Blood Orange Macarons with Orange Bitters Buttercream

I picked up some beautiful blood oranges from the market a few weeks ago, and in my continued love and fascination for macarons, was inspired to make Blood Orange Macarons (with BraveTart's macarons acting as a creative muse).

I attempted to make these a few weeks ago but failed, so I’m delighted that my second attempt turned out beautifully. The recipe I used is an adaptation of the one I often turn to from I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita. The juice of a blood orange was boiled down to a concentrated syrup, which went into flavouring the macaron batter with some zest. Powdered food colouring was used to give the macarons shells their gorgeous salmon pink hue.


The filling was an orange bitters Swiss meringue buttercream, using my favourite buttercream recipe from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery and flavouring it with a tablespoon of orange bitters, some blood orange syrup, and blood orange zest.

The result is a chewy, light macaron with a creamy, buttery filling bursting with orange flavour.