Peppermint French Macarons

Macaron Shells

1. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper. If you choose to make a template to follow, make for rows of four circles with a pencil. Flip the parchment paper over so the pencil doesn't get into the food.
2. Sift together the almond flour and powdered sugar. If you can't find almond flour you can always make it with almonds and a food processor. Finely grind the almonds and sift through a fine mesh sifter. Discard or snack on any large pieces.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add in egg whites. Turn on high and beat until the egg whites form a soft peak meringue.
4. Add in the granulated sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. Mix on high until a stiff peak meringue forms.
5. Very lightly and carefully fold in a third of the almond flour/powdered sugar into the meringue with a spatula. All together you'll want to have about 65-75 turns of this mixture including turning in the peppermint. If you don't mix enough the macaron shell will be extremely fluffy and cracked. If you overmix, the macaron shell will be extremely flat and might not form a foot.
6. Repeat with the rest of the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture.
7. Add in the peppermint extract.
8. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
9. Fill a piping bag with the macaron filling. I just used a coupler on the end of my piping bag. Pipe macaron shells on the baking sheet.
10. Let the macarons dry until they are no longer tacky to the touch. It will take 20 minutes to 1 hour.
11. Place in the oven for about 18 minutes until they no longer stick to the parchment paper.

Ganache

1. In a small bowl, add in the white chocolate chips.
2. In a large measuring up, measure out 1/3 cup of heavy cream. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute. Pour over top of the white chocolate chips and let it sit for a minute.
3. Whisk the cream and chips together until combined. Let the ganache sit for about five minutes before adding the Andes Peppermint Crunch so it doesn't melt it.
4. Fill a piping bag with the cooled ganache. Don't use a tip otherwise the peppermint crunch will be stuck in the tip.
5. Fill the cooled macaron shells with ganache.
6. I stored my cookies in the fridge because of the heavy cream in the ganache.