Red Velvet Macarons

So I've been thinking up new flavours over the past couple of days and this is one of the ideas I came up with... Red Velvet Macarons! Any of you Red Velvet Cupcake lovers out there will love these macarons. The Cream Cheese filling is to die for! It was so tempting just to eat it straight out of the bowl! I'll post a macaron Do's and Dont's page soon and I'll be adding to that whenever I find new tips. Hopefully that will help all new Macaron Makers (and me too!). So here's my recipe for Red Velvet Macarons with Cream Cheese Filling.

You can see that this batch has cracks in it :( I'll give some tips on how to prevent that)

Red Velvet Macarons: 

 

• 75 g almond meal 
• 100 g Icing sugar
• 2 tbls cocoa powder
• 2 egg whites
• 50 g Castor sugar
• Red food colouring

1. Place the almond meal, cocoa powder and icing sugar (confectioners sugar) into a food processor and process for 15 seconds. Sift the mixture into a bowl. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Place the egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until holding soft peaks. Gradually whisk in the caster sugar (about 1 tbls at a time) to make a firm, glossy meringue. Whisk in enough food colouring to give a vibrant red colour (It needs to be really red so that it doesn't go brown)
3. Using a spatula, fold in the almond/icing sugar/cocoa powder mixture into the meringue, one third at a time. When all the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, continue to cut and fold the mixture until it forms a shiny batter with a thick, ribbon-like consistency.
4. Pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1-cm/ 1/2-inch plain nozzle. Pipe an even amount of small rounds onto the prepared baking trays. Tap the baking sheets firmly onto a work surface to remove air bubbles. Leave at room temperature for 30-60 minutes or until a thin skin forms on the top of the shells. Preheat the oven to 150 °C/ 302 °F/Gas Mark 3.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then carefully peel the macarons off the baking paper. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Filling:

• 60 g cream cheese
• 60 g butter
• 1 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

1.  Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth
2. Add the icing sugar and vanilla essence
3. Put into a piping bag and pipe the filling onto 1 half of the shells. Then sandwich with a matching shell
4. Leave in the fridge for a few hours for the flavours to infuse.
5. Enjoy!

Tip of the Day

• Dont use liquid food colouring! Use food colouring paste. Liquid changes the consistency and wont form a skin which means no feet and cracks!