Heart-shaped Macaroons

This Valentine’s Day, try something new by making macaroons! These cute, tasty treats are perfect to give to friends or snack on by yourself! They can also be made in many different colors by switching the food coloring!

Ingredients for cookies:

• 1/4 cup egg whites (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup almond powder
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• fuchsia color gel

Ingredients for buttercream:

• 1/4 recipe Deliciously Simple Vanilla Buttercream
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Line baking sheet with parchment.
2. Place the almond powder and icing sugar in a food processor. Process until just beginning to clump.
3. Sift well and discard any bits that won’t pass through the sifter. Set aside.
4. Whip the egg whites until they’re the consistency of a loose foam. Continue whipping while slowly adding sugar. Whip to a stiff meringue.
5. Fold the dry mixture into the meringue. Add in color gel at this point.
6. Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with the 2A tip.
7. Pipe the macarons onto your baking sheet.
8. When all your macarons are piped, whack the baking sheet on the counter at least 3 times to get rid of any air bubbles.***
9. Let the macarons dry at room temperature until dry to the touch. Approx 1 hour. DO NOT skip this step.
10. While macarons are drying, make the buttercream.
11. Once dry, bake macarons in a 300°F oven until they stick a little bit to the pans. This can be anywhere from 10-20mins depending on your oven and how crowded the macarons are on the pan.
12. Let cookies cool completely before removing from pans.
13. Pipe buttercream into the center, sandwich the cookies and press together.

See the full recipe at Liv for Cake.