Macarons, Macarons, Macarons!

I did it, I conquered both nut-free and almond version of macarons. It's addicting and easy to make once i got the hang of it. Ok, let me rephrase that--- I should have started on making the almond version first because this took me one try. One lousy stinking try that could have saved me tears and personal humiliation (not to mention, a whole lot less eggs cracked and separated). The nut-free ones I made for the previous post left me questioning myself on whether I should just stick to cupcakes and cakes. I had a pretty good record of success with those things and maybe macarons just couldn't be added to the mix.

One night though, I decided to just make the almond version at night while my allergic-to-tree-nuts son was in bed. My ever supportive husband got me a bag of slivered almonds, he's awesome like that. He knows that buying me ingredients is the way to win me over. I looked at several videos and recipes online and adapted a version for myself and my temperamental oven and one try, and almost half an hour later I got these babies.

Banana macarons with raspberry white chocolate mousse. I didn't pipe them all evenly but they have feet. I said the exact same thing while jumping up and down in my kitchen "they have feet, they have feet!" My husband looked at me like I was insane... again. It also didn't help I accompanied the squealing with dancing and probably way too much booty shaking.

The next day, while my son was pretend napping and I was supposed to be cleaning, I went for it again. I had a lot of raspberry mousse left, they had to be used. So I made coffee-mocha macarons. It just made sense, plus I was twitching to make a batch like a meth head looking for the next hit.

Did I really just compare my addiction to make macarons to a meth head's addiction to meth? My, someone has issues. Definitely has issues because the next day, I bought black sesame seeds, coconut flakes in bulk and then I made these nut-free versions.


Just what I wanted, flat on the top, little macaron feet. The ones on the right are just vanilla, which I believe baked a little too long so I then adjusted the temperature for the left ones which are pandan flavored macarons. They taste different than the almond ones, but in a way that they seem nuttier, definitely a good substitute. I wish I didn't fill them up with ganache though and instead made butter cream or put jam in them. My son was pretend napping again that day so I was rushing. All in all though, I was pretty happy about these. I can't wait till I have an excuse to make them again. That excuse just might come this weekend.