Pinbusters: Pumpkin Spice French Macarons

Beside cake balls and fancy cupcakes, macarons have become a trendy and unique way to satisfy a sweet tooth. Pinterest is obnoxiously full of recipes for these little sweeties ranging from traditional flavors to seasonal favorites.

A favorite French confection, the macaron is a meringue-based sandwich filled with either a cream or jelly.

However, the French seem to be keeping something from us in the United States.

Rarely do my friends’ versions turn out exactly the way the picture intends, usually resulting in a blobby mess of chewing gum.

Mine, however, not only transcended any other macarons, I’m pretty positive they turned out not macarons at all.

Name
Pumpkin Spice French Macarons

Originally pinned from
www.foodiemisadventures.com/2012/10/pumpkin-spice-french-macarons.html

What you need
4 ounces almond flour
8 ounces powdered sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
5 ounces egg whites
2 1/2 ounce sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Pumpkin Buttercream:
¼ cup butter
3 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
Pinch of salt
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp whipping cream

What to do
Sift together the flour, sugar and spice. Set aside, and in a separate boil, beat the egg whites, sugar and salt until the mixture whips up forming peaks.

Add the vanilla and beat for an additional minute.

Fold in the dry ingredients. Squeeze dough using either a pastry bag or plastic baggy onto a cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for about 19 minutes.

Beat the butter and pumpkin puree until smooth. Add vanilla, spice and salt to the mix. Slowly add powdered sugar until thoroughly mixed, then add whipping cream. Beat until light and fluffy.

Sandwich the cookies together with the buttercream.

What went wrong
This is the part where I admit my biggest mistake: I picked up the wrong kind of flour.

To be fair, I’m almost certain things would have gone a lot smoother had I bought the correct flour. In fact, the whole recipe was doomed from the start since I used coconut flour instead of the almond.

My macarons turned out looking more like sand nuggets than delicious clouds in your mouth.

Therefore, it’s difficult to make a fair assessment of how right or wrong these could potentially turn out.

I do think, however, a few other things went wrong besides my own silly mistake. The buttercream wasn’t exactly the tastiest filler for these macarons and were a bit too sweet for my taste.

It also never thickened up enough to satisfy me, leaving these sad cookies with runny bottoms and messy bites.

Final consensus
While I know these French delicacies are particularly tricky to master, a few more tries with these suckers might prove more success for my future endeavors.

I would certainly try these again — with the right flour, of course.