orange batter to dry a bit before adding the green batter so they don’t run into each other.
- Rest the macarons – Rest macarons until they form a skin and are no longer sticky. This is an important step so they don’t crack in the oven.
- Bake the macarons – Bake at 305F-315F for 14-16 minutes. Make sure to use an oven thermometer since oven displays are not always accurate. (NOTE: baking time and temperature should only be used as a guide since all ovens are different.)
- Let macarons cool – Cool the macarons for about 15 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
Macaron Shapes
The best way to make macaron shapes is to use a template. This helps to get the macaron shapes just the way you want them and helps keep the shells the same size. Below are a few tips when making macaron shapes:
- Fold the batter carefully – pay extra attention when folding the batter because a runny batter will lead to macarons that spread too much and the shells may lose their shape.
- Use smaller piping tips for small areas – for these shapes I used two different sizes of piping tips, as you can see below. The medium tip (Ateco 10) was used for the orange round part and the smaller tip (Wilton 6) was used for the green area.
- Don’t tap the tray to pop air bubbles – to avoid the batter spreading and losing its shape, don’t tap the tray after you piped the green tops. Get rid of any air bubbles by popping them with a toothpick or a scribe instead.
Tips for Piping Macaron Shapes
- Use a small piping tip for smaller areas (such as the green area of these pineapples) so you have more control of the batter.
- Let the first color batter dry a bit before adding the second color batter so they don’t run into each other.
- Macaron shapes with different color areas need to rest longer since you’re piping the batter in sections. Not all areas will dry at the same time and the area where two different color batters meet, will take even longer to dry.
Below you can see the difference in the shell that was not fully dry when it was baked (on the left) and the shell that was completely dry when baked and didn’t crack (on the right). Because these shells were decorated with royal icing, the crack won’t show, but keep that in mind when you’re piping different color batters for one shell.
How to Decorate Macarons with Royal Icing
When decorating macarons with royal icing, make sure your icing consistency is just right. Icing consistency can best be described in how many seconds it takes the icing to sink back into itself.
For this pineapple decoration, I used a 15 second consistency for the lines and dots on the orange area, and a 25 second consistency for the leaves. The 25 second icing is a stiff consistency which allows the detail on the leaves to show.
Pineapple Buttercream for Macarons
For my pineapple buttercream I made a vanilla buttercream, which is my basic vanilla buttercream that I use for my Vanilla Macaron Recipe, added a little bit of pineapple jelly, and piped it in a circle around the outer edge of the shell. I finished the filling by adding pineapple jelly in the center of the shell.
Adding too much jelly can make the buttercream runny so adding a bit of the jelly in the center is a perfect way to get that intense pineapple flavor without ruining the smooth and creamy consistency of the buttercream.
More fruit macarons to try
Macaron resources
- Macaron Tools – My tried and true tools that I use every single time I make macarons
- Macaron Tips – These are my best tips if you’re having trouble getting your macarons just right
Pineapple Macarons
These Pineapple Macarons are filled with the easiest pineapple buttercream and jelly filling and are decorated with a simple royal icing design to look like the cutest little pineapples.
Servings: 14 macarons
Calories: 130kcal
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Strainer
- Whisk
- Stand mixer
- Two spatulas
- One 16 inch pastry bag
- Five 8 inch pastry bags
- Medium round piping tip (I used Ateco 10)
- Small round piping tip (I used Wilton 6)
- Two silicone mats
- Two half sheet pans
- Oven thermometer
- Two small glass bowls
- Pineapple template (download via link in post)
Ingredients
- 90 grams powdered sugar
- 80 grams almond flour
- 70 grams egg whites (room temperature)
- 70 grams granulated sugar
- 2 grams egg white powder (optional)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 4 drops orange gel food coloring
- 3 drops egg yellow gel food coloring
- 3 drops mint green
Pineapple buttercream
- ¼ cup salted butter (½ stick)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp pineapple jelly
Pineapple jelly filling
- ¼ cup pineapple jelly
Royal Icing
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp meringue powder
- ½ tsp water (room temperature)
- 2 drops orange gel food coloring
- 2 drops mint green gel food coloring
Instructions
Prepare dry ingredients
- Sift powdered sugar and almond flour using a whisk to break down any clumps. Set aside.
- Line sheet pans with silicone mats and place the templates under the mats.
- Insert the medium piping tip into the 16 inch pastry bag and the small tip into an 8 inch pastry bag.
Make the meringue
- Whisk the egg whites on medium speed (speed 4) until you see small bubbles (this can take as little as 15 seconds sometimes).
- Slowly add 3 tbsp of granulated sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, waiting about 10 seconds between each tbsp.
- Whisk until you start to see tracks in the meringue.
