Ah, macarons–these sugar dense delicacies entangle quite some emotion in our household. Can you guess why?
Simple tips and tricks||Go straight to the recipe
If there is one day in a whole year that we have more sweets than we can ever consume, which day will it be?
If you live in the US, you may guess it right.
Before moving to the States, I’ve never imagined to what degree Halloween is important here. Now my two little Americans, they will start picturing trick-or-treat from the first day of October. Is it the same in your house?
With all the candies our kids will get tonight, do I have to make macarons, TODAY?
My hubby always has a love and hate relationship with macarons. Whenever I make macarons he complains there is too much sugar in them and he does not want sugar. But if I make them he “has to” eat. Hey! It’s Halloween, a special occasion that deserves some guilty pleasure. And I have my reasons.
I live very close to an elementary school. In the afternoon today, I can see parents arriving for the Halloween event at the school. This morning actually, both Ana’s and Gabby’s schools have arranged Halloween parades from 9-10am. Since these 2 schools are 30 minutes drive apart, I knew I could never possibly go to both. Daddy had to work so couldn’t go neither. The decision for me was difficult:
Gabby and her classmates had practiced special songs for us parents, I think it’s important for her to see me there.
But Ana dressed up as Elsa and she was eager to walk around the school neighbourhood with me hand in hand.
What will you do in this situation?
Maybe I was biased. I just thought older children will remember more so I decided to go to Gabby’s parade. I dropped Ana at 8:20am and rushed back to Gabby’s school. You know what? Their parade finished already! At 8:55am! Can you imagine how bad I felt?
I hope I can make it up for them by making something fun that they enjoy. The girls are a big fan of French macarons. I make them every time for their birthday party. The girls know that macarons are special treats that mom makes only for special occasions. They really appreciate the small bite, and know there is an one-macaron-a-day limit. Since macarons can be kept for a long time, there is no rush to eat them all.
These cute spooky macarons filled with French buttercream (recipe follow) will definitely be a nice surprise for them!
And for me, I never thought it would be so fun to hand paint these macarons. Of course there were trials and errors (like holding them too tight…crack! crack!) I hope my girls will love these cute spiders, jack-O-laterns and little bats…And we’ll laugh when we get orange, or black tongues!
![spooky macarons](http://www.simpleindeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/spooky-macarons-4-1.jpg)
![jack-o-lantern-macarons](http://www.simpleindeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/spooky-macarons-3.jpg)
![spooky macarons](http://www.simpleindeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/spooky-macarons-1-1.jpg)
![spider-macarons](http://www.simpleindeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/spooky-macarons-2-1.jpg)
Updated
![French macarons tips](http://www.simpleindeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/tricks-and-tips-banner-1.png)
I’ve listed my macaron recipe the way that you can have the right quantity, no matter how different your egg sizes are, or maybe you want to use more or less egg whites, you can. The conversion is done for you!
I even detailed to the minutes how you should o whip egg whites, and how many strokes you should fold (macaronage) the batter.
And:
- You don’t need to age egg whites.
- You don’t need to add cream of tartar.
- You dump granulated sugar in all at once with egg whites at the beginning.
- You don’t need to wait even 1 minute, Bake piped shells right away! (So no resting time needed. Do you think protectional bakeries has the time to wait the piped shells to dry for 15-30 minutes?).
What you do need:
- You do need to have a scale, a sift, a timer and an oven that you know its temperature.
- You do need to bang the baking trays to get the excessive bubbles out.
- You will use up the egg yolks leftover from macaron shells to make the filling. So nothing is wasted.
I’ve also attached a Macaron piping template so you can pipe your macarons perfectly.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions, I’m here to help!
![DOWNLOAD BREAK](http://www.simpleindeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/600px-x-250px-–-Download.jpg)
It was really funny how you said that your husband both loved and hated macarons at the same time because he doesn’t like it when you out too much sugar. Fortunately for me, my cute husband loves eating anything I make, even if they weren’t exactly perfect. Now that his birthday is coming up, I at least, want to give him something tasty for his birthday. So instead of making his favourite macarons myself, I think that it will be better if I ordered some from a bakery instead. Thanks for sharing the article! I loved it!
Thank you for stopping by and leave the lovely comment. You are so lucky that your husband enjoys eating anything you make. He will surely appreciate you finding tasty macarons for his special day. Happy birthday to him!