Pumpkin Macarons

Pumpkin Macarons are a seasonal twist on standard macarons and well worth your time. Pumpkin pie spice adds flavor to the shells and pumpkin butter elevates the filling. I made pumpkin treats which take basic macarons to silly-holiday-fun when you add a jack-o-lantern face. Let the kids get involved and decorate their own!

Or keep it simple and elegant with the plain macaron– a pumpkin spice shell with a pumpkin butter filling. These won’t disappoint; they are the melt-in-your-mouth kind of good.

The #CreativeCookieExchange is all about HALLOWEEN this month. Whether you make something spooky, crafty, outrageous or simple, we’d love to see how your cookies celebrate Halloween.

I started with a macaron recipe from Brave Tart, The proportions of egg whites to almond flour, powdered sugar and granulated sugar that she provides work well for me too. It is helpful to use a kitchen scale to weigh ingredients when making macarons. That method is more accurate than measuring cups and you’ll have better luck perfecting your macarons. To make these pumpkin flavored I used a generous amount of pumkin pie spice. You can make your own mixture out of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves or you can buy it already mixed and ready for purchase in the spice aisle.

Another reliable macaron recipe is shared in National Geographic. It is the Bouchon Bakery’s macaron recipe. Give it a try!

The baking tool I find most helpful when making macarons is a Macaron Baking Mat. The mat has circular indentations that make crafting identical macarons SO MUCH EASIER. When I’ve experimented with that same batch of macaron batter and made one tray with my molded baking mat and the other tray without the mat, I’ve had much better results with the mat.

The molds give the macarons structure and, for me, are an insurance policy for when I may have under mixed my batter. Instead of spreading all over a regular baking mat, my macarons puff up, develop that signature foot around the edge, and bake beautifully.

How to pipe macarons without a macaron baking mat

Before I found the macaron mat (which honestly is the easiest way to pipe macarons), I would trace circles on my parchment which would guide me in making consistently sized macaron shells. Each time I’d trace around a circle cookie cutter or something else that was about the right size in my kitchen. The method worked but was time consuming.

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