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 »

Chocolate French Macarons

This recipe adapted from Delicious Everyday, Eat Live Travel Write and Stella from Bravetart - who has been making macarons using a tried, tested and true method. This is my second EVER attempt. Unfortunately my sifter broke half way, and I don't think I quite had the texture I needed. I'll continue to do more digging on good macaron-making techniques. It was a good attempt and I think I have the method (steps) down pat. 

Makes: 20 Macarons

Ingredients

Macaron:

• 57 g of almond flour
• 115 g of icing sugar
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder
• 36 g sugar
• 72g of egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

* Its important that your ingredients are measured precisely.

Cream Cheese Buttercream used from a previous recipe. 

Directions

Preheat oven to 230 degrees Fahrenheit. 

1. Measure out almond flour, icing sugar and cocoa powder. Put in food processor, and pulse on high until while ground (~15 times). Sift TWICE into bowl that you will set aside.
2. 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. 
3. Now, add the salt and vanilla extract (at this point you would add food colouring or flavours, but we do not do that for this recipe) and bump the speed up to maximum for 1 minute (time yourself!). 
4. 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.
5. Add the salt, vanilla extract, food colouring, cinnamon, tumeric, and allspice.
6. Now add the dry ingredients, and using a spatula FOLD the ingredients, which should take approximately 25 "folds" turns. 
7. Pipe 1 inch onto baking sheet.
8. Bake for 12 minutes, turn the baking sheet around after 6 minutes. 
9. Remove from oven. Allow to cool complete, then gently slide them off the parchment paper. If they are still sticking, put in freezer for 1 minute. 

STEP BY STEP ILLUSTRATED INSTRUCTIONS »

Vanilla French Macarons

So we attempted the notoriously difficult French Macarons. What I quickly learned is that this recipe has to be followed precisely. You can't overwhip it (or else you'll end up with hollow biscuits!), overcook it. and have too much of one ingredient. This actually took two batches to get just right.

French Macarons - Vanilla Flavored

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 and 2/3 cups confectioner's sugar (sifted, or food processed)
• 1 cup almond flour (sifted, or food processed)

Directions

1. Beat egg whites until they are stiff and form stiff peaks (to the point where if you turn the bowl upside down they don't move)
2. Gradually beat in white sugar. 
3. In a separate bowl for dry ingredients: sift icing sugar and almond flour. Whisk together. 
4. Do not use an electric mixer/beater for the next step. Fold your dry ingredients into the egg mixture in 30 strokes - don't do it more than this. 
5. Pipe your macaroons on parchment paper to about 35 mm. You can google "macaron" templates".
6. Preheat oven to 285 degrees Fahrenheit (140 degrees C). Let it stand for 25 minutes. 
7. Bake for 15 minutes.

Vanilla Macaron Filling

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 4 ounces of cream cheese (half a whole package, room temperature).
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/3 cup of icing sugar

Directions

1. Beat butter, cream cheese and salt together until fluffy.
2. Gradually add icing sugar beating until smooth.