Cherry Limeade Macarons

Macarons are a very difficult french pastry in terms of baking. The french method, which is the one used in this recipe, is extremely delicate and hard to get right. But when you do, it's delicious!

• Ready In: 48 mins
• Serves: 15-25
• Yields: 30-50 macarons

Ingredients

• 3  egg whites
• 1⁄3 cup sugar
• 1  cup  almond flour or 1  cup  meal
• 16  ounces powdered sugar (approximately)
•  about 1/3 teaspoon of cherry  oil (to taste)
• 3 -5  drops  red food coloring (optional)
• 1 1⁄4 teaspoons lime zest
• 3  tablespoons lime juice
• 3 -5  drops  green food coloring (optional)
• 1  pinch salt
• 1  tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 cup butter (melted)
• 1  tablespoon milk (approximately)
•  about 1 cup maraschino cherry (you need 1/2 for each single macaron)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 245-300. Start by sifting 2 cups of powdered sugar, your almond flour/meal into a large bowl. If you don't already have a sieve, cheap ones can be bought at Walmart or some other grocery stores.
2. After sifting, give it a couple good stirs to make sure that everything is properly mixed.
3. In another bowl (if your mixer has a specific bowl, use that one) add your egg whites and granulated sugar. This will be your meringue. Set your mixer to a medium-high speed and beat until slightly stiff peaks are just beginning to form.
4. Add your cherry oil and desired food coloring. Continue to beat on medium speed until stiff peaks are beginning to form.
5. Fold in your meringue, about 1/3 at a time, into the dry mixture. You might not need all of it. It should be about the consistency of cake batter.
6. Put the batter into a piping bag, and pipe it onto a baking sheet (covering it in parchment paper worked best for me). I made my macarons about the size of a quarter, and about a half of an inch apart. Make sure they are far enough apart where they wont stick together. Rap the sheet on the countertops a couple of times to release air bubbles.
7. Let your macarons rest for 15 minutes before baking.
8. Put your macarons in the oven. Mine were done in about 8 minutes. Keep a careful eye on them, because they should not begin to brown on top.
9. Cool your macarons, and start making your lime frosting.
10. Combine your butter and lime zest. Start to add powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with 1 tbsp of lime juice at a time. Add milk to make the texture more creamy (I only used a splash). Add milk/powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.
11. Add green food coloring if you choose to (I made my frosting a light green color, and it went very well with the light pink of my macarons) and chop your maraschino cherries in half (you will need 1/2 for each macaron.
12. To assemble, pipe the lime frosting onto one side of one cookie. Place 1/2 maraschino cherry in the center, and pipe a tiny bit of frosting over it. Put another cookie on top.
13. I found that my macarons got better after 24-48 hours of being assembled. I stored mine in a plastic tuboware container, and kept it on my counter.