Vanilla Bean Macarons
 
Ingredients
For the cookies:
  • 200 g (a skimpy 2 cups) powdered sugar
  • 100 g (1 cup) almond flour/meal
  • 100 g (3 large eggs) egg whites, room temperature*
  • pinch of salt
  • 50 g (about ¼ cup) granulated sugar
  • Seeds from ½ a vanilla bean**
For the Frosting Filling:
  • ½ cup salted butter, softened
  • 1½ cup powdered sugar, sifted
  • Seeds from ½ a vanilla bean**
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Cookies:
  1. Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together twice, throwing the leftover almond pebbles out.
  2. In a separate bowl and with a mixer, beat the room temperature egg whites and salt on medium speed until they are white and frothy.
  3. Add granulated sugar and vanilla bean and beat until you have soft peaks.
  4. Beat in food coloring and then continue mixing until you have stiff peaks. Do not over beat.
  5. Fold all of the powdered sugar and almond mixture into the meringue. Fold until the batter is no longer gritty and runs off the spatula like lava would, about 30-50 turns.
  6. Let the batter sit for 10-25 minutes.
  7. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. If you want to use a pattern to help you pipe uniform circles, slip that under the parchment paper that you are piping on.
  8. Using a pastry bag (or a ziplock) and a ½ inch tip, pipe out the batter into uniform 1.5 inch diameter circles.
  9. Tap the pan on the counter to get rid of air bubbles and any peaks from piping.
  10. Let the cookies rest for about 30 - 60 minutes on the counter so that the cookies are tacky to the touch. Larger cookies will need more towards 45 - 60 minutes while 1 inch cookies will need less time. If the cookies have not sat out long enough, they will crack on the top and will not form feet.
  11. Preheat oven to 300°F.
  12. Bake one sheet at a time for about 15-20 minutes, until they are lightly golden brown. They should easily peel off the parchment paper. It is better for the cookies to be slightly overdone rather than underdone. Overdone cookies will soften up over time in the refrigerator whereas underdone cookies end up hollow.
  13. Let cool on the pan on a wire rack.
For the Frosting Filling:
  1. Beat the butter and powdered sugar together with an electric mixer.
  2. Add in the vanilla bean seeds.
  3. Taste. If not vanilla-ey enough, add in the vanilla extract.*
For Assembly:
  1. Pair similar sized cookies together
  2. Smear or pipe one cookie with frosting and sandwich it with the other.
  3. Voilà!
Yield: ~35 - 40 sandwich cookies
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The cookies will be very crunchy and dry for the first day. As the cookies mature in the refrigerator, they will soften and get that nice chewy texture. Thus, these cookies are best eaten after 1 or 2 days in the fridge.
Notes
*To create room temperature eggs, submerge the eggs in warm (but not hot) water for 5 minutes and then separate.
**Some vanilla beans are stronger than others. The ones I used needed the extra kick of the extract or some more vanilla bean seeds.
Recipe by Birch Tree Baking at https://www.birchtreebaking.com/vanilla-bean-macarons/