Peppermint Chocolate Macarons

These little babies will steal the show at any holiday party! And I know what you're gonna say, but Jenna, macarons are a bitch to make, and I'll never be able to do it! I will agree, that sometimes she's a little persnickety, but if you treat her right, she'll treat you right. So let's get into how to make that happen! 

This recipe makes 24-30 small macarons. 

For the Macaron Shells: *This is by weight, and yes, you HAVE to weigh it
1 part egg whites - 64 grams (2 egg whites for me)
1.5 part almond flour - 96 grams (64 from egg whites x 1.5)
0.8 part granulated sugar - 51 grams
1.5 part powdered sugar - 96 grams
Green food coloring
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 or 2 drops of peppermint extract (this shit is STRONG, and you will add more into the buttercream, so caution here)

**White chocolate optional for decorations. 

1. Prepare two cookie sheets with a silicon  mat or parchment paper with circles (or in this case Christmas trees) marked out in pencil (if you do this, obviously flip the parchment over so that you aren't piping into pencil marks). Also prepare a piping bag with large round tip (or just put a whole in the tip of the bag).

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 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.

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. Take the bowl off of the stand mixer- we are going by hand for the rest of this. Pour in about half of your dry ingredients into the egg whites, the drops of peppermint extract, and the green food coloring. 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 you can be a bit more gentle. You want to keep mixing until it looks glossy and it ribbons back on itself. You're looking for the batter to incorporate back into itself within about 15-20 seconds. When I think I'm done, I always do a few more stirs to make sure.

8. Once ready, pour batter into the piping bag and pipe out circle macarons or you can try your hand at the tree. As you can see below, I just did little circles close together 1-2-3-1 down the line. 

9. Make sure to bang the tray on the counter several times to get the air bubbles out and allow to cure for about 30 minutes or so (this time can vary wildly- you're looking for the surface to be matte instead of shiny, and when you touch it, it doesn't stick to your finger.

10. Once you pipe, this is a great time to preheat the oven to 350F. BEFORE you put them in the oven, drop to 325F. I would only bake one sheet at a time. I tried double once. It doesn't work out well. Anyway, bake for 10-12 minutes. If you can lightly touch it and the macaron doesn't move on it's base, it should be done.

11. Once cool to the touch, melt white chocolate in a bowl in the microwave at 15 second intervals until smooth. Place in a piping bag and cut a SMALL hole at the tip. Pipe any designs you want on the trees (you can decorate just one or both sides) and allow to cool completely before filling with the buttercream. 

For the buttercream:

5 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 c powdered sugar
1/8 c cocoa powder
A few drops of peppermint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt (to taste)

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, put in butter. Slowly add powdered sugar and cocoa powder into the butter.

2. Add peppermint extract, vanilla, and salt into the mix. Check for taste and consistency- if it feels too thick, add a splash of milk or heavy cream. 

Assembly: 

1. Put the buttercream in a piping bag and cut the tip off. 

2. Try to match up the macaron sizes beforehand so that you know which trees will fit as closely together as possible. 

3. Pipe buttercream onto one macaron shell and sandwich them together. 

4. Store in an air-tight container (on the counter or in the fridge is fine- they'll last longer in the fridge though).