Pretty Pink Macarons with Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Well, I don't have any more cookie orders coming up, so now I get to make whatever I want.  This weekend, I thought I would return to my precious macarons.  I decided to try making pretty pink ones this time.  I've never added food dye to them, afraid that it would somehow mess with them, but I've heard the gel pastes are ok, and I have so many of those on hand for the cookies that I thought I'd give it a try. 

I knew I was going to do Swiss meringue buttercream again, but I couldn't decide what variation I should do.  In the end I was deciding between chocolate and lemon flavored (using lemon emulsion), and I asked my husband which he preferred.  He said he'd like chocolate more, so even though I was thinking lemon sounded yummy, he really hates it when I do that thing where I ask him his opinion on something and end up doing what I want anyway, so I went with chocolate for the sake of our marriage.

And they're good, but the chocolate isn't strong enough.  I guess that's why chocolate macarons usually use ganache instead of frosting.  But it was still Swiss meringue buttercream, so it's still delicious. 

And of course, with a bunch of egg yolks laying around, I had to make some more Salted Caramel Ice Cream.