Macarons! Whoop whoop!

Finally! I've made 5 small batches of vegan macrons, and it wasn't until the 5th try that I got both feet and no raw middles. To celebrate, I made a coconut pistachio ganache for filling. I wish I had a small piping bag so I could make the filling pretty, but it's me we're talking about! It took me a long time to get the macarons right because I kept on doing stupid things like opening the oven early, peeling them off the parchment paper before they were cooled, and refusing to weigh my ingredients. Baking is tedious for me, while cooking is relaxing. However, I was determined to make these because making macarons out of something I regularly pour down the drain (chickpea cooking liquid) is magical and appeals to my thrifty ways.

What isn't thrifty is almond flour. The brand I like to use, Bob's Red Mill, goes for about $13/lb when packaged. I like this brand because they grind up blanched almonds, so the bitter skins are removed. However, while at Safeway to purchase a 24-pack of chicken hot dogs (disgusting training treats for Sesame), I saw that there is now a huge bulk section. Safeway had Bob's Red Mill almond flour in bulk, and it was $6.49/lb. Score! Their organic nuts and beans were also several dollars cheaper than other stores, so if you don't think Safeway is the devil, go for it!

Floral Frosting's and Let's Go Bake a Cake's vegan macaron recipes and were helpful. I followed the second recipe, listing all the ingredients by weight and omitting the coloring and seam seeds. Avocados and Ales also has a killer macaron troubleshooting guide. There  Facebook group Vegan Meringues - Hits and Misses is also a great resource that includes lots of pretty and sometimes hilariously sad pictures of people's aquafaba experiments.

For the macaron filling, I winged it. Although I'm not vegan and I could have made a buttercream, I stuck to the vegan theme and made a pistachio ganache that is dairy-free. I'll post the recipe below in case anyone else is interested in trying it.


Pistachio Ganache

1/4 c   raw pistachios, whole

1 T     water or non-dairy milk

1/2 c   powdered sugar

2 T     refined coconut oil
pinch of salt

Pulse the pistachios to a powder using a Vitamix or other blender. Set aside.

In mixer, using paddle attachment, mix the coconut oil on medium speed. Add powdered sugar and ground nuts. Add water or non-dairy milk 1 T at a time, adding more if needed to make the paste spreadable.

Aquafaba is Weird and Wonderful

Liquid leftover from cooking chickpeas, when whipped with sugar and vanilla, tastes just like marshmallow fluff!  The aquafaba (water + bean) craze has been going around mostly the vegan blogosphere for the past few months, but it was new to me.

When baked, said marshmallow fluff turns into meringues. Vegan meringues taste just like eggy meringues, too!

I've taking some good-natured ribbing about turning chickpea brine into a dessert, but how is it any different or grosser than using egg whites? Egg whites