Peanut Butter and Jelly Macarons

My home town high school had a breakfast available every morning for the kids who were dropped off early or who rode the bus. My favorite was breakfast pizza (the cafeteria would be full every other Thursday morning.) This is, unfortunately, not a recipe for breakfast pizza macarons. The other popular breakfast there were the Smuckers Uncrustables peanut butter sandwiches, because apparently it was too hard to make real peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. These macarons remind me of the cloying, sweet flavor of those sandwiches in a bite size package.

If this is your first time here, be sure to check out Charis’s recipes at Floral Frosting, as she is the creator of this recipe. She’s got some beautiful recipes there, her buttercream is one of our favorites! You also should take a look at the Vegan Meringue Facebook group for more amazing recipes. If you have trouble with the directions, try reading my troubleshooting guide for a little more in depth description.

Ingredients:

• 100 ml of reduced aquafaba (close to 1/3 cup)
• 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 100g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
• 125g almond meal (1 1/4 cup)
• 65g confectioners sugar (1/2 cup)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• purple gel color

Filling:
• 2 tbsp vegan butter
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1-2 tbsp plant milk
• grape jelly

Directions:
1.  Reduce 200 ml of aquafaba in a small pan over medium heat until you have 100ml. (Make sure you’re using liquid measuring cups!) Refrigerate overnight.

2. With a clean bowl and beaters, begin whipping aquafaba until soft peaks form. Add the apple cider vinegar and continue whipping until the mixture can no longer move when you tilt the bowl.

3. Slowly add granulated sugar to your soft peak aquafaba, 1 tablespoon at a time and beat for at least 30 seconds after each addition. When all of the sugar is incorporated, your meringue should be stiff and glossy and hold peaks when you remove the beaters. Add vanilla extract and purple gel color and beat to incorporate.

4. If you have a rougher texture of almond meal, sift it together with the confectioners sugar and grind up any large bits that won’t fit through you sieve in a spice grinder or food processor. If it’s fine enough to pass through a sieve, just sift the two together.
5. Pass half of the almond/confectioners sugar mixture through the sieve into the meringue. Use a flexible spatula to fold the mixture into the meringue. When there are no more large dry clumps, sift in the rest of the almond/confectioners sugar into the meringue and fold it to incorporate.
6. Once all of the almond meal is mixed and there are no large streaks of meringue or dry clumps, begin macaronnage. Push the batter against the side of the bowl to deflate and scoop from underneath.

Check every few strokes by letting a piece of batter fall off the spatula onto the remaining batter. If it melds back into the batter within 20 seconds, stop there. If it still holds its shape, give it a few more strokes. I usually undermix just a bit because the batter will warm up a bit during piping.
7. Pour batter into a piping bag fitted with a round tip, with a clip above the tip. When you are ready to pipe, remove the clip and twist the open end of the piping bag shut.

8. Pipe batter onto parchment lined baking sheets from a 90° angle. Squeeze from the back of the piping bag and let the batter spread into a circle beneath the tip while holding it straight up and down. Repeat until you run out of batter (depending on how large you pipe it, this could require two trays.)
9. Tap the trays 2-3 times on the counter to loosen any bubbles and smooth out any peaks.

Let dry for three hours, preferably with a fan blowing on the tops if you are in a humid region. The tops should be nice and dull after an hour or so, but you should be able to tap the top without any tackiness before baking.
10. Preheat oven to just under 215° F. When oven is preheated, place pan on TOP rack of the oven for 25 minutes. Turn oven off after 25 minutes and leave pan in the closed oven for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let the pan come to room temperature before removing any shells.
11. While shells are baking, beat vegan butter until fluffy and add confctioners sugar and peanut butter. Beat until smooth and fluffy.
12. When the macaron shells are completely cooled, gently peel them off the parchment paper. Pipe peanut butter filling in a circle around the edges of the shells. Fill the center with jelly. Top with a similar sized shell. If desired, mix a small amount of powdered sugar and plant milk together with color to drizzle a glaze on top of the shells, then cover in sprinkles.

Tags: aquafaba, dessert, macarons, peanut butter and jelly, plant-based, recipe, vegan, vegetarian