Pumpkin Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.  These Macarons are not to be confused with the American macaroons that have coconut.  They are light airy fluffy and hard to master.  To be honest I was down right nervous to make this recipe, to be sure that it would be a complete failure at my first attempt.  That they would lay flat and have no rise or feet as they are called.  I literally jumped up and down when I saw feet!!  Though they were small feet, I was happy.  Ultimately the taste of these were yummy, simply sweet paired with no other than a spiced pumpkin filling, perfect!

Please be sure to check out the other Daring Bakers here

Ingredients: Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups, Almond flour: 2 cups, Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons, Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

First Measure out the ground almond meal and powdered sugar and mix well

Then in a mixer add your room temperature egg whites

and beat until soft peaks

then slowly add your sugar

and beat until stiff peaks

Then sift in your almond sugar mixture

add the orange zest

and fold until incorporating

and almost deflated looking

Then on parchment paper draw circle to help make even sized mac’s, and pipe out

they should settle out and become flat

Then bring your oven to 200 degrees and place in the oven for 5 minutes, to dry.

Then remove macarons and raise temp to 375 degrees and bake another 7-8 minutes

you should have feet, though mine are small

Then for the filling, I used about 1/2 cup pumpkin, 2 oz cream cheese, 1 T sugar, and sprinkle of cinnamon and cloves

Mix all ingredients together, and spread between mac’s!

and enjoy!

Print This RecipeMacarons

recipe comes from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern. They have given me the most consistent results and so, for everyone’s delectation, I present to you an adaptation of Ms. Fleming’s recipe.

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.