- Increase speed to 6 and continue slowly adding the remainder of the granulated sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until you’ve added all the sugar.
- Once you have soft peaks, stop the mixer, scrape the sides and add the vanilla.
- Whisk for about 5 more minutes, or until stiff peaks.
Combine ingredients
- Add in the powdered sugar and almond flour mixture in three parts, 1/3 at a time, folding each part until fully combined.
- Once the meringue and dry ingredients are fully combined, stop folding.
- Scoop out about ¼ cup of batter and place it in a bowl and set aside. This will be for the green tops.
- Add the orange and yellow gel food coloring to the mixing bowl and continue folding until the color is mixed in.
- Now you need to deflate some of the air in the batter by taking the spatula and smearing the batter on the sides of the bowl two or three times, and then folding once or twice.
- Repeat the process of smearing some of the batter on the side of the bowl and folding until the batter looks smooth and glossy and runs down the spatula slowly in ribbons.
- You can test the consistency by lifting the spatula and letting the batter run down. If it falls in ribbons and sinks back into itself within 30 seconds, the batter is ready.
- Transfer the orange batter to the 16 inch pastry bag and set aside.
- Take the small bowl with the batter for the pineapple tops, add 3 drops of green gel food coloring, and repeat the steps of folding and deflating the batter.
- Transfer the green batter to an 8 inch pastry bag and set aside.
Pipe the pineapple shaped macarons
- Take the pastry bag with the orange batter and, holding the bag at a 90° angle, pipe the round shells.
- Once all the orange shells are piped (and before adding the green tops), you can tap the tray a few times to get rid of any air bubbles.
- When the orange batter has started to dry a bit, take the pastry bag with the green batter, and pipe the green tops.
- Remove the templates from under the silicone mats.
- Let the macarons rest until they form a skin and are no longer sticky. Pay close attention to where the orange and green batter meet as this area will take longer to dry.
- While the macarons are resting, preheat the oven to 310°F.
- Bake the macarons for 14-16 minutes.
- Macarons are ready when they no longer shift if you touch the tops.
- Let the macaron shells cool for at least 15 minutes.
Royal icing
- In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and a few drops of water and mix with a spoon. Continue mixing and adding a drop of water at a time until you get a 25 second consistency. This means that when you lift the spoon, it will take 25 seconds for the icing to sink back into itself.
- Separate the white icing in half into two small bowls. Add the green food coloring to one of the bowls and mix until combined. Transfer the green icing to an 8 inch pastry bag and set aside.
- Take the bowl with the rest of the white icing and add a few more drops of water and mix until you get a 15 second consistency. Add the orange food coloring and mix until combined. Transfer to an 8 inch pastry bag and set aside.
Decorate the macaron shells
- Once the macaron shells are cooled, take half of the shells and decorate the orange areas with the orange royal icing by adding lines across the shell and then add small dots in between the lines. Decorate the orange areas first so the icing starts drying.
- Now take the pastry bag with the green icing and cut a V shape at the tip. Hold the bag so that the "V" shapes are on either side, place the tip of the bag at the bottom of the green leaf area, and squeeze. Release the pressure on the bag as you pull away from the leaf to make the leaf tip. Repeat on the other two sections.
- While the royal icing is drying, make the buttercream.
Pineapple buttercream
- In a medium bowl, using the stand mixer, whisk the butter until smooth.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and whisk until fully combined.
- Add the remaining powdered sugar and whisk until combined.
- Add 1 tbsp of the pineapple jelly to the buttercream and whisk until fully combined.
Assemble the macarons
- Fill an 8 inch pastry bag with the buttercream and cut a ¼ inch opening at the tip of the bag.
- Pipe the buttercream around the outer edge of half of the macarons, leaving a space in the middle for the jelly.
- Fill another 8 inch pastry bag with ¼ cup pineapple jelly and cut a ¼ inch opening at the tip. Fill the center of the macarons with the jelly.
- Top the filled macaron shells with the decorated shells and refrigerate for at least 24 hours so that the macarons can mature.
- When ready to eat, remove the macarons from the refrigerator at least 20-30 minutes before and let come to room temperature before eating.
Notes
All ovens are different so temperature and baking times should only be used as a guide
Mixing bowl should be clean and grease free
Weigh all ingredients in grams for accuracy
Use room temperature egg whites (to bring eggs to room temperature quickly, put them in a bowl filled with hot water for about 5 minutes)
Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together because almond flour is moist and doesn’t sift well alone
Mix the egg white powder and the granulated sugar before adding to the egg whites to fully dissolve the egg white powder
Whisk the meringue until you have stiff peaks
Let macarons dry before baking so they don’t crack
*Calories reflected are for macaron shells only
Nutrition
Serving: 1 macaron | Calories: 130kcal