Lemon Buttercream Macarons

I received the holy grail of birthday presents from my parents last week.



(Angels sing)

The weirdest thing about FINALLY getting my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer was not knowing what to do with it. I had no idea where to start! I've gotten along until now without it, and now I'm like...whaaa?

I needed a push to bust it out. And I got that push yesterday!

My best friend in the universe got engaged yesterday! She is the sweetest, sunniest girl, and in junior high school we used to call her "Butters" because she looked so good in yellow. Lame, but we were like, 13.

So, on my drive back up to Duluth after seeing her and seeing her GORGEOUS ring (Kudos, Ryan!) I was inspired to whip up a buttery, yellow cookie that I have dreaded attempting...

The Macaron!

I've been wanting to try these tricky little fellas and I finally did. Honestly, not so tricky. I found a doable recipe over at Becoming Lola (http://becominglola.blogspot.com/2010/09/aspiring-american-in-paris-first-batch.html) and was pleasantly surprised. The thing that attracted me to this recipe is that it didn't call for a silapat baking sheet (which I don't have the money to splurge on!).

You have no idea how excited I was to see the little feet pop right up on my cookies! I used Trader Joe's almond meal (NOT Blanched, they are a more rustic looking macaron, which I like) and put a little yellow food coloring to make the cookies a sunny yellow. You can find the recipe on Lola's site!

The filling, however, was all my own. It was a lemon buttercream that was the perfect paring of sweet and tangy.
The recipe issss....

1 stick softened butter (I like salted!)
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
The zest of one whole lemon
The juice of half that lemon
Enough milk to get the right consistency (specific, I know.)

Throw the butter and sugar into the bowl of the mixer, zest the lemon into it and turn on medium. Squeeze the lemon in as it turns, and as it goes, add a splash of milk to get it to combine. Turn it off and scrape the sides to incorporate, and turn it back on high until it gets a little fluffier.

Confession: I did not bake the cookies long enough. I got scared because they were browning a little bit, but I should have just turned the heat down a smidge and left the oven door open. I will totally try again this weekend and experiment with some flavors!