Strawberry White Chocolate Mocha Macarons

So, one day a couple months ago, I ran into my friend Amy as we were both on our way and running late for the same class. She offered me gum, and while I don't normally enjoy gum, this was strawberry gum, and it's hard to pass up any kind of strawberry sweetness that's being offered to me... So I accepted, and began to chew it just as we walked through the cinema courtyard (where they have a small coffee stand). I paused, "Why does this gum taste like coffee??" Amy looked at me like I was insane. The conversation that followed was something like this:

"omg it does taste like coffee!"

"I'm pretty sure there's no coffee in the gum."

"mmmmm strawberry and coffee..."

"that sounds disgusting."

"I am now inspired to make cookies."

But I didn't actually make the cookies... I had this idea that white chocolate would be a good cohesive flavor for the strawberries and coffee, and it took me forever to procure decent white chocolate. And I got caught up in other things to bake... but these were always lurking in the back of my mind. So when I went to the grocery store last week and saw a ton of beautiful strawberries under a sign that said 69c/lb, I knew exactly what I had to do.

I have made macarons before, with much success, but this was my first time making plain shells. The macarons I have made in the past have always been chocolate or pistachio. So I tried a recipe that I had not used before, and was very happy with it! The shells baked perfectly, and any macaron baker will know that perfectly baking shells equals love. You can find the recipe here at à la cuisine.

As for the filling... it ended up a product of much improvisation, when I couldn't for the life of me get my white chocolate ganache to set. I wanted to have a coffee buttercream and incorporate the strawberries into a white chocolate ganache, and then just have both fillings in each macaron. But apparently strawberries equal liquidy ganache? I even tried this twice, reducing the cream content to barely anything the second time, and the ganache still would not set. Soooo I kind of just dumped it all into the buttercream (half expecting a disaster) and danced around happily when it all came together and tasted lovely. The result of this was delicious filling and a ridiculous Frankenstein recipe for it. But here is the recipe, nonetheless.

Strawberry White Chocolate Mocha Buttercream Filling

1 cup chopped white chocolate

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 medium/large strawberries

1 tsp granulated sugar

2 egg whites

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup butter

3/4 tsp instant coffee granules

3 tsp water

Whisk the egg whites with the 1/2 cup sugar over a pan of simmering water until they are warm and the sugar has dissolved.

Beat until stiff peaks form.

Add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition. Continue to beat until buttercream is smooth.

Dissolve the coffee in 3 tsp water, and gradually beat this into the buttercream.

Dice the strawberries, sprinkle the tsp of sugar over them, and toss to combine. Set aside.

Heat the cream in a saucepan. When it reaches the simmering point, pour it over the white chocolate. Let sit for a minute or so, and then whisk to combine. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the strawberries. Cover and refrigerate, and hope that it will set up like ganache is supposed to. When it doesn't do this, chuck it in the buttercream (gradually), and beat it in until the mixture is uniform and smooth.

Pipe the filling into the cookies and refrigerate overnight. Let the cookies come to room temperature before serving.

And see how beautiful those strawberries were? This is what I had for breakfast. Me and my toast with nutella and fruit.... =)