Baileys Macaron Cocktails- Mactails!

Winter is the time for boozy desserts and while I am not a huge fan of the rum soaked fruit cake, I do like a little liqueur in my desserts. Remember my recent cocktail cupcake fascination? Lately I have been playing around with the idea of  Macarons flavored with sweet dessert wine, Tequila, Grand Mariner, Chocolate Liqueurs .. to create macaron margaritas, macaron mojitos and other mactails! Many, many possibilities!
And served in fancy little shot glasses and cocktail glasses, won't they look so adorable at a swanky cocktail party? (I assume such things as swanky cocktail parties do exist- we're on the play-date circuit around here! )
So when there was a happy confluence of Mactweets Mac attack challenge of inspirational dessert macarons as well as Sugar High Friday's challenge theme of grain free desserts, I decided it was time- for Mactails.

This time my macs baked up beautifully ( Hey, have you seen my first attempt?) See those elusive feet? that ruffle like underside? I'm so excited I'm kinda giddy! And the many shot glasses that were emptied in the creation of these photos had nothing to do with it! I went a little too trigger happy with my attempts to practice my photography and so posted the rest of the pictures here

I chose my favourite dessert liqueur to start my line of Mactails- Bailey's Irish cream. Who can help not loving it? I have been day dreaming of a giant Chocolate Baileys Milkshake, or a creamy Chocolate Bailey pudding ( coming soon!) - but that's for another day.Today, I combined my favourite dessert flavors of chocolate, cofee and Baileys to make these Bailey's Mactails!Coffee macaron shells filled with a Chocolate mousse like ganache infused with Baileys Irish Cream.I wanted to add Baileys to the macaron shells but wan't brave enough to mess with the liquid composition and risk making my batter too spready so I just chose the tried and tested, genius Helene of Tartlette's recipe for Coffee macarons. I used instant coffee powder and I love the speckely effect it gave my macs and the almost exact shade of the Baileys!

If you are attempting macarons for the first time, be warned they are highly fiddly creatures and I do recommend you read macaron making tips with step-by step pictures from my macaron class first, as well as this great resource from Helene of Tartlette called Demystifying Macarons.


Baileys Macaron Cocktails- Mactails

Coffee Macaron shells 

Recipe source:  I did not change much to this amazing recipe from Helene of Tartlette from here  Any notes from me are indicated in brackets.

For the shells:

• 90 grams egg whites (about 3)- (Either left on your counter to age for 24 hours or in your fridge for up to 5 days. Or you could microwave them 10 seconds at a time until they are liquidy and the protein strands have broken up)
• 30 grams granulated sugar
• 200 grams powdered sugar
• 110 grams almonds ( I used almond meal from Trader Joe's) 
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder ( I used instant coffee powder)

Method:

• In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue.
•  Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry. 
• Place the powdered sugar, almonds and espresso powder in a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely ground.
• Add to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. ( Fold means using a spatula in a rotating circular motion to combine the ingredients gently) 
• Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. 
• The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. 
• Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
• Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets.
•  Preheat the oven to 280F. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. ( I use a hair dryer and run it over the drying macs to speed up this process)
• Let cool. If you have trouble removing the shells, put the parchment paper macs and all into the freezer for a minute or so and you should be able to peel them off the paper quite easily.
• Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer. 

For the filling:
Chocolate Baileys Filling

1/4 cup (125 ml) heavy cream

1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur

4 ounces (120 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 tablespoon (15 grams) butter, cut into small pieces

Heat the cream in a small saucepan. When the cream just begins to boil at the edges, remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth. Stir in the pieces of butter and the Baileys. Keep in the fridge to cool. Once cool, either pipe the ganache onto a macaron shell or simply spread it with a spoon, place another macaron shell and gently press or twist so that the filling protrudes a little.
Have left over boozy chocolate filling? I volunteer to finish it for you!

Storage: Macarons can be filled and stored in the fridge for a couple of days and in fact taste better on the second day. I have also stored the unfilled shells in the freezer for 2 months in airtight plastic containers like the zip lock containers ( not bags as they may get crushed) and even taken  the unfilled shells in my suitcase on an 8 hour flight! They were completely ok. When I reached my destination, I put the box back in the freezer, made the filling a couple of days later and filled them, let them rest in the fridge overnight and they tasted perfect the next day.