Irish Cream Macarons

The beauty about macarons (beyond their obvious adorable chic look) is that it is easy to experiment with flavors. Unlike making a giant cake and frosting it, it’s easy to combine two or three flavors in a tiny bite.

Ingredients

For Macarons:

• 120 g fine almond meal/flour
• 200 g confectioner’s sugar
• 90 g egg whites (~3 large egg whites), at room temperature
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon Irish cream

Irish Cream Filling:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons Irish Cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping:

• 2 tablespoons melted chocolate

Instructions

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Create a template of circles on the parchment (I used a 1½-inch round cookie cutter to draw circles on the parchment paper and flipped over the paper (drawing side down). Prepare a pastry bag with a large round tip. I used Wilton 2A.
2. Using a food processor, pulse the powdered sugar and almond flour into a fine powder. Sift several times until there is less than 2 tablespoons of almond bits left.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar. Beat until egg whites are foaming. With the mixer on medium high, sprinkle in the sugar about 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes. Add in the irish cream at this time and beat for an additional minute.
4. Sift the dry ingredients over the egg whites and gently fold with a rubber spatula. Gently deflate the meringue by pressing against the side of bowl and scooping from bottom until batter is smooth and shiny; about 20-25 folds. To check consistency, drop a spoonful of batter and it should have a peak that quickly relaxes back into the batter in about 20 seconds. Start checking the batter after 20 folds.
5. Transfer batter into pastry bag and pipe onto the pre-traced circles on the baking sheet. Tap baking sheet hard on counter to release any air bubbles trapped in the batter. Let shells sit on counter for 20-30 minutes to dry. Once a shell forms on the macarons, you are ready to bake (when you touch the top of the macarons, they should be dry).
6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until shells are hard, rotating cookie sheets halfway through baking time.
7. Cool completely on cookie sheets before peeling from the parchment.

For Filling:

1. Whip the butter until light and creamy. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix on low until combined. Increase speed to medium and whip for additional 2-3 minutes.
2. Using a pastry bag fitted with a large round or star tip, fill macarons. Drizzle the top of each macaron with melted chocolate.
3. Store macarons in refrigerator until ready to serve. Allow to get to room temperature before enjoying!