Conversation Heart Macarons

These conversation heart macarons look just like your favorite Valentine's Day candy, complete with adorable sayings!

📝 Ingredients

• 110 g aged egg whites, room temperature
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar - optional
• 110 g granulated sugar (1/2 cup + 2 tsp)
• 140 g superfine almond flour - blanched (1 1/2 cups)
• 125 g powdered sugar (1 cup)
• gel food coloring
• 56 g unsalted butter, room temperature (1/4 cup)
• 2 g vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (1/2 tsp)
• 1 g fine salt (1/8 tsp)
• 125 g powdered sugar (1 cup)
• 15 g heavy whipping cream, room temperature (1 Tbsp)
• Kitchen scale
• Stand Mixer or Electric Mixer
• Large, flat baking sheets
• Silpat Mats (or parchment paper)
• 5 Small (12" piping bags (for the batter and frosting))
• 4 Small round piping tips like a Wilton 10 (for the batter)
• 1 Very small round piping tip like a Wilton 5 (for the frosting)
• Fine-tipped edible marker

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1--- Mini Heart Shaped Macaron Shells ---
2. 2Line four large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. If you don't have that many, line as many as you have and pipe and bake the macarons in stages. Set aside.
3. 3Pour 110g of aged egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk and mix on a medium speed until the surface of the egg whites is covered in small bubbles. Add 1/4 tsp cream of tartar and continue to mix until it reaches the soft peak stage and leaves visible tracks.
4. 4Gradually mix 110g of granulated sugar into the egg whites over a few minutes while mixing on a medium-low speed. Increase the mixing speed to a medium-high speed. Keep mixing until stiff, glossy peaks form.
5. 5Sift 140g of superfine almond flour and 125g of powdered sugar into the meringue. Use a rubber spatula to break up any big clumps and press them through the sieve.
6. 6Fold the ingredients together with a rubber spatula. Use a circular motion that sweeps around the edge of the bowl and then pulls through the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is getting mixed together. Don't forget to scrape off the inside of the spatula intermittently. Sometimes meringue can get stuck there and not get mixed in properly.
7. 7As soon as the dry ingredients seem mostly incorporated, divide the batter evenly between four bowls (about 115g per bowl).
8. 8Add gel food coloring to the bowls of batter to make blue, pink, yellow, and purple batter. Fold the batter in each bowl until a thick ribbon of batter runs off the spatula when it's lifted. You should be able to draw a couple of figure 8s with the batter running off your spatula in a continuous stream when it's the right consistency. If the stream of batter breaks before you're able to do this, you may need to stir it a bit more.
9. 9Pour each batter into a small piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip like a Wilton 10. If you don't have that size of piping tip, cut a 1 cm opening at the base of each bag. Pipe small hearts on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 cm apart. The hearts I piped were about 1 1/2 cm, and I was able to fit about 125 hearts per baking sheet.
10. 10Gently tap the pans on the counter a few times to release air bubbles, then use a scribe or toothpick to pop any visible bubbles and reshape any hearts that need a little extra love.
11. 11Let the macarons rest for 30 minutes, or until they develop a skin. The macarons should look matte once the skin has formed. While the macarons rest, preheat the oven to 315 F / 158 C.
12. 12Bake one tray of macarons at a time on the middle rack of your oven for 16-18 minutes and rotate the pan halfway through to help the macarons bake evenly. Place a large piece of foil over the pan halfway through the baking process when you rotate the pan to prevent the shells from browning. Take care that the foil doesn't touch any of the shells.
13. 13Remove the macaron shells from the oven and let them cool fully on the pan (about 15 minutes). If they're properly baked, they should peel off the mat cleanly and have a shiny bottom.
14. 14--- Buttercream Frosting ---
15. 15Beat 56g room-temperature butter on a medium-high speed for 1 minute with a hand mixer until smooth. It should become lighter in color as air is incorporated into it.
16. 16Mix in 2g of vanilla extract, and 1g of salt on a low speed.
17. 17Slowly mix in 125g of powdered sugar. Halfway through add 15g of heavy cream or milk to make the frosting easier to mix. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.
18. 18Mix on low for a minute until the ingredients are fully incorporated and the desired consistency is reached.
19. 19If the frosting is too thick, add in additional heavy cream or milk (1 tsp at a time). If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar (1 Tbsp at a time).
20. 20Once the frosting is the right consistency, place it in a piping bag fit with a very small round tip (like a Wilton 5) and set aside.
21. 21--- Assembling These Conversation Heart Macarons ---
22. 22Once the shells have cooled, use a red edible marker to write cute little messages on half of the shells. Then pair up the macaron shells and pipe frosting onto the bottom macaron shell. Gently press a second shell on top of the filling to create a sandwich.
23. 23Place the finished macarons in an airtight container and chill in the fridge overnight, then enjoy!