Pumpkin Spice French Macarons

Attempt #3. Basic Macaron Recipe from BraveTart, pumpkin spice flavouring from Tasty Kitchen. Pumpkin buttercream recipe adapted from Wicked Good Kitchen and Marvelous Misadventures of a Foodie. 

Macarons

INGREDIENTS

Basic Macaron Ingredients 

• 115 g of almond flour 
• 230 g of icing sugar 
• 72 g of sugar 
• 144g of egg whites 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/2 tsp salt 

Spice Flavouring/Colour 

• 1 drop golden yellow or Orange Food Colouring 
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Measure out almond flour, icing sugar. Put in food processor, and pulse on high until while ground (~15 times). Sift TWICE into bowl that you will set aside.
3. Mix egg whites, sugar using an hand/standing electric mixer with a whisk attachment - and time yourself for this next part: 3 minutes on low speed, 3 minutes on medium, then 3 minutes on high. 
4. Now, add the salt, vanilla extract, food colouring, cinnamon, and allspice, and bump the speed up to maximum for 1 minute (time yourself!). 
5. Your meringue should be very stiff. It should NOT be runny, and should clump in the middle of the whisk. If it doesn't, beat for another minute or keep beating until it clumps in the middle of the whisk.
6. Now add the almond flour/icing sugar mixture, and using a spatula FOLD the ingredients, which should take approximately 25 "folds" turns. 
7. Pipe 1 inch onto baking sheet. Then bang the baking tray hard against the counter surface to dislodge air bubbles. Do this two more times. 
8. Bake for 18 minutes, turn the baking sheet around after 9 minutes. 
9. Remove from oven. Allow to cool completely - and be patient! Gently slide them off the parchment paper. If they are still sticking, put in freezer for 1 minute.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Buttercream 

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 tbsp canned Pumpkin Puree 
• 1/2 package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4  tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups icing sugar, sifted

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat butter and pumpkin puree together until smooth (20 seconds).
2. Add cream cheese & vanilla
3. Add icing sugar gradually and beat until well combined

This was my third attempt at macarons. Needless to say there are some things I learned this time around:

• Allow Macarons to Cool: Allow macarons to cool completely before attempting to take them off. I just let them cool for 20-30 minutes. When I became impatient, I ended up tearing some of the macarons before they were ready to be taken off. 
• Over-mixing: I think I may be over-mixing the batter, instead of folding almond flour/icing sugar into egg white mixture 25 times (an arbitrary number) I think I'll do it until it is absorbed in the fewest strokes possible. 
• Importance of sifting: My sifter broke on me at my last attempt, and the macarons were a bit lumpy. This time I sifted three times - and food processed any left over bits to ensure they were well grounded! The macarons held well together. 
• Banging the tray against the counter: Sounds strange, but once I piped the macarons on the counter, I banged the tray against the kitchen counter 2-3 times to get the air bubbles out. Result? The macarons didn't crack after baking! It was a great tip I read on Bravetart. 
• More reading/research: I need to read up more on technique to see where I can improve upon. 

These baked goods are super stubborn to get right, but luckily, so am I! 

STEP BY STEP ILLUSTRATED DIRECTIONS »

1. Measure out almond flour, icing sugar. 

This is the measurement tool I use to weigh my ingredients for Macarons:

Measure out 114 g of almond flour:

Measure out 214 g of icing sugar:

2. Put in food processor, and pulse on high until well ground (~15 times).

Sift TWICE into bowl that you will set aside.

You'll notice that there will be parts of the dry ingredients that do not sift through, put these back in the food processor and grind them again:

Once everything goes through the sifter, we're done with this step, onto the next!

3. Measure out the egg whites and sugar:

Measure out the egg whites, I hate wasting yolk so I just buy egg whites already prepared:

Measure out the sugar:

Put egg whites and sugar in the same bowl:

4. Mix egg whites, sugar using an hand/standing electric mixer with a whisk attachment - and time yourself for this next part: 3 minutes on low speed, 3 minutes on medium, then 3 minutes on high.

What the mixture looks like before we start beating:

Beat on low speed for 3 minutes:

Next beat for 3 minutes on medium speed:

Lastly, beat on high for 3 minutes:

5. Your meringue should be very stiff. It should NOT be runny, and should clump in the middle of the whisk. If it doesn't, beat for another minute or keep beating until it clumps in the middle of the whisk.

Notice when I tilt the spatula, the meringue DOES not slip off, it should be stiff:

6. Now, add the salt, vanilla extract, food colouring, cinnamon and allspice, and bump the speed up to maximum for 1 minute (time yourself!).

Salt and Vanilla Extract:

Cinnamon and Allspice:

Add food colouring:

Beat well for 1 minute:

Your mixture should look like this after beating:

7. Now add the almond flour/icing sugar mixture, and using a spatula FOLD the ingredients, which should take approximately 25 "folds" turns.

Folding first after 5 times (left), then 10 times (right):

After 20 times (left) and fully folded (right:

What the mixture looks like completed:

8. Place into piping bag:

9. Pipe 1 inch onto baking sheet. Then bang the baking tray hard against the counter surface to dislodge air bubbles. Do this two more times.

10. Bake for 18 minutes, turn the baking sheet around after 9 minutes. Remove from oven. Allow to cool completely - be patient during this part.

11. Then gently slide them off the parchment paper. If they are still sticking, put in freezer for 1 minute.

Beat butter and pumpkin puree together until smooth (20 seconds)

2. Add cream cheese & vanilla

3. Add icing sugar gradually and beat until well combined

 4. Place into piping bag:

5. And Pipe your macaroons. These are a bit runny, so I added more icing sugar. 

The Final Product

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