Peppermint Candy Cane French Macarons

 

Christmas time is truly my favorite time of the year. I know that a lot of people say that it is, but you see, I really, really mean it. 

When I was a kid, everyone in my family got into the spirit. My mom would make homemade peanut brittle, fudge, almond roca, and turtles with caramel from scratch. My dad made several different wooden Christmas decorations throughout the years- a full nativity scene, a gingerbread house, frosty the snowman, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus (the list goes on) and decorated the whole front yard with the cast of characters and lots of different kinds of lights. My contribution was pretty much publishing an enormous Christmas list complete with pictures and detail heavy descriptions. Wasn't I a humble child? Ha!

I suppose I also contributed by helping decorating our Christmas tree and creating a set of demands and standards for our season decor. For instance, when my mother decided to buy an artificial tree when I was 15, I staged a protest. I wrote an essay about why she shouldn't buy an artificial tree. She bought one anyway, but at least I created art out of my sorrow.  

Before my husband and I moved to our new place this past August, we bought a faux fireplace from the Long Beach Flea Market. It was painted a strange blue color and had some other cosmetic issues, but I had the utmost confidence that my dad could help us refurbish it. A big part of the reason why I have wanted a faux fireplace in recent years is so that I could decorate the mantle for Christmas and have a place to hang out stockings. 

Just this past weekend, my dad completed the project and we are overwhelmed by how beautiful it is! Here is a before and after:

BEFORE

AFTER 

I decided this year to give away boxes of homemade french macarons to my co-workers this year. While I bake a lot of different things all of the time and the people around me seem to appreciate all of it, French Macarons are special. They are time consuming, finicky and so beautiful and delicate. I decided that they would be the perfect baked good to gift this year. One of the flavors that I decided to make for the gift boxes are these Candy Cane Peppermint French Macarons. 

They are not only really tasty, but are so beautiful with the swirled buttercream center and sprinkle of crushed candy canes on top.  

Even though I didn't use her recipe, thank god that I read Tartlette's blog entry on her Candy Cane Macarons because I was pre-warned to not sprinkle the shells with candy canes prior to baking, which I almost did. Apparently the candy melts and ruins the shells- be warned! 

 

For the Macaron shells: 

2 egg whites (from 2 large eggs, aged overnight for at least 24 hours)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Pinch of cream of tartar

3/4 cup fine ground almond flour (I now only use Honeyville Farms brand)

1 cup confectioner's sugar 

Pre-heat oven to 260-280 degrees (my oven runs hot- you may need to experiment with yours).

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium high using whisk attachment until whites are frothy. Pour granulated sugar into the egg whites. Beat on high until egg whites have reached stiff peaks and the meringue is clumped and gathered all on the whisk.

Combine almond flour and confectioner's sugar in food processor and pulse to combine. Sift through a fine mesh sieve.

Take bowl out of stand mixer. Sift dry mixture into egg whites. Using an offset spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites until mixture resembles "molten lava" and ribbons off of the spatula.  

Scoop batter into a large pastry bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe equal sized circles onto parchment lined baking sheets.

Allow shells to rest for about 45 minutes prior to baking. Bake one sheet at a time for 17-22 minutes, until shells no longer "wiggle" under your finger when you gently touch them.

For the peppermint buttercream:

2 large egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

Peppermint extract

Red food coloring

Fill sauce pan about 1/3-1/2 full with water. Heat on medium until water is simmering. While water is heating, place egg whites and sugar in bowl of stand mixer. Once water is simmering/lightly boiling, reduce heat on burner to low and place bowl inside pan. Continuously whisk by hand (using a hand held whisk) until sugar is dissolved and mixture reads 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.  

Remove bowl from water and dry bottom. Place back onto mixer and whisk on high until mixture is stiff and completely cool. Slowly add into butter piece by piece while mixer is running. Once all is incorporated, switch to a paddle attachment and mix for another 1-2 minutes. Add peppermint extract until desired flavor is reached.

To Decorate:

To decorate these macarons post-baking, I simply spread a thin layer of melted white chocolate onto one fully cooled shell and sprinkled the crushed candy canes on top.  To create the swirl effect, add red food coloring to half of the butter cream and fill a pastry bag with the two colors, so that the two colors are stacked on top of each other in the bag.  Squeeze a little out until the colors come out swirled.