Easter Egg Macarons! Simply Adorable with an Easy Recipe!

Yum

I know, they’re cute right? These little Easter Egg Macarons are so easy that I feel like its cheating to be able to bring something so cute to Easter brunch, but who would turn down the chance to impress?

Macarons have a reputation for being really tricky, and they are certainly very technical, but by following these directions exactly, you will almost certainly get beautiful macarons. If only everything in life came with directions that led to success and beauty. Alas, we must continue to muddle through our days without the clarity of a well-designed recipe. It’s best to find clarity where we can, so enjoy this little slice of scientific exactitude.

Is it spring yet??!

There’s been beautiful weather here in Indianapolis. After several days of gray days with sub-zero temperatures, I have been soaking up the Vitamin D like an addict. Driving home from school on Tuesday, I was amused to see every car surrounding me with their windows rolled down, basking in the balmy 45 degree weather. I can’t laugh too much though, because my window was definitely down as well.

The nice weather inspired me to pretend that it is already spring, so I started thinking about Easter desserts.

Preview: If you live in the Indianapolis area and don’t want to bother baking these yourself, I will be doing a pop up sale of these little guys with lemon and chocolate flavors later in March! More info coming soon.

Easter Egg Macarons: What are they? Tips and tricks.

Macarons are little meringue cookies that are supposed to have nice smooth tops, an intriguing chewy interior texture, and a crisp outer shell. They are typically flavored with almond extract, but I’ve had luck adding other flavors too. You can experiment with lemon zest, orange zest, other fruit extracts, or even cocoa powder so that your macarons appeal to YOU.

Macarons can really be filled with anything. Lots of people fill with buttercream, but I like to fill them with lemon curd or ganache. It is nice to have a bold flavor that contrasts the sweet macaron shell. Check out my recipe for lemon curd here. That is what I used to fill the Easter Egg Macarons, but it is just what I happened to have on hand. I have also seen them filled with salted caramel, jelly or jam, cream cheese frosting, and pastry cream. The sky is the limit!

You can get crazy with your colors. Macarons take on food coloring (either gel or liquid) very well, and they tend to retain the color well after baking. I decorated my little eggs with royal icing, and that can be colored as well, but I was far too lazy and kept it simple with white. Since I wanted to do Easter Eggs, I chose blue and yellow, but you can do any color you want or just leave them almond colored…. although then they definitely won’t look like “Easter Egg Macarons.” They will look like weird grey cookies. But you do you.

Technically I used an egg shaped template for these, but I gave up on using that after a while and just started free piping. I seem to have problems with authority. You can use the template that I made for this if you would like! Just download the document below and print a few copies out so that you can pipe large sections at a time. You will put the templates under your parchment paper as you pipe out your macarons! Just be sure to remove the paper because, trust me, you don’t want a fire in your oven when the templates start burning up.

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Time to get crafty…

Have fun with the decorating! I stuck with little blobs and lines, but go crazy! Also, not every shell has to be perfect. That’s what makes homemade baked goods so beautiful. If you wanted something that looked store-bought you’d go buy something at the store and save yourself a lot of dish soap!

For anyone looking for American measurements, sorry no. These will be so much more successful if you make them with a food scale. Trust me. And buy a cheap food scale. It’s an investment in your cooking future and its an excellent excuse to go spend too much money at Target.

Easter Egg Macarons

For the macarons shells:

• 150 grams of egg whites, divided into two groups of 75 grams
• 200 grams powdered sugar
• 190 grams almond flour
• 1 tsp almond extract (or any other extract that strikes your fancy)
• 190 grams granulated sugar or superfine sugar
• 60 ml water

Follow the directions exactly. This is not the time for shortcuts.

