Cream cheese frosting

[piracer]

So I just made some plain macarons without any coloring or cocoa and i thought it would be interesting to continue onwards with the whole white/plain color.

Cream cheese frosting seems like a good idea but I've always found it way to cloying and sweet. And yeah, you could just reduce the amount of icing sugar but any ideas on how to make it lighter? Incorporate a Swiss meringue? Whipped cream?

Ideas?

[Mjx]

A lot of macaron fillings seem flat, and I'm fairly certain that the problem is fixable with a tiny pinch of salt. If you wanted to stay with your original idea of a cream cheese filling, you could try adding a little almond extract, too: It wouldn't change the colour, and it would add an aromatic dimension that is often sorely lacking in macaron fillings (for whatever it's worth, I'm firmly in the jam filling camp, when it comes to macarons, since dairy-based ones tend to seem too heavy).

[piracer]

Almond extract might be a little hard to find for me but that's possible. I was thinking instead of adding butter would EVOO be a lighter replacement? For some spice i was thinking white pepper - when i make strawberry macarons i always like adding fresh cracked pepper into the jam before filling and a little sea salt flake on top, so could white pepper and sea salt do the same trick?

[Dave Hatfield]

Won't comment on the seasonings, but will on the butter idea.

I regularly put SOFTENED butter into my frosting. My normal ratio is about 1/3 butter to 2/3 cream cheese by volume.

This seems to work well.

I normally mix it with a fork. The softened part on the butter is critical to the mixing part. I add a bit of vanilla & powdered sugar a bit at a time until I get the degree of sweetness I want.

[Lisa Shock]

If your main concern is color, I'd consider white chocolate.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

EVOO will change the colour of your frosting, as well as introducing a strong flavour - the main attraction of using butter in cream-cheese confections is that it doesn't tweak the colour away from white.

Have you tried adding 1 tbsp of fresh orange or mandarine juice to your frosting? That seems to cut the cloying sweetness without skewing the colour.

[xxchef]

Try making it with a good fresh goat cheese instead of cream cheese. The tang will lift the flavor out of the doldrums and counter some the over-sweetness common in CC frostings. Pick a firm (well-drained) one and you might even get by with less sugar.

[Quesmoy]

I have a recipe for the cream cheese frosting that turns out not to sweet, and is very light and airy. If you would like the recipe just pm me.

Tamara

[Kouign Aman]

I usually put lemon (juice and zest) in my cream cheese frosting which zings it a bit. Salt helps.

[piracer]

Hmmmm goat cheese is a little pricy for me. So what i've come up with:

Cream cheese

Lemon juice and zest

Icing sugar

Butter - if i whip the butter, this should add lightness, no?

Sea Salt

Cinnamon (person im making it for requested cinnamon)

[LovesGenoise]

Looks fine. You may want to taste it before adding the salt, as the cream cheese has plenty of salt already.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Also note that if you overbeat cream cheese frostings they go thin and you need to add more sugar to get the consistency back, which is obviously not what you want... so many recipes call for the butter to be beaten first (to get the air and smoothness) then add in the cream cheese and beat to combine.

I made a macaron filling quite similar to this, using lime juice instead of lemon and called it a Lime Cheesecake flavour. People seemed to enjoy it, the tang of cream cheese does compliment the macaron shells well, even though it's quite rich.

[Kajikit]

Fresh lemon juice cuts the cloying sweetness of cream cheese frosting and doesn't overtly change the colour or texture.

[threestars]

I usually put lemon (juice and zest) in my cream cheese frosting which zings it a bit. Salt helps.

Sounds great. Will try it out next time.

[piracer]

Well here are the results. I did about 170g of cream cheese, juice and zest of a lemon and a little salt, melted over a baie marie with a little butter. Whilst melting i made a quick italian meringue with about 2parts sugar, 1 part water, beaten to stiff peaks then folded in. Flavored with cinnamon powder afterwards. Texture was a little gummy and gluey eaten by itself, i think too many sticky components. In the macarons however, it seemed ok though perhaps its my shells being too sweet, but for these it was better to be generous with the filling.