Maple and Pecan Macarons

Dry Ingredients

1. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mat. If needed, cut the parchment paper down to size so it fits on the sheet without excess over the edges. This will help with making even shells.
2. Over a large mixing bowl on a scale, sift and whisk together almond flour, powdered sugar, and salt (you may also pulse in a food processor here). Set aside.

Making the Meringue

1. Add egg whites and roughly 3 tbsps granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer, and whisk together. Place the bowl over top of a simmering pot of water, ensuring a tight seal and ensuring that the bottom of the stand mixer is not actually touching the water.
2. Continuously whisk the mixture while it heats up until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are frothy, about 1 minute. Then, remove the bowl from the simmering water pot and place onto your stand mixer, fitted with the whip attachment.
3. Beat the mixture, starting on low. Gradually add the remaining granulated sugar. Once soft peaks have been formed, increase the speed to medium. Once medium peaks are achieved, increase the speed to high. Beat on high until stiff peaks have formed. Add maple syrup, then beat for 10 more seconds to incorporate. Add dry ingredients and beat for 10 seconds until just combined.

Macaronage

1. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and being to fold the dry ingredients into the meringue. I like to scrape around the sides of the bowl in an entire circle, and then cut through the center – similar to the Greek letter phi which looks like this: Φ
2. Be gentle and careful not to overmix or over-deflate the meringue. The mixture is ready to be piped when it ribbons off your spatula, meaning that the batter, when lifted with a spatula, should keep flowing off the spatula in ribbon shapes nonstop, without drizzling off too quickly. If it is coming off in large V shaped chunks it still needs to be folded further. Another test is the figure 8 test: If you can lift some batter up and use it to draw several figure 8’s without the stream breaking, it is ready! The figure 8 should disappear after about 30 seconds back into a smooth surface in the bowl. Getting this timing just right is the hardest part about making macarons so don't be discouraged if you don't get it just right to start. I have found it is better to under mix rather than over mix.

Piping and Drying the Macarons

1. Add mixture into a piping bag with medium to large sized round tip (I use Wilton 1A). Pipe small circles of batter onto a baking sheet fitted with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Ensure piping bag is held straight up and perpendicular to baking sheet. Using a stencil or a macaron mat makes this process much easier and fool proof, I try to make my macarons around 1½” in diameter.
2. Tap the baking sheet multiple times against counter to remove any air bubble from the macarons. If some air bubbles still remain, use a tooth pick to gently poke them out.
3. Preheat oven to 300°F. While oven is preheating, allow the macarons to sit and form a skin. This skin will ensure the macarons bake up and not out, giving them those classic “feet”. This skin should form anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. You know the macarons are ready to be baked when you can touch them lightly without having the batter stick to your finger. Keep checking them to see if they have formed a skin– overly dried macarons are just as much of a problem as under-dried macarons!

Baking

1. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Your bake time will depend on the size of your macarons. Check at 15 minutes, and if they are not ready then keep checking every minute. The macarons are ready when the tops are firm and do not move around their base at all.
   
2. Allow the macarons to cool completely before attempting to remove them from the sheets/mats/parchment. When cooled, find “perfect pairs” of macaron halves and set aside to be filled and topped.

Maple Pecan Buttercream

1. Place pecans into a food processor, then pulse until pecans are well-ground (just before paste begins to form), it is important they are small so you can pipe through a star tip. Set aside.
2. Add butter to a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high until butter is doubled in volume, and looks light and fluffy.
3. Turn the stand mixer to low and slowly add the confectioners sugar. Beat until completely incorporated, then add in the maple syrup, heavy cream, maple extract and ground pecans. Beat until well-combined and fully incorporated. Place buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

Topping & Assembling the Macarons

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine confectioners sugar and heavy cream. Whisk until smooth. Dip ½ of the macaron shells (the tops of perfect pairs) into the glaze, then immediately dip into crushed pecans. Set aside to harden and set for 1-2 hours.
2. After topping has set, pipe the maple buttercream onto the other ½ of the macaron shells (bottoms of perfect pairs), then top each bottom with it’s corresponding top. Place into the fridge overnight to mature and meld together.