Easy French 'Halloween' Macarons

There's a little french bakery 2 minutes down the road from our house. Every time we drive by, there's lines of people waiting outside the doors. I used to wonder what delicacies they must hold in their cafeteria. Then one day my flatmate Hani came home with some french macarons from said bakery. I'd never tried them before as I always thought they didn't look all that appealing. But oui oui, that first bite into the light crumbly gooey sweetness of my strawberry macaron had me go into a frenzy. I knew I wouldn't be able to get to the bakery most days, so I decided to bake my own! Now you can too.

Macaron Recipe

4 large egg whites
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar
1 cup almond meal
pinch of salt
edible food pen

gel food colouring (optional)

Butter Cream Filling Recipe

1/2 cup butter
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
1-4 tablespoons of milk or cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 150 ºC. Mix egg whites and caster sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until stiff enough to turn the bowl upside down without it falling out. Continue to mix for 1 - 2 more minutes. If adding food colouring do this now and then mix for a further 20 seconds.

Get a sieve and sift the almond meal, icing sugar and salt. Discard any almond lumps that are too big to pass through the sieve. Fold ingredients into the egg white mixture. It should take roughly 30 - 50 folds using a rubber spatula. The mixture should be smooth and a very glue-like, not runny. If you over-mix, your macarons will be flat. If you under mix, they won't turn out smooth on top.

Pipe mixture onto trays lined with baking paper. Wrap trays on the bench firmly (this prevents cracking) and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Check if one comes off the tray fairly cleanly, if not bake for a little longer (make sure you are using non-stick baking paper or they will stick).


Filling Your Macarons

Let your butter soften at room temperature in a bowl. Once that's done, add the icing sugar and 1 tbsp of milk (or cream) and beat until smooth and light in colour. Add extra spoons of milk one at a time until the desired consistency is reached before piping onto macarons. If you have an edible food pen, this is where you can draw on your halloween designs. Try a spider web, the letters 'BOO!' and some spooky eyes.

Once you've added your filling and decorated your macarons, seal them in an airtight container and store in the fridge for at least a few hours (ideally overnight) and enjoy for a sneaky sweet breakfast in the morning.


xo Elise

Image from The Homesteady