White Tea Macarons with Cherry Preserves

***Before making this recipe, I recommend taking a look at my tips for making macarons, which can be found on the related blog link.

Before starting, have the following equipment out and ready to use:

*Handheld electric mixer
*Rubber spatula
*Piping bag fitted with 1/2-inch round tip
*Baking pans
*Parchment paper or silpat liners

Step 1: Line 2 half sheet pans with parchment paper or silpat liners.

Step 2: Fill a bowl with hot water from the faucet (it should be about 105F); put the eggs (in their shells) in water and let them sit until they come to room temperature. (Turn them over every few minutes so they can come up to temperature on both sides. They’re ready when they don’t feel hot or cold to the touch. You may need to add more hot water if they’re not warming up fast enough.) Once the eggs are the right temperature, remove them from water and dry them off. Separate the yolks from the whites, measuring 2 1/2 ounces of egg whites (you don’t need the yolks for this recipe – this should be just about 2 whole egg whites).

Step 3: In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together the powdered sugar, almond meal, powdered white tea, and salt (or you can pulse it together a few times in a food processor).

Step 4: Put egg whites in a medium bowl and use a handheld electric mixer to whip. When egg whites are foamy (this should only take a few seconds), gradually add superfine sugar while still beating. When you have stiff, glossy peaks, beat in the almond extract.

Step 5: Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the powdered sugar/almond meal mixture into the egg whites. Only fold the batter in one direction by sliding the spatula into the center of the batter, then lifting it up and letting the batter fall back onto itself. It generally takes about 50 strokes to work the batter, but this number isn’t as important as how the batter looks. The batter is ready to pipe when it has a smooth, shiny surface and flows like lava in one large ribbon off the spatula. Here is an easy way to see if the batter is ready: use a rubber spatula to lift and drop the batter onto itself; if the ribbon gradually disappears into the batter within 30 seconds, it’s ready to go.

Step 6: Pour the batter into a pastry bag fitted with a round tip (1/2 inch in diameter); hold piping bag straight (i.e., at a 90 degree angle) above baking sheet and pipe 1-inch circles onto the prepared sheet. (You should get about 40 macarons.) Leave about 1 inch between each macaron. Tap each tray a couple times on the countertop to help flatten out the macarons and get rid of any air bubbles. The macarons should not have points on top.

Step 7: Let macarons sit at room temperature until they form a shell that’s dry to the touch (this could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours or more, depending on the weather).

Step 8: Once the macarons are dry to the touch, preheat oven to 300F; once up to temperature, place both trays in the oven at the same time and bake for 20-30 minutes, rotating trays once. Then remove from oven and let macarons cool completely on parchment paper or silpat liner before removing.

Step 9: To fill the macarons, pair up similar sized cookies. Spoon preserves onto the bottom of one macaron, then place the matching macaron on top of filling. (Just a heads up, I usually fill my macarons with a bit less preserves than I would buttercream for 2 reasons: preserves have more liquid than buttercream and I don’t want to make the cookies soggy; and, preserves tend to be much sweeter than buttercream.)