As promised, here is macaron recipe #2.  I landed on a more basic flavour to accompany the gingerbread macaron batch I shared earlier.  The best part is, the extra ingredients for this macaron are all likely already in your cupboard from your holiday baking.

V A N I L L A  + C R A N B E R R Y  M A C A R O N S

M A C A R O N  S H E L L S

Recipe from Macarons by Pierre Hermé
[Note: this is 1/2 the original recipe + I adjusted the baking temps to suit my oven]
*the recipe below yields about 36 macarons

150g almond flour
150g icing sugar
55g liquified egg whites [1]**
Pink or red gel food colouring
+
150g sugar
37.5g water
55g liquified egg whites [2]**

oven temp @ 300ºF

Click here for the complete recipe.

V A N I L L A  G A N A C H E

170g of white chocolate chips
1/4c + 1/8c whipping cream
1.5tsp vanilla extract | I used a Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla from PC Black Label
+
Dried cranberries  | 1 for each macaron

in a small sauce pan, combine cream + vanilla over low-med heat
once simmering, remove from heat and let sit for 10-15 minutes ensuring to stir midway to prevent skin from forming
bring cream mixture back to a simmer and remove from heat
pour cream over chocolate chips and let sit for 20-30 seconds | proceed to mix
add mixture to a food processor to further smoothen and combine if needed
pour into shallow dish | let ganache cool to room temp
cover with plastic wrap directly touching ganache surface | place in fridge for 2hrs [until mix thickens] to overnight
when ready, whip ganache with mixer until light and fluffy
transfer to a pipping bag with a star tip
pipe a mound of ganache onto a macaron shell and gently push into the centre a dried cranberry before sandwiching
note: you may beed to add an extra dot of ganache atop the cranberry to ensure the top macaron sticks

place assembled macarons in an airtight container and store in the fridge for 24-48hrs to mature
before serving, pull macarons from fridge and let sit until they hit room temp

And there you have it, my last macaron recipe and last blog post of 2017!

All around, 2017 was an interesting one.  Though there appeared to be a down for every up, Mike and I are looking forward to the new year and have some exciting things on the rise.  As another 365 days comes to a close, weird/interesting or not, I hope you all found a piece of 2017 to take and grow from into 2018.

Happy New Year!