Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons

Ingredients
for 16 macarons

3 egg white, room temperature
¼ cup sugar
1 ¾ cups powdered sugar
1 cup superfine almond flour
3 drops red food coloring
FILLING

8 oz cream cheese, 1 package
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
strawberry jam

Preparation

Preheat oven to 285ºF (140ºC).

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.

Keep beating and slowly add sugar until stiff peaks form.

Sift powdered sugar and almond flour over the egg whites.

Fold the dry mixture into the egg whites, giving the bowl a quarter turn every third fold. Make sure to not overmix or the macarons will not rise.

Once the batter reaches a lava-like consistency, transfer half the batter to another bowl and add the food coloring. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix!

Working quickly, put the white and pink batters into separate sandwich bags. Cut the corner off of each bag and squeeze the two batters evenly into a larger gallon-size bag or piping bag to create the multicolor effect.

Pipe 1½-inch (4 cm) dollops onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (Tip: take a little batter to “glue:” down the edges of the parchment paper so it stays put).

Let the cookies rest for 30 minutes to an hour, until they are no longer wet to the touch and a skin forms on top.

While resting, make the filling by mixing the cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk in a bowl until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag and set aside until ready to fill.

When the cookies are dry to the touch, bake for 13 to 15 minutes until they have risen to form a “foot.”

Let rest for 10 minutes before filling. To fill, pipe a circle of the cream cheese mixture around the edge of one cookie and place a small dollop of jam in the center. Sandwich with another macaron.

Macarons are best kept refrigerated until serving.

Enjoy!