in the kitchen x macarons

I have been meaning to do a round up post with some of my favorite macaron flavors & design, and it’s finally here. I love the flexibility of combining flavors in a macaron, something small and simple that can pack a flavor punch. The first macaron pictured is a caramel popcorn macaron. The macaron shell is made out of ground up popcorn & almond flour. Sandwiched in the middle is a smooth and decadent caramel buttercream, one of my favorites. Together they are combined to something resembling one of my favorite late-night snacks, caramel popcorn. The next macarons are actually just a simple vanilla filling, but I had so much fun experimenting with “painting” on the macaron shell. Turns out, macarons are the perfect blank canvas for colors, not only flavors. The next macarons are pink peppermint, made with crushed candy canes sprinkled on the shell, and a chocolate & peppermint filling. I adore chocolate and mint as a combination, as together they remind me of the festive and indulgent nature of the holidays. The bee macarons are lemon flavored, and I had so much fun drawing little bees buzzing about it. Again, the perfect canvas. The last macarons featured are black and white truffle macarons. The macaron shells are made with hazelnut flour. The black truffle filling is made with dark chocolate and a black truffle infusion, along with some truffle oil. The white truffle filling is made with white chocolate and a white truffle infusion. Indulgent, sweet, and just a little bit savory.

in the kitchen x summer macarons

Summers are slow in the kitchen, especially in NYC. When the warm weather hits you, you're on vacation mode too. Shown are two macarons, salted pistachio and a carrot cream cheese variety. I love playing with textures, and I find regular macarons to be lacking in crunch. For the pistachio flavor, I roll them in crushed, salted and roasted pistachios. It emphasizes the flavor of pistachio and is delicious. For the carrot cream cheese, I used a cream cheese buttercream for the filling and added a sugared and dehydrated carrot chip for texture and flavor. For a cold treat, I love eating these guys straight out of the freezer, a mini ice cream sandwich!

in the kitchen x pumpkin macarons

When pumpkin is paired with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, it is so representative of Fall. Everyone can have their pumpkin spice latte, I'll take pumpkin spice macarons any day. These are filled with a white chocolate buttercream, pumpkin puree, and fall spices. I find nothing more therapeutic than filling macarons. I love pairing macarons with their perfect-sized partner, and piping dollops of filling before gently smooching their top shell together to form a sandwich. Pairing and filling macarons was one of the first things I learned to do in a professional kitchen. As a young intern at Bouchon Bakery, my responsibilities were severely limited as this was my first kitchen. But every afternoon, the entire pastry team came together to finish last minute duties which included sandwiching macarons for the next day. The trick is to finding the perfect-sized partner is that macarons piped next to each other tend to be close to the right size. I was taught to lay one face up and the partner faced down in a row. When all the macarons are paired, pipe dollops of filling with one squeeze, to ensure the filling is smooth when sandwiched together. After, just smooth the top macaron gently to make a perfect macaron sandwich. With large batches, which normally happen in a kitchen, it is much easier to separate each step and complete it before moving on to the next one.