Chai Tea Pumpkin Macarons

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Spicy chai tea cookies and pumpkin buttercream come together to create this warm and cozy fall macaron. Get the recipe plus the tips and tricks I found to baking technically perfect macarons.

It’s here! It’s fall! I’ve noticed the weather changing even over the past week or two. I’m stepping on more crunchy leaves. I had to wait for my car windows to defrost before I could drive to work. It’s still pitch black when I leave for the gym at 6am. And then there are the sudden urges to make every soup, oatmeal and cinnamon-y thing on my Pinterest board.

Thankfully I’ve been testing this Chai Tea Pumpkin Macaron recipe for the past month and it’s finally perfect and ready to share! This macaron is a bite-sized autumn bomb in your mouth.

What’s in it?

• The cookie uses spicy Saigon Chai Tea from David’s Tea. We just ground up this killer tea and toss it in — full chai flavors are coming. And then we add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger... you get the picture.

• And of course, it’s got pumpkin. The filling is a smooth, rich, pumpkin buttercream. I tested a couple versions and obviously went for the most pumpkin-packed option 😉

I had never made macarons before this and while I made about 5 batches to get these perfect, I’m hoping to show you the pitfalls I had and point you to resources that will speed that up for you. I’m not saying you’ll nail it on the first try, but the hardest thing about macarons is getting them to LOOK right… which means, they’ll still taste delicious even if they aren’t technically perfect. I ate a lot of really delicious, kind of ugly macarons over the past month. Hello extra 5 pounds… but seriously, you can leave now.

Before you jump to the recipe, let me tell you the pitfalls I ran into and how I overcame them:

• Mixing the wet & dry ingredients to the right consistency.

  • Most of the macaron recipes I read warn you not to overmix your meringue and dry ingredients. Once the wet and dry are fully combined, you actually want to work the batter a good amount until it flows off your spatula in a smooth, lava-like ribbon and you can do a figure 8 test.

• Piping perfect circles.

  • There are a lot of recipes that suggest using a piping bag. For macarons, you really do need one. But, a disposable piping bag or simply a Ziploc bag will work just fine. If you go disposable, you can either invest in a coupler and metal piping tips or just cut the tip of the bag off at the beginning.

  • Once you have your piping bag filled, you want to pipe from overhead in even nickel-sized circles and keep in mind that the batter will continue to expand. This can be tricky and I’ve scraped lopsided cookies back into the piping bag multiple times while still finding my groove.

  • I don’t use a printed circle template but a simple Pinterest search will take you to lots of downloadable options.

• Getting a smooth cookie top.

  • This is super important. In order for the macarons to bake properly and form their signature “feet”, you must leave the piped macarons to rest until they have formed a skin. Let the macarons rest for about 30-90 minutes after piping. Once you can touch or even pet the tops of the macarons and NO batter sticks to your finger are they ready to bake. If the macarons don’t form this skin, they will crack on top. The skin prevents air from escaping out the top and instead it pushes out from the bottom, forming the signature feet.

  • If it is humid in your house, you may have issues. Turn your overhead stove fan on, turn a dehumidifier on, use a hair dryer on low. The only way I can get mine to form this skin is to move our dehumidifier right next to the macarons.

• Macarons sticking to the baking tray.

  • This primarily happens when the macarons are underbaked. If you’re unsure whether they’re fully cooked, I generally say bake the macarons a couple minutes longer unless they’re starting to brown. The frosting will soften the cookies and have saved an overcooked batch of mine.

  • Make sure to wait until the macarons are fully cooled before trying to pull them off the tray. Warm macarons will split more easily.

  • Test using both a silicone baking mat and parchment paper. There are tradeoffs with both. I’ve found that macarons are less likely to stick to parchment paper BUT they also are more likely to spread into blobs instead of clean circles. I’ve had more issues with macarons sticking to silicone mats BUT the mats are very flat which makes for much more circular cookies. If you can, test with both and see what works best for you.

Additional resources, tips and tricks I’ve found helpful:

• If your macarons are browning before they’re cooked, tweak your temperature lower and the time longer. For oven temperature tweaks, check out this guide to using your home oven. And please, please use an extra oven thermometer to test if your oven runs hot or cold. Mine runs about 30 degrees cold and I always have to compensate.

• Use a digital scale to weigh your ingredients. Macarons are very precise and it’s the only way I would recommend making them. Plus it seriously cuts down on time and dishes.

• Some say to age your egg whites for at least 24 hours (just separate them and leave in the fridge). I haven’t seen a huge difference but it’s worth doing if you have the foresight.

• I personally use Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour because I think the quality of their products is the best.

• For how to fix various technical issues, check out this Macaron Troubleshooting Guide.

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Chai Tea Pumpkin Macarons

Makes 30-40 macarons (60-80 halves).

