French Almond Macaroons

What finger food comes in green and pink and is super delicious? Why, a French macaroon of course! By which I mean the pretty, colorful little sandwich cookies, not those coconut whatsits. Anyway, I've been wanting to try these for a while and I decided to go with Martha Stewart's recipe because it looked the simplest.

Becca and Kendra mixing away

Becca, Kendra, and Tamara all lent a hand and we had a macaroon -baking party. Fortunately the recipe was indeed simple, though next time I think I might see if I can get the almonds even finer (we did our best) and take into account the fact that the almond will give them a beige cast. I kind of forgot about that so the color wasn't quite as vivid as I had planned, but it's all good.


I filled them with the swiss meringue buttercream listed with the recipe, but had to refrigerate it overnight. Sadly, the buttercream started to separate when I took it out of the fridge the next day and added the food coloring, but it wasn't so bad. Next time though, I'll do something a little different. What that will be, I haven't a clue, but I'm sure something will work out.

Sad buttercream, trying so hard to separate

I have since spoken to my friend Aaron, a pastry chef, on the subject and he recommends piping out the macaroons and letting them sit for a two or three hours before baking so I'll give that a go next time.