Candy Corn Macarons

These Candy Corn inspired french macarons are both festive and delicious, making them the perfect sweet treat for Autumn celebrations and my personal favorite, Halloween parties. 

I even think they taste better than real Candy Corn which is pretty much just straight up sugar and corn syrup mixed with artificial colors and flavors. Instead, I decided to cut the sweetness and fill these with vanilla buttercream.

I was able to make the white and yellow macaron shells from a single recipe by splitting the batter just after incorporating the dry ingredients into the meringue but before starting the macaronage or folding process.

Here's how:
Candy Corn Macarons 

180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
Yellow food coloring

Line four heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) on medium high speed to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts. You don't want to whip the egg whites too quickly, this should take a good 5 to 7 minutes.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper and mix just until everything is combined then stop and divide the batter in half. Tint one half of the batter with yellow coloring.

The half of the batter that I'm going to tint yellow.

I added quite a bit of gel coloring since macarons always lighten after baking.

Fold each of the mixtures with a rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

How the batter looks after folding.

Transfer the mixtures into separate piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small quarter sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch.

While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable. 

Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.

Leave on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Vanilla Buttercream.

The baked macarons, sorted and ready for filling.

Vanilla Buttercream
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
pinch of sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Orange food coloring

In a stand mixer combine the butter, sugar, sea salt and vanilla. Whip until smooth and light, this takes about 5 minutes. Tint with orange food coloring.

All done! Store the macarons in a sealed container in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.