Hazelnut Macaroons with Orange Buttercream

I have not been doing much cooking with work and the reno going on at our house. But the Renovation is coming to and end and i will soon have a new kitchen.

The other day at a pot luck at work i had macaroons and I thought it's been a while since i made macaroons and figure why not, they are quick and easy to make.

Enjoy

Hazelnut Macaroons with Orange Butter Cream

Ingredients

Macaroons

2 cups skinned hazelnuts
1 16oz box powdered sugar
8 egg whites
1/3 cup raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Butter cream

2 stick of unsalted butter, room temp
3 egg yolks
1/2 raw sugar plus two table spoons
3 table spoons water
2 table spoon Grand Marnier
Zest of one orange


Directions

Macaroons

Place the nuts into the food processor an long with half of the powdered sugar and process until fine. Remove mixture from food processor and mix with the remain powdered sugar in another bowl until combined.

Now start on the merinque, place egg whites in the stand mixer and whip until foamy. With the mixer on high add the cream of tartar, once the egg whites start to hold their shape, slowly add the raw sugar and salt. The merinque is done when you have stiff peaks.

Now fold the dry ingredients until the merinque, the batter with become very stiff. Note do not over work the batter will start to become runny.

Next add batter into a pastry bag and pipe out mounds that are about a little over an inch in size on to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Pipe out mounds about an inch apart. When done set sheet aside so that the merinque can dry out, this takes about 2 hours.

While merinques are drying out start the butter cream.

Butter cream

Ok you will need to do two things at once here:

Place a small sauce pan over medium high heat and place the orange zest, 1/2 cup of raw sugar and the water and heat until it forms a syrup.

At the same time in the stand mixer place egg yolks and 2 table spoons of raw sugar and whip until smooth.

Now add the syrup to the egg yolks slow while the mixer is on low. You want to do this slowly so that you do not scramble the eggs. Once the mixture has about tripled in volume add the butter and Grand Marnier and mix until fluffy and the mixture forms stiff peaks.

Now its time to bake merinques, preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake meringues about 8 minutes, rotate and bake for an additional 8 minutes. You want them a light golden color. Remove and cool on a rack.

Next place butter cream into a pastry bag and pipe one side of a baked merinque, about a nickle size amount of cream, place the another merinque creating a sandwich, pressing together; repeat.

Note you will need to bake an even amount of merinques to create the sandwich cookies.

Enjoy Cooking