Sift your powdered sugar and almond flour together, at least two times, but more if it isn’t well mixed or still seems lumpy. Do not force anything through your sieve. Always discard any lumps. Add 75 grams of egg whites and give it a vigorous stir with a silicon spatula. As it becomes more paste-like, add your almond extract and whatever food coloring you want. Remember that you will dilute the color later with white meringue, so make it a little darker that you want your finished product to be. I like to make pink, blue, yellow, and green, but get creative! When it is combined into a paste, cover it with a dish cloth and set it aside while you work on the next step.

Make the meringue…

Combine your granulated sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir to combine. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally and keeping an eye on your sugar thermometer.

While it is heating up, put the rest of your egg whites in your stand mixer and attach the balloon whisk (or get your hand mixer ready.). Do not start it yet, wait.

When the sugar syrup reaches the temperature of 110 degrees C, turn on your stand mixer to a medium-high speed. Keep watching your sugar syrup closely. When it reaches 118 degrees C (no higher!), immediately remove from the heat. Pour very slowly and steadily into your whipping egg whites, keeping the whisk going. Do NOT pour the sugar syrup directly onto the whisk, that would be really bad. Just let it trickle down the side of the bowl in a steady stream.

The meringue will start to get nice and shiny. Continue whisking for about 5 minutes to cool the meringue. You are going for soft peaks that fall over, not stiff dry peaks.

While it is whisking, cover three baking sheets with parchment paper, positioning your egg templates underneath the parchment paper so you can see them through the paper. Prepare a large piping bag (or a big ziplock back if that’s all you have.)

Lets get incorporating…

When you have reached soft peak stage and the meringue has cooled somewhat, stop the mixer. Add a big dollop of the meringue to your almond flour paste to loosen it up. Stir it in, you can be fairly vigorous here, you have not started the folding process yet.

Add the rest of the meringue, and begin folding it in carefully. This is an important stage. You don’t want to knock ALL of the air out, but you need your mixture to reach ribbon stage. The folding will take about three minutes. You will know it has reached the correct texture when you can remove the spatula from the mixture and it ribbons off, leaving a trail that takes several seconds to combine with the main mixture.

Carefully pour your batter into your piping bag. The batter will be quite liquid, so it is good to do this with a friend. Cut a dime-sized hole in the end (or use a round piping tip). Pipe out your eggs, doing your best to hold the piping bag vertically. There is a little trick to flicking away as you finish each meringue that will help you avoid little peaks. I am very bad at it, as you can see in all my peaky pictures. Don’t be discouraged if your first ones look weird… they’ll all taste good! As you finish each baking sheet, pause. REMOVE YOUR PAPER TEMPLATES FROM THE BAKING SHEETS or they will burn!! Bang the baking sheets hard on your counters several times, and watch for air bubbles to rise to the surface. If any don’t pop naturally, pop them with a toothpick.

Patience is key. Or your easter egg macarons will look like easter egg lumps of weirdness.

Repeat this process one baking sheet at a time. Now, patience. Preheat your oven to 305 degrees F, and wait. You have to let the macarons sit. They will slowly dry out and form a skin. If you do not allow them to complete this process, they will never rise properly or form smooth tops. You should let them sit about 45 minutes, but you can judge when they are ready by gently running your finger over the tops. If they are smooth and dry and have a noticeable skin, they are ready to bake.

Bake each tray for twelve minutes. Hopefully they will form little feet and rise!

When they are done, remove them from the parchment paper, fill with ganache, curd, or whatever filling you desire, sandwich them together putting the ugly ones on bottom, and decorate if you would like. See below for my royal icing recipe if you want to decorate your eggs! Just cut a tiny tip in a piping bag and go to town with your decoration!

Royal Icing (Small Batch)

• 1 pasteurized egg white
• 225 grams powdered sugar
• a splash of vanilla

Combine all ingredients and whisk in stand mixer, with hand mixer, or vigorously by hand if you haven’t gotten your workout in yet, for at least a minute. Adjust the consistency as necessary by adding more powdered sugar or single drops of water. You want a fairly stiff icing for these eggs. Your figure 8 shape should linger for at least ten seconds.

Have fun!