Red Velvet Macarons

On my continued journey of macaron-ing beloved flavors, here are the red velvets. Slightly chocolately, chewy shells with tangy cream cheese frosting in the middle. And they're just so cute, that it makes me want to sing she's a lady, woah woah woah, she's a lady. They're fancy and down to party. 

Just a reminder that you will need a food scale for this- you really do want to make sure that your measurements are based on the egg weight. This recipe makes about 2 dozen small macarons. 

For the shells:

2 egg whites (for this one, it was 71g - this is my base weight)

106.5 g powdered sugar (1.5 x egg white)

106.5 g almond flour (1.5 x egg white)

12 g cocoa powder (.18 x egg white)

56.8 g granulated sugar (0.8 x egg white)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

red food coloring *I am not putting a measurement here; I used liquid; I think if you used gel, you may be able to add more and have a more vibrant red, but just be careful if you're using liquid to not use too much- it can mess with the consistency of the batter

1/3 c white chocolate chips for drizzling (optional)

1. Prepare a piping bag with a large round tip and set aside. Line two baking sheets with silpat mat and/or parchment. *You will want to draw a circle template to pipe your macarons on to if you're just using parchment. Even if you have the silpats, I also use the parchment over top because it tends to stick less, but the circles on the silpat are perfect guides for piping.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, start mixing egg whites. Don't mix them on too high of a speed (no higher than 6 on a kitchenaid). While this starts out, move to the next step.

3. Sift together almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder in a bowl. *I just put my bowl on my food scale and poured through my sifter until the right weight because I'm lazy.* Put aside until the egg whites are finished.

4. After the egg whites have started to foam up, add cream of tartar. *this is just to help stabilize the merengue, so you can leave it out if you want, but macarons can be finicky bitches, so I use it.

5. Start adding in the granulated sugar to the foamy egg whites a bit at a time. Let mixer keep whipping until you get to stiff peaks, like you see in the picture.

6. Pour in about half of your dry ingredients and the red food coloring into the egg whites. You'd think you have to be gentle here because it's egg whites and you don't want to lose all that air. Nah. You can mix the shit of out of this; it's okay.

7. Pour the second half of dry ingredients in and keep mixing. Here I was a bit more gentle. You want to keep mixing until it looks glossy and it ribbons back on itself.

8. Pour into piping bag and pipe into small circles. Bang on the counter several times to get the air bubbles out. Again, they are delicate, but they also like it a bit rough.  

9. Allow to cure until they are matte (not shiny) and are not sticky when you gently touch your finger to it- this can be 30 - 60 minutes depending on the humidity. 

10. Preheat oven to 350; before putting in the macarons, turn down to 325F. **You want to bake each tray by itself. If you put in both at the same time, the air doesn't circulate properly. 

11. Bake for 10-12 minutes. When lightly tapped, it shouldn't move on its base. 

12. Allow to cool completely. Once cool, melt white chocolate in microwave in 15 second intervals. Once melted, put in a piping bag and pipe lines on half of the shells (this feels ambiguous- pipe half of the shells halfway with lines, so half of them will not have chocolate). Allow to solidify before assembly. 

For the filling:

2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp

2 tbsp cream cheese, room temp

1 1/2 c powdered sugar (ish)

Dash of salt

Splash of vanilla

1. In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together the butter and cream cheese. 

2. Slowly add powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla. 

3. If it feels too thick, you can add a splash of milk or heavy cream as well. 

4. Put the filling in a piping bag and cut the corner off. Pipe a small amount of the buttercream onto the center of half of the shells- you will be putting together one non-white chocolated side with one white chocolated side. You will need less filling in each of them than you think. I would suggest fully assembling a few first to see what your ratio should be before filling the rest. 

5. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.