Cherry Matcha Macarons

Instructions

1. Make the macaron shells by weighing out all your ingredients. Place almond meal/sugar mixture, matcha powder, and 55 g egg whites in a bowl and set aside (do not mix together).
2. Place 150 g caster sugar (fine granulated sugar) in a small saucepan with 25 g filtered water and fitted with yourthermometer. Place the other 55 g egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment.
3. Cook the sugar and water over medium heat, gently swirling the pan occasionally to ensure even heating until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage at 235 F. If sugar crystals begin to form along the sides of the pan, use a silicone pastry brush dipped in a bit of water to dissolve them. When the mixture reaches 220 F, start your stand mixer at medium speed to foam the egg whites. Stop the mixture once the egg whites look like a bubble bath.
4. When the sugar syrup reaches soft ball stage, immediately remove from the heat, increase your mixer speed to high, and slowly pour in the sugar syrup in a thin stream avoiding the sides of the bowl as much as possible.
5. Continue whipping the egg whites until you’ve reached a soft/firm peak. You don’t want to over beat or you’ll have too much air in the egg whites and the shells won’t rise properly. You’ll know it’s ready when the egg whites are stiff enough to form a soft “cloud” inside the whisk.
6. Form a small well in the egg whites and dump in the entire almond meal/sugar/egg white concoction. Using a rubber spatula, cut into the center of the bowl, scoop out to the edge of the bowl, and fold in. Work your way around the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well incorporated. Keep going until you have a nice homogeneous mixture that moves at the pace of slow lava when you scoop up a bit and drop it back in.
7. Carefully fill a piping bag with your macaron mixture and pipe onto your prepared baking sheets in little rounds.
8. Fill both your baking sheets and then take each sheet firmly in your hands and rap them twice on the counter. Rotate 90 degrees and rap them twice more. This is to remove any air bubbles that would cause your shells to crack in your oven.
9. Allow the shells to rest, uncovered, while you preheat your oven to 295 F.
10. Bake the shells one sheet at a time for 20-22 minutes, until you can easily lift a shell cleanly off the baking sheet.
11. Remove the shells from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes before transferring, upside down, to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Making the filling:

1. For a smooth filling, press the completely thawed cherries through a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl to remove the juice from the pulp. If you'd prefer a stronger cherry flavor, blend the cherries very well in a small food processor.
2. In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and a pinch of salt on high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
3. Add one cup of the powdered sugar, mix well. Scrape the bowl. Repeat. Then add your cherry juice or puree.
4. Add the remaining powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency.
5. Pipe the filling into the macaron shells and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator 24 hours before serving (if you can wait that long).