Macarons with Pumpkin Italian Meringue Buttercream

In order to show you that not all of my creations turn out perfectly (in case any of you actually thought they did), I have kind of an embarrassing admission to make.  When I first started making macarons and posting pictures of them here, I told you guys I had never actually had one before, but they looked right, tasted great, and the texture was how the book described it.  Well, last week I came upon this blog post and learned that they aren't supposed to have a large air pocket between the top and the bottom of the shell.  How was I to know?  Of all the books and all the blogs that teach you how to make macarons, I haven't seen a single cross section of one until now.  Here I was thinking I was doing it right, and apparently not so much.  I'm pretty sure the reason was that I was overmixing the batter, but to be fair, the book I was using actually told me to mix it really well and then deflate the batter with a dough scraper, and the picture in it showed a thinner batter. 

So yesterday I gave Ms. Humble's recipe a try and things went much better.  And I got to use my blendtec to grind my almonds, and it did an amazing job.  It blended the almonds much finer and much quicker than the food processor.  For the filling, I decided to try a new recipe for pumpkin Italian meringue buttercream. 

And here's a cross section.  Other than one random larger bubble on the bottom shell,  it looks much closer to what it's supposed to look like!

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. 

Macarons with Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ok, ok.  I know you're probably all getting tired of macarons, but I guess I've become pretty obsessed with them.  I'm finding that most of the people I know have never had or even heard of macarons, so I used up most of my last batch to convert people to the macaron cause.  Now usually I'm looking for ways to get rid of all the treats I've made so that I don't feel like I have to eat them all before they go bad, but I found myself actually staring at the container thinking "Should I really give the people at my son's preschool some of these?  Because if I do, I need to bring one for everybody and that only leaves a few for me to eat..."  But I passed the test.  I gave away most of the macarons.

So then my husband selflessly told me I should make some more macarons.  (It had nothing to do with the fact that I would have egg yolks laying around and that I might as well make some more of that caramel ice cream for him.  He's seriously obsessed with that ice cream.)  Anyway, I found a recipe for caramel Swiss meringue buttercream to use as a filling.  And of course it was delicious.  One more recipe to go into my ever-growing recipe collection.

Later this week I'll show you the cookies I have planned as a thank you for my orthodontist.  

Macarons with Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream (Sanity Sunday)

I have a confession to make.  I don't like buttercream frosting.  I know, blasphemous, right?  After all, for awhile I was pretty into cake decorating and while I'm now to the point where I'll eat it, especially if in the position where it would be awkward to reject it, I don't actually like it. 

But today that changed.  I've seen recipes for Swiss meringue buttercream all over the food blog world, but it just didn't sound good.  It's basically whipped egg whites, sugar, and butter, which doesn't really sound appetizing.  Add that to my old fear of overbeating egg whites (which I've conquered ever since I started making macarons), and I was going to pass on it. But I finally tried it today as a filling for some macarons, and not only was it really easy, but it was so much better than regular buttercream.  I thought it would be really heavy (because of the amount of butter) and eggy, but it was actually very light and not too sweet.  I added vanilla bean paste, so it tasted great and had those little vanilla bean flecks, so it was fancy too!  I can't wait to try this frosting on a cake!

Tomorrow I'll share with you what I did with those extra egg yolks! 

Macarons with Espresso Ganache and Raspberry Cream Cheese Filling (Sanity Sunday)

This was my second try at macarons, and it went so much more smoothly!  I chose to make the basic macaron again, and I made two fillings, espresso ganache and raspberry cream cheese.  This ganache recipe made a much thicker, more substantial filling, so I didn't have the problem I had last time.  And the new food processor made grinding the almonds so much easier!  (On a side note, I LOVE my new food processor!  It works a thousand times better than my old one.  I need to find more things I can process now...)    Anyway, the macarons turned out exactly as I'd hoped.  None of them cracked (I had a few do that last time), and they all formed perfect and even little feet.  And they're so pretty! 

Perfect, right?  I'm so proud of myself!  (FYI, there are dark specks on the macarons because I used some almond meal I bought before I got the new food processor, and they apparently leave the skins on the almonds before they grind them.)

Macarons! (Sanity Sunday)

Ok, so I wasn't originally going to post this, but I changed my mind after tasting them this morning.  Macarons have been very popular in the food blog world for awhile now, but I've never made them before.  Actually, to be honest, I had never actually eaten one.  I even went to Paris for my honeymoon 5 years ago, but back then I didn't really know how to cook, and I had never even heard of macarons. 

Anyway, I bought the book Mad About Macarons and it just came in the mail last week.  So I chose to make a basic macaron with a sort of chocolate-caramel ganache filling.  I was pretty nervous because they have a reputation as being tricky to make, and I also have a fear of overbeating egg whites (I'm scared of whipping cream too).  The macaron itself actually went really well.  They turned out perfectly, with the little feet and everything!  The ganache itself didn't go as well.  It was way too runny, even after refrigerating for several hours, and it just kind of wanted to spill off the sides of the macaron, even when I decreased the amount of filling.  Hence my plan not to post these.  But then I ate one this morning (the recipe says to refrigerate for 24 hours before eating, but I'm a rebel).  And they are really good.  Again, I've never actually had one before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it was just as described in the book, soft on the inside with a little bit of a crunch on the outside.  So here they are, ugly, but delicious. 

Try not to look at the ganache remains on the top of the macaron and on the plate.  Like I said, I wasn't planning on posting these, so they all went into the container without much care, and this one was the prettiest one I could find.  But I think it's good to show you guys that it's ok when things don't go perfectly, especially if they're still delicious.  I'm just proud of myself that the macaron part (the tricky part) came out right.  I'll definitely try this again, with a different filling of course.

Even the baby liked them.  Most of the books say to keep babies away from nuts until they turn two.  But my baby came over begging for the deliciousness I was eating and I gave him a bite without thinking about it.  Then my husband brought to my attention the fact that there are nuts in it, but he just turned two, so it's ok, right?   Which is funny because I used to be the one who was on top of all those things and my husband was the laid-back one.  But he didn't have an allergic reaction, so phew!