Macaron Christmas Trees

Need

• Macarons

• 240 Grams egg whites divided
• 1 Teaspoon cream of tartar
• 300 Grams raw caster sugar BUY
• 300 Grams pure icing sugar
• 300 Grams almond meal Recipe
• gel food colouring of choice. DO NOT use liquid food colouring

• Buttercream filling

• 200 Grams butter BUY
• 400 Grams icing mixture
• 1 Pinch pink salt flakes BUY
• 3-4 Drops doTERRA Oils flavour of choice, peppermint, cinnamon bark, wild orange, lemon, bergamot, geranium are all delish BUY
• food colouring of choice to match your flavour

• Garnish

• a few cachous or sprinkles
• gold leaf, optional
• 20 Grams icing mixture. To sieve on top to create a snowy look

Do

1  

Preheat oven to 120º-140ºC. Temperature differs from oven to oven. Trial and error is key with Macarons. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Place an empty tray on the top shelf of oven (this will stop the Macarons from browning).

2  

Place 150g of the egg white and cream of tartar into Thermomix bowl and whip 4 min/37ºC/Butterfly/speed 3/MC off. Wipe the moisture off the inside of the lid. If it needs longer whipping, continue 2 min/Butterfly/speed 3 (no heat). You want the bowl to be about 2/3 full of light and airy meringue. Don't proceed to the next step until this has happened. This is crucial to your Macaron success.

3  

Add the caster sugar slowly one spoonful at a time through the hole in the lid, 6 min/Butterfly/speed 3. Scrape around the edges of the bowl.

4  

Meanwhile, in a clean and dry Thermomix bowl, add pure icing sugar and almond meal and blitz 10 sec/speed 10.

5  

Pour almond mix through a sieve into a large mixing bowl, discarding anything too big to pass through the sieve.

6  

Add remaining (90g) egg white to the almond mix. Add colour if using. Using a spatula, thoroughly mix by hand to create a smooth and consistent paste with no lumps. Transfer this mixture to a large clean bowl.

7  

In thirds, add the meringue to the almond mix and stir through with the spatula. The first third can be mixed quite vigorously. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. The second third needs to be combined gently. Slowly folding the meringue through. The last third, be even more gentle. Folding very carefully to retain as much air as possible. The consistency of the mixture should be 'lava' like when the spatula is held up above the bowl. It takes practise to get the consistency right. Over mixing causes problems as does under mixing.

8  

Using a 1cm piping nozzle, fill the piping bag 1/3 to ½ full.

9  

Pipe the mixture straight onto baking paper lined trays grading into 4 different sizes if making trees.

10  

To pipe, hold the piping bag approx 1 cm above the tray, squeeze out the mixture without moving the bag, stop squeezing, then quickly twist and pull up in one swift movement. Once all of the trays are full, tap them lightly on the bench to release any air bubbles. You can also use a skewer to pop any bubbles.

11  

Bake 15-20 mins on the middle two shelves. Macarons are done when they can just peel off the paper cleanly. Cool completely on rack before assembling.

12  

To make Buttercream; Add all ingredients to Thermomix bowl and mix 20 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl. Repeat until all ingredients are incorporated.

13  

To assemble Macarons; Once the macarons are cool, match up sets of four that are descending in size and pipe a circle of buttercream on the largest one, adding each layer with more buttercream. Decorate with sugar cachous, sprinkles, gold dust or gold leaf. Dust with icing sugar for that snowy look!