Peppermint Macarons

Macaron Shells

1. Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. Set aside.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
3. I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. You can make your own or print it from the internet, and just place it under silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicone mat.
4. Measure out all of your ingredients.
5. Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set aside.
6. Place egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking mixture over the water bath.
7. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
8. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.
9. With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise speed to high for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
10. Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should form a bird’s beak shape, but shouldn’t be falling to the side, the peak should be stiff, forming a slightly curved shape at the top.
11. Pour sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
12. Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
13. Add the food coloring at this point, if using. In my case, I added the food coloring later, as explained below.
14. It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this, and you might have a couple failed batches before you get this right.
15. First, I pick up some batter with my spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
16. There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
17. Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
18. If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out a bit, I start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.
19. Test again.
20. Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
21. You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
22. This is the most important part about making macarons in my opinion. The best way I can describe this stage being perfect is when you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.

23. Before transferring the batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip, I put the piping bag in a cup, wrapping the top of the bag around the edges of the cup, in a way that the bag stayed open and the sides wouldn't touch each other. Then grab a small brush and lightly dip in the red food coloring. Brush 4 vertical lines from the bottom of the bag, where the round piping tip is, all the way to the top. Make sure the lines are spaced out evenly, at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock. Then pour the batter in the bag immediately. Don't use too much food coloring or it will add too much moisture to the shells.

24. Place piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply equal pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
25. Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
26. Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.
27. Let your trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
28. Pre-heat the oven to 325F.
29. Bake one tray at a time.
30. Bake for 4 minutes, rotate tray.
31. Bake for 4 more minutes. Rotate again.
32. I bake each tray for a total of 18-20 minutes rotating every 4 minutes.
33. When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will be coming off the mat easily, and with a completely formed bottom.
34. Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
35. Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Peppermint Buttercream

1. Cream butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 1 minute. With the mixer off, add all of the powdered sugar in.
2. On low speed, mix the sugar and butter together. Once they are incorporated, turn speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy.
3. Add peppermint extract.
4. If the buttercream seems dry and stiff, add the milk. Mix for another 30-45 seconds. If the buttercream seems too runny, add more sifted powdered sugar until you obtain a firm, but smooth and creamy consistency.
5. STORAGE: Store the buttercream in the fridge for up to 1 week.

To assemble

1. Place Peppermint Buttercream in a piping bag, and then pipe some buttercream on half of the shells. I also sprinkled some crushed peppermint candies on top of the buttercream before topping with another shell.

Storage

1. These Macarons will freeze well for up to 2 months in an air-tight container, or up to 1 week in the fridge.