French Macarons

Place the almond flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse four times for three seconds each to combine them. Scrape the side of the bowl in between pulses with a spatula. Be careful not to process to long or hard, as you may get almond butter.

Sift with a fine-mesh strainer onto a sheet of waxed paper.

Whisk to together, by hand, the meringue powder and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk in the egg whites and cream of tartar until the mixture is homogenous.

Add the whisk attachment to your mixer and whisk on medium speed until the meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks, about 11 minutes.

Once the meringue reaches stiff peaks and resembles marshmallow fluff, stop mixing.

With a spatula, quickly fold the sifted dry ingredients into the meringue. Add food coloring when the batter appears to be almost incorporated. Finish mixing color into batter.

Spoon the batter into a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch round tip. Pipe onto silicone mat or parchment-lined baking sheet into quarter-sized rounds, 1 1/2 inches apart. (I like to use a silicone mat with round guides.) When you have all the rounds piped, tap the tray hard on the counter to release any air bubbles in the rounds.

Because I live in a very humid climate, I like to set the piped rounds in a cold oven for an hour or two to dry out. Traditionally you now bake them at 200 degrees for 15 minutes, them increase oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional nine minutes or until the food and edge of the shells feel firm and just come off the parchment paper if you forcibly lift them.

Remove shells from oven and slide the mat or paper onto a cooling rack and let cool completely, about one hour.

Champagne Filling

In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until it is very soft and creamy. The butter needs to be really soft or your buttercream won’t be as fluffy as it should be.

Add half of the powdered sugar. Beat until fully combined.

Add the rest of the powdered sugar and the champagne. Beat on medium speed for 5-6 minutes.

If the buttercream is too thick, add more champagne, too thin, add more sugar. until it reaches the desired consistency.

Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a piping tip.

Pipe icing onto the inside of one macaron shell.

Sandwich another macaron shell on top.

B&B Episode 29 Champagne French Macarons

Ingredients

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