Adapted from the basic macaron recipe from Pastry Pal. See her sidebar for the free downloadable guide.

INGREDIENTS

100g super fine almond flour from blanched almonds

175g powdered sugar

100g egg whites, room temperature (about 3 eggs)

2 tbs caster sugar (or granulated if that’s all you have)

1 tbs + 1 tsp Saigon Chai from David’s Tea (about 1 tbs when ground)

1½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cardamom

½ tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

DIRECTIONS

1. Prep two baking trays with silicone mats or parchment paper.

2. Prep your piping bag (or large ziploc bag) by placing the tip (corner) in a large drinking glass with the edges of the bag folded down over the glass.

3. Blend the loose leaf chai tea in a small, clean blender until very very fine. Sift the ground tea, and all spices into a large bowl. Discard any tea that isn’t fine enough. Next, sift the almond flour into the same large bowl. There will be about a tablespoon that won’t be fine enough, discard this. Lastly, sift the powdered sugar into the same large bowl. Whisk all dry ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Set aside.

4. Separate your eggs and add your egg whites to a very clean large bowl. Measure your caster sugar into a small bowl and set aside.

5. Using a hand-held mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk your egg whites on low until they begin to get foamy and meringue-like. Once this happens, add your caster sugar.

6. Continue whisking your egg whites on medium-high until they form stiff peaks. The egg whites should stand up straight when you lift the whisk out of the mixture.

7. Add half of your dry ingredients to the egg whites. Use a spatula to combine, folding the egg whites and the dry ingredients together. Scrape around the bowl and then straight through the mixture. Be gentle at first so the egg whites retain some of their air. Once loosely combine, add the other half of the dry ingredients. Continue folding until the dry ingredients are completely combined. For this step do NOT stir, whisk, mix — just fold gently.

8. At this stage your mixture will still be a bit foamy. Continue to mix, deflating some of the air bubbles (you can go a step beyond folding now) until the batter streams off your spatula in a smooth ribbon. If your batter can pour off your spatula into a figure 8 design, it’s ready to go. Stop mixing.

9. Scrape your batter into your prepared piping bag. Cut off the end if using a disposable bag.

10. Pipe your macarons into nickel-sized circles on your silicone mats or parchment paper. (If using parchment paper, use a small amount of the batter to help stick the paper to the baking tray.) Pipe from above, not from the side. Leave space around each piped macaron because they will continue to widen for about 5 minutes.

11. Once your macarons are piped, drop the pans from about a foot high onto the counter. Do this at least twice. You want to get out any air bubbles trapped in the batter. Use a toothpick to pop any bubbles that appear. Keep an eye on the macarons in case more bubbles pop up while they’re resting.

12. Leave your macarons to rest for between 30-90 minutes until they form a skin. When you can touch or even pet the macarons and NO batter stays on your finger, they are ready to bake.

13. Heat your oven to 330F. Bake each tray (one at a time) for 18-20 minutes until the tops are hard but before the cookies begin to brown. If you’re unsure about how done they are, I recommend sacrificing a cookie to see if the inside is cooked OR continue baking a couple more minutes. If the cookies are overdone, they will almost always soften once you frost them, but there’s no way to fix an underbaked cookie.

14. Let the cookies cool completely before removing from the tray. In the meantime, you can make the frosting. (See below)

15. Once the cookies are cooled, match up similarly sized cookies, pipe frosting onto one side and sandwich your cookies!

16. Let the macarons rest for at least 6 hours before eating (otherwise the cookies will still be too firm and frosting will squeeze out of the sides). Macarons are best if eaten within 1-3 days of being made.

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Pumpkin Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough for 2 batches of macarons.

This recipe is easy to make in advance, just let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before you want to pipe your cookies.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature

½ cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla extract

500g powdered sugar (4 cups)

DIRECTIONS

1. Add butter and pumpkin to a large mixing bowl. Mix on medium high (using a paddle attachment if with a Kitchenaid) until thoroughly combined. At this stage the mixture won’t appear smooth, don’t worry.

2. Add the vanilla and half of the powdered sugar. Mix on low until just combined. Add the remainder of the powdered sugar. Mix on low until combined and then on medium high for a full minute until the frosting is well blended, smooth and fluffy.

3. Scrape the frosting into your piping bag or a second ziploc bag to pipe the frosting on the macarons.

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Currently reading

• The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

• The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn

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Lovely little things

• This sweater-coat from Madewell is seriously amazing. I tried it on and have resisted buying it up until now. The heather caramel color is absolutely fabulous and spot on my style. I’ll take a small for whoever is listening.

• I got this crochet white dress from Chicwish because I foresee bridal shower dress needs in my future. For the price, it is shockingly well made and high quality

• This San Francisco enamel pin is so wonderful. Beautiful, unique design. Love that it features Karl.