Cherry Limeade Macaroons Recipes

CHERRY MACAROONS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and extract; mix well. , Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in the coconut and cherries (dough will be very stiff). , Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

CHERRY LIMEADE MACARONS

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 245-300. Start by sifting 2 cups of powdered sugar, your almond flour/meal into a large bowl. If you don't already have a sieve, cheap ones can be bought at Walmart or some other grocery stores.
• After sifting, give it a couple good stirs to make sure that everything is properly mixed.
• In another bowl (if your mixer has a specific bowl, use that one) add your egg whites and granulated sugar. This will be your meringue. Set your mixer to a medium-high speed and beat until slightly stiff peaks are just beginning to form.
• Add your cherry oil and desired food coloring. Continue to beat on medium speed until stiff peaks are beginning to form.
• Fold in your meringue, about 1/3 at a time, into the dry mixture. You might not need all of it. It should be about the consistency of cake batter.
• Put the batter into a piping bag, and pipe it onto a baking sheet (covering it in parchment paper worked best for me). I made my macarons about the size of a quarter, and about a half of an inch apart. Make sure they are far enough apart where they wont stick together. Rap the sheet on the countertops a couple of times to release air bubbles.
• Let your macarons rest for 15 minutes before baking.
• Put your macarons in the oven. Mine were done in about 8 minutes. Keep a careful eye on them, because they should not begin to brown on top.
• Cool your macarons, and start making your lime frosting.
• Combine your butter and lime zest. Start to add powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with 1 tbsp of lime juice at a time. Add milk to make the texture more creamy (I only used a splash). Add milk/powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.
• Add green food coloring if you choose to (I made my frosting a light green color, and it went very well with the light pink of my macarons) and chop your maraschino cherries in half (you will need 1/2 for each macaron.
• To assemble, pipe the lime frosting onto one side of one cookie. Place 1/2 maraschino cherry in the center, and pipe a tiny bit of frosting over it. Put another cookie on top.
• I found that my macarons got better after 24-48 hours of being assembled. I stored mine in a plastic tuboware container, and kept it on my counter.