Flavor Profile: Sour Cherry Almond Macarons

There’s finally some sun again in “sunny” Colorado today (I hope you know that I’m aggressively side-eyeing this “300 days of sun” thing here…) after cloudy, frigid weather for most of this month. So with this spring-like reprieve, I wanted to showcase one of my lighter, brighter macarons that might have been intriguing if you’ve looked at Poeme’s flavors. It’s got both wintery themes, flavored with marzipan (a sugary almond paste and European Christmas delight), and spring-summer shades with the vibrant and colorful sour-cherry compote. So with the transitory weather, this macaron should be perfect!

I came up with this flavor in Serbia actually (click here for another Serbian-inspired flavor breakdown!), but the ingredients are Central European as well (think Germany and Austria). Serbians love both these flavors too, though (although I’d suspect they’d go for walnuts instead of almonds…I swear, every dessert in Serbia has walnuts…so. many. walnuts…anyways, back to your regularly scheduled programming!). Sour cherries (or višnje in Serbian) are a staple in Serbian summer sweets; I’m sure most Serbians have memories of their baba (grandmother) making tarts from višnje, among other treats. Their robust, tart flavor balances impeccably with sugary fares; I highly recommend using some višnje next time you decide to make a cherry pie (or at least a combination of them and regular cherries). They can sometimes be found fresh in America, but canned is just as good for baking purposes (look for “tart cherries” on the label).

So the sour-cherry part was Serbian-inspired, but what about the almond? I already told you about Serbians and their love of walnuts, but I thought sour-cherry would be better with a lighter, sweeter nut. And then I thought about some other pastries I had eaten in Europe before, and a common European sweet flavor that is actually quite popular in Serbia as a cake frosting/fondant: Marzipan! Cherries and almonds are a classic combination in Europe (particularly Germany and Austria). And hey, Poeme is musically-inspired…there’s lots of famous musicians from Germany and Austria (Beethoven…Brahms…all those people who yodel…the list goes on…). So sour-cherry almond was a flavor meant-to-be; it’s got my Serbian heritage, musical inspirations, and travel mementos!

To make the actual macaron, I start with a basic almond shell (macarons are typically made with only almond flour, sugar, and egg whites). This is actually the only current flavor I offer at Poeme that uses the standard almond shell; all the rest are flavored with extra goodies (that’s not necessarily typical for macaron shops, but it makes for an incredible final flavor). It’s light, slightly crispy, and oh-so-almondy; you could eat these on their own, but then you wouldn’t have a macarons, would you (self-control is vital here…)?

I use two fillings (not a surprise if you’ve been following the blog). The first (inner filling) is the sour-cherry compote. We make it in-house at Poeme; it’s zippy, tart, and full of cherry flavor. Again, if you’ve been reading some of the previous blog posts, you’re probably already about to predict this next statement: I like to use a more intense filling in the center of the macaron (a filling that could be too intense to use for more normal purposes/straight off the spoon) because macarons are already so sweet, being meringue-based. So to cut the sweetness, I make my fillings quite strong to create a balanced, delicious final product.

The outer filling is an almond Swiss-Meringue buttercream (which has sugar dissolved into egg whites, making for a less sweet and more fluffy buttercream than the traditional American buttercream many of you might be used to). I use almond paste, almond extract, and some sour-cherry juice in the buttercream; it’s more “almondy” (I’m making this a word now…) to balance the potent sour-cherry compote in the center.

The end-result is a spirited macaron flavor, filled with both wintery memories (from the marzipan) and the promise of warmer weather in the sprightly sour-cherry taste. Hopefully, this macaron will help you enjoy the winter-spring transition a little bit more (instead of cursing everything for making it snow when it was in the 60s the week before)!

To order some of these macarons (or another one of our carefully-designed flavors), you can visit the website here. Warmer days await (hopefully, with a Poeme macaron by your side)!