Tie Dyed Macarons

I've been wanting to attempt tie dyed macarons for some time now having seen them continually grow in popularity among bakers and finally took some time this past week to give them a go.

Just research "tie dyed macarons" on the internet and you'll find lots of examples, some cute and some not so much.  I think the best looking ones use just two colors, keeping the design clean and not convoluted. I wanted to create a tie dye effect without making macarons that looked like they belonged at a Grateful Dead merch booth. Sorry, Deadheads.

To create the effect, I just drew three lines of gel coloring up and down the inside of a piping bag before adding the macaron batter. I did learn that a little gel coloring goes a long way and next time I'm going to even use less. I do like how these look though and am anxious to keep experimenting.

Here's how I made them:

I had my supplies (a piping bag, gel coloring and a small paint brush) out and ready to go before I started making the macaron batter.

When the batter was done, I painted three lines of gel coloring on the inside of the bag.

This doesn't look like a lot of coloring but a little goes a long way and next time I'm going to use even less. I reloaded my brush before each stroke and I now know that a single load of coloring on the brush for all three stripes will do.

Once the batter was in the bag, my coloring overload became obvious and I believe it altered the texture of the macaron, making the outside too crispy.

The piped macarons.

The macarons after baking.

I filled these with peppermint buttercream and dark chocolate. Those recipes can be found here.

The macarons after filling.

Colorful Macarons For An Anniversary Celebration

A box of macarons just for Steve and Gerrie. The flavors are clockwise from top left: Lemon, Lime Coconut, Toasted Coconut, Blackberry, Vanilla Almond and Raspberry.

I could stare at this pretty box of colorful macarons all day. I'm so pleased with how they turned out and can't wait to show them to my friends Steve and Gerrie who asked me to make them for their 50th Anniversary.

The box of macarons is just for the happy couple and the rest of the 300 are for their celebration. It took me fourteen hours of straight baking to make all of them but now they are chilling in the fridge and I can relax. Because macarons taste best a few days after making them, they are a good choice for entertaining. Not to mention the fact that because they are so striking they can do double duty as a  centerpiece.

I'm going to serve these on my homemade macaron tower that I made by stacking different sized cake stands and securing them into place with "UHU tac" and covering the levels with paper doilies to give the stand a uniform look.

My homemade macaron stand. The levels are secured with "UHU tac" which is non-toxic and easy to remove. I don't want to damage my cake stands. For the base I used my revolving cake decorating stand and topped it with a 14-inch round of plywood. I covered the plywood with paper and doilies and trimmed the edge with satin ribbon. I should be able to fit a lot of macarons on the base layer. I made the decorative tag with cardstock and satin ribbon.

Adding the "UHU tac" to the base of a cake stand.

Here are some pictures from my long day of macaron making:

Raspberry was first.

Adding the Raspberry Buttercream.

One down, more to go!

Vanilla Almond was next. Here's a side by side comparison of the baked and unbaked macarons. Look at that color change! You always have to color macaron batter darker than you want them to turn out.

Two down!

Unbaked and baked Blackberry Macarons.

I didn't add coloring to the blackberry filling. That beautiful hue is just from the blackberries.

Now it's dark and the lighting is bad but here are my Toasted Coconut Macarons.

I also added a sprinkle of toasted coconut to the filling.

Piped Lime Macarons.

Finished Lime and Coconut Macarons.

Piped Lemon Macarons and I'm almost done!

The lighting was so bad last night that I waited until this morning to photograph the finished Lemon Macarons. I especially love the look of these. The filling is Swiss Meringue Buttercream flavored with a fresh lemon juice and zest reduction.

Coming Soon...Lots Of Macarons!

Some of my macaron baking supplies. Most important is the bowl of aged egg whites. You need to plan ahead if you are going to make macarons. I've got 24 egg whites in the bowl because I've got 300 macarons to make.

I'm getting my ingredients together to bake 300 macarons for a 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration this Sunday. My plan is to make six flavors (Lime, Raspberry, Coconut, Blackberry, Lemon and Vanilla Almond), so that there will be a beautiful array of colors on display.

Making macarons isn't a last minute project because you need to use egg whites, aged for a minimum of three days in the refrigerator and brought to room temperature when you are ready to use them.

Also on my agenda is to figure out a way to dramatically display the macarons. I am going to go for a tower effect and try to do it on a budget. There are macaron display stands available online but they are acrylic and cost more than $100. I think I can use the porcelain white cake stands I already own to pull off a similar look. Stay tuned......

Macaron Success

My daughter Eleanor with a package of six different flavored macarons: chocolate, coffee, lemon, lavender, strawberry and cherry.

My experiment of splitting a single batch of macarons so I could make different colors worked!

I split one batch four ways to make red, pink, yellow and violet. Then, I split another batch two ways to make coffee and chocolate.

For the fillings, I made a single batch of Swiss meringue vanilla butter cream and split it six ways. To three of the parts, I added a bit of cream cheese and then their flavorings — sour cherry jam, Oregon strawberry jam and finally lemon extract and zest.

English lavender, melted dark chocolate and espresso powder were added to make the final three flavors of fillings.

I've been wanting to make a variety package of macarons for some time now but didn't want to have to make complete batches of each flavor.

I'm excited to try new color and flavor combinations.

Macarons ready to be packaged.

A dozen of colorful macarons packaged and ready to give. Cupcake liners and food safe cellophane bags are the best way I've found to package them.

Macaron Experiment

Colorful macarons waiting to be baked.

My kitchen is vibrant tonight as I experiment with making four different colors of macarons from a single batch.

I want to make packages filled with a variety of macarons without having to make a full single batch of each kind. Because measuring carefully when making macrons is so important, this is a risky endeavor. I hope they turn out.

I used my scale to divide the almond meal and powdered sugar into four equal portions (a total of 112.5 grams each). For the egg whites, I whipped them to stiff peaks and then divided them into four portions.

Tonight, I made pink for strawberry, violet for lavender, red for cherry and yellow for lemon. I'll make the fillings tomorrow and let you know how they turn out.