Beauty and the Beast (2017)-Treat
I decided that for this movie I wouldn't go too crazy with the dessert and make a simple magenta french macaron. I made the decision to do this dessert because of the movie's setting, it would only make sense to do a french dessert! I chose the color magenta because it's basically impossible to do red macarons, it's always going to stay pink because of its white base. I wanted the dessert to be red to represent the rose that is in the center of the movie!
Here's the recipe I followed
The "cookie":
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup almond flour or almond meal
1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
3 large egg whites, room temperature
Pinch cream of tartar
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1-2 Tablespoons strawberry puree, compote or jam
The filling:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 Tablespoon strawberry puree/compote (jam in a pinch)
Preparation:
-Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
-Put powdered sugar, almond flour, and salt in a food processor and pulse several times until all of the ingredients are fine and well combined. You can’t over mix this mixture because there is no flour! Place in a large bowl and set aside.
-Place the whisk attachment on your mixer, and beat the eggs on medium speed until opaque and foamy. You’ll want to see a double in volume for your eggs. Add a pinch of cream of tartar, increase the speed to medium high, continue to beat until the egg whites are white in color and hold the line of the whisk. You should be able to see soft peaks in your whites.
-With the mixer running, slowly add the granulated sugar, until stiff peaks form, and the whites are shiny, about 2 minutes.
-Remove 1 cup of the mixture and stir in the jam, then carefully fold back into the egg-sugar mixture.
-Using a silicone spatula, gently fold the dry mixture with the egg whites in 1 cup increments until the dry ingredients are just combined.
-Spoon half of batter into pastry bag fitted with 1/2-inch plain round tip. (Or a large ziplock bag which you can cut the corner off of.) Pipe batter onto each prepared sheet in 12 walnut-size mounds, spaced 3″ apart because cookies will spread slightly.
-Tap the cookie sheets flat against the counter – you want to get any possible air bubbles out of the cookie batter before baking. This is an important step! Don’t run through getting as many of the bubbles out as you can.
-Let the cookies dry for 20 minutes before preheating the oven to 350F
-Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until firm to touch in center, about 14 minutes. You may want to rotate your cookie sheets midway through baking to ensure even cooking (imperative with macarons).
-Immediately slide the parchment paper off of the baking sheet to cool to prevent burning. Leaving the cookies on the hot baking sheet will continue to cook them past taking them out of the oven.
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-Using a mixer, cream butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
-Add the vanilla and strawberry puree. Beat until combined. Place in a piping bag with a small round tip, like a #5.
-Assemble your cookies by matching cookies with similar sizes (diameters). Pipe a small amount of strawberry buttercream into the center of one cookie, and sandwich with it’s other half.
-EAT!
Making french macarons can be very hard, so don't beat yourself up if you don't succeed on your first try or if not all of your macaroons turn out perfectly beautiful, they'll still be tasty!
