One of my friends LOVES rock candy. Literally, when she calls me, a picture of her eating purple rock candy appears. So when I was making these macarons, it got me thinking a lot about friendships.
Now I have always been someone who understands the importance of family – especially in the last couple of years. But families you are born into. You are kind of stuck with each other whether you like it or not. But friends are a choice.
Throughout our lives we experience a lot of different friendships – school friends, family friends, work friends – the list goes on and on. But as we grow, we watch a lot of these relationships come and go. We move away and suck at staying connected, we get older and realize our priorities are no longer the same, or we think someone is our friend and then it turns out they are actually a HUGE asshole. We grow, we change, and we drift apart.
But in the long run, these friendships are meaningless. It is what I like to call the “lifer friends” that make life worth living.
The ones that celebrate you in your best times, and support you in your worst. The ones who bring you ice cream after a breakup and don’t judge you when you eat the entire pint by yourself. The ones that stick by you when you are too sad to get out of bed, and encourage you when you are feeling down or insecure. The ones who bumbles for you when you have given up on dating and travel the country with you in search of the best doughnuts.
These are the friendships that are so deeply-rooted within us, that it is hard to imagine our life without them. This is a “lifer friend”.
Finding these kinds of friends can be hard – but once you find them, they will change your life forever. Throughout the years, I have been lucky enough to pick up a handful of these lifer friends and today I just wanted to remind them how much they mean to me.
I know there have been a lot of downs in the last coupe of years. The tears, the headaches, the sleeping – I wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine to be around – but you never faltered. You stood by me through it all and looking back, I honestly don’t know if I would have made it through without you. Every text, card, visit and phone call reminded me that there was still some goodness left in this world and that I still had a life worth living.
I wouldn’t say I am a ray of sunshine yet, but I am where I am today because of you. So thank you. I love you all very very much. Now who wants doughnuts?
ROCK CANDY MACARONS
Ingredients
MACARON SHELLS
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup + 2 tbs almond flour
- 3 eggs whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Blue and Pink food coloring
VANILLA BUTTERCREAM FILLING
- 1/2 cup salted butter
- 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Rock Candy
Instructions
FOR THE SHELLS:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Prepare two pipping bags with a round tip with about a 1/4" opening (Ateco #804 is what I use) and a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, sift almond flour and powdered sugar together. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites on high speed until they form soft peaks.
- Put mixer back on the highest speed and beat until they form stiff peaks.
- Take bowl off of mixer and add almond flour/sugar mixture.
- Using a rubber spatula, aggressively fold in dry ingredients until just combined. Divide batter and half and add a few drops of pink food coloring to one and a few drops of blue to the other.
- Mix one batter until it starts to loosen and becomes a little runny. To test if the batter is ready, lift a small amount of batter from the bowl and drop it back into the batter. If it does nothing, keep mixing. If it slowly melts back into the batter after 20-30 seconds, it is ready.
- Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Put each batter into prepared pipping bags.
- Pipe 1 1/2" circles on prepared baking sheet and firmly tap the bottom of the tray so the batter flattens out. Repeat with remaining batter.
- Add a few sprinkles to each macaron.
- Let them rest for 30-45 minutes until they form a skin.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until they are set.
- Let cool before peeling them off parchment paper.
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM:
- In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, cream butter until it is soft and smooth.
- Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.
ASSEMBLY
- Peel macarons off parchment paper and pair them according to size.
- Using a piping bag with a round tip (wilton tip #6 or #7 should work) to pipe a circle of buttercream around the edge of the macaron shell.
- Add a few rock candy pieces into the middle of the buttercream circle.
- Sandwich the cookie pair together and add a few pieces of rock candy around the outside.
