Holiday French Macaroons with Peppermint Buttercream Frosting
These Holiday French Macaroons with Peppermint Buttercream Frosting are a gorgeous dessert that are sure to wow your family and guests!
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites room temperature
- ¼ c. white sugar
- 2 c. confectioners sugar
- 3/4 c. almond flour
- pinch of salt
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
Buttercream
- 1/4 c. butter softened
- 1/4 c. cream cheese softened
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- 1/4-1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 300 F degrees.
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Sift together almond flour and powdered sugar; removing the larger lumps of almond pieces. Discard those, you want a really fine powder mixture to create a smooth and pretty on top to your cookie.
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Beat egg whites until foamy, then add salt, cream of tartar and white sugar for 6-10 mins. Whip until they form a peak that stands upright. Then add the food coloring.
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Fold flour/sugar mixture into the egg white mixture. Be careful, if you under mix your macaroons they will be lumpy and cracked when they bake and they won't have feet. If you over mix, your macaroons will be flat and won't have feet (the mark of a well-made macaroon). A good measure is 65-75 turns of your spatula when folding. Transfer batter to a pastry bag. Pipe out 1 inch rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Tap the pan hard at least 2-3 times to release the air bubbles. This will prevent the tops of your macaroons from cracking.
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Let them sit out for 20-30 mins, or even up to an hour if you want. This will allow them time to dry out a bit. They should be "tacky" to the touch, but not stick to your fingertips. This is another important step to assuring your macaroons develop feet! When they dry out they can't spread out in the oven, and are forced to rise up, which is what creates the feet!
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Bake for 20 mins. Whatever you do: DO NOT UNDER BAKE, even if they look done! Otherwise they will stick to your tray. You will also want to avoid opening the oven door while baking.
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Meanwhile mix the buttercream: In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat softened butter & cream cheese for 2 minutes. Add vanilla & peppermint extract. Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
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Transfer to a pastry bag, fitted with a small tip (about ¼ ” in diameter) Reverse cookie shells on their backs, and pipe a small mound of filling on one of them. Top with the other shell and you have your French Macaroon! If not eating right away, keep refrigerated.
Recipe Notes
[My 2 Cents]
This is one of those recipes you really need to plan around. You want to be prepared. Have all of your ingredients out and ready to go before starting so that things will run smoothly. If you forget to take your eggs out of the oven, it’s ok! There’s a way to quickly create room temperature eggs in a pinch! All you have to do is submerge your refrigerated eggs in warm water for 5 mins. I watched many youtube videos (and I would highly recommend watching Beth’s Entertaining because her tutorial is excellent) to help me stay ahead of the game in macaroon making. Another thing I learned is that the color does fade a little as it cooks, so do a shade or two darker than you want them to be.
[More of My 2 Cents]
When thinking of my peppermint frosting, I had a brain malfunction and completely forgot about peppermint extract. Instead I went on the hunt at a speciality cooking store and bought peppermint oil - which is insanely more concentrated. It wasn't until after, that I realized that I should have just used the extract because my frosting was REALLY pepperminty with the oil (plus I used more than I should have I suppose). But I got the thumbs-up from my taste testers at work that it was still tasty so I went with it. But for you - you'll save an arm and a leg, and you'll get exactly what you need from plain and simple extract. Learn from my mistake :)
Adapted from Beth's Entertaining