Valentine's Day Macarons

I want to share with you these cute Valentine's Day Macarons that I made for Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty's Handwriting Workshop held today at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

I made them by whipping up a batch of salted caramel mini macarons and then once the macaron shells had baked and cooled, I drew on little hearts using a pink AmeriColor edible ink pen. It was so easy to do and now I can't stop thinking of other designs I want to attempt. I have a feeling green clovers for St. Patrick's day will be up next but I'm getting ahead of myself.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's how I made them:

I made a batch of salted caramel macarons.

After baking, I sorted the shells into pairs and drew a heart on one of them using a pink edible ink pen.

Then I added the salted caramel filling and put the cookies together.

Cookies plated and ready to be served at the handwriting workshop. All of them were enjoyed but the macarons were gobbled up first. I heard one boy tell his mom "the macarons were gone in 5 minutes." Next year I'll remember to make more.

Salted Caramel Mini Macarons

Mini Salted Caramel Macarons

If you want many macarons, make mini macarons. I made another batch of Salted Caramel Macarons because I needed more to share with friends but this time made them mini-sized and got 80 finished macarons from a single recipe.

Mini macarons are so cute and I find that the small size is actually easier to pipe and bake, making them ideal for first time macaron makers. It can be a struggle to pipe even-sized rounds of macaron batter when when you don't have much piping experience so aiming for small nickle-sized rounds is a good place to start and then when you get the hang of it you can go bigger. As for the baking, I find that mini macarons bake more evenly because of their small size and are less likely to have hollow centers. 

To make the Mini Salted Caramel Macarons, just follow my original recipe but reduce the size and baking time — Mine took 10 minutes to bake but I started checking them at 7 minutes. It is important that you bake them long enough. They should feel very firm to the touch and not wobble a bit if you give one a gentle shake. It really is better to bake macarons a bit too long than too little. If they are underbaked, they won't want to release from the parchment and they'll tear and be fragile. I've been through this and it's very frustrating!

Please give mini macarons a try. Once you have success, you'll be hooked on making macarons and trust me, you friends and family won't mind one bit.

The piped mini macarons. I aimed for nickle-sized rounds and after settling they grew to be a bit bigger than a quarter.

Look at all those macaron shells from one batch! I got 160 shells, enough to make 80 finished macarons. Here the shells are sorted into pairs and ready to be filled with salted caramel buttercream.

The finished macarons.

Macaron Coloring Tip

Mini Lime Macarons

My macaron coloring tip is to color your macaron batter darker than you want your macarons to end up. The color of a macaron lightens after baking so if you want bright macarons be sure to intensify the batter. I find that gel food colorings work best.

To show the difference,  here's a side by side comparison of my recent batch of Mini Lime Macarons.

And, here's my recipe for Mini Lime Macrons filled with a buttercream flavored with fresh lime zest and juice. These were my favorite of three flavors including Almond Chocolate and Strawberry that I recently made for a baby shower

Mini Lime Macarons
(makes 75 quarter-sized macarons)
180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
green food coloring

Line five heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts.  Towards the end of mixing, add the food coloring.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper.  Mix well. 

Fold the mixture with the rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

Transfer the mixture into the two piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small nickel sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch.

While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable. 

Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for 8 to 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.

Leave on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Lime Buttercream

Filling the Mini Lime Macarons

Lime Buttercream 

Zest of two limes
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons sugar
3 large egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of fine sea salt
green food coloring, optional

The lime juice, zest and sugar before cooking.

Mix together the zest, 3 tablespoons of sugar and lime juice and add it to a small saucepan. Over medium heat, heat the mixture until it comes to a boil, watching it and stirring it constantly. Simmer the mixture for about 5 minutes until it's reduced and begins to caramelize on the edges. The zest will change color to a darker green.

Remove the mixture from the stove and transfer it to small bowl to cool. Let it cool completely.

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in the salt and cooled lime mixture and whip on high speed until fluffy. If desired add a touch of green food coloring.

Mini-Macarons

Strawberry and Lime Mini-Macarons

Chocolate Almond and Lime Mini-Macarons. (Notice how the green color of the Lime Macarons shows up so much more when next to the paler Chocolate Almond Macarons.)

Mini-macarons are adorable and perfect for parties. You'll get 75 macarons from one recipe and they are so pretty that they can do double duty as both a treat and a centerpiece.

These mini strawberry, lime and chocolate almond macarons are for my friend Shannon who is throwing a baby shower this weekend.

I also find mini-macarons are the easiest to pipe so they're a good place to start if you want to try making French macarons. I pipe them nickel-size and then they spread a bit and end up about the size of a quarter.

If you want to make an assortment of colors from one batch like I did, don't add the coloring to the egg whites as usual.

Instead mix the almond meal and powdered sugar into the egg whites and then just as it comes together, divide the batter and then add the coloring you want and proceed with the technique of folding the batters with a rubber scraper until they are the right consistency for piping.

Once you have success making these, I guarantee you won't want to stop because it's so satisfying and the flavor and color choices are endless.

Click here for the basic recipe and my video showing how to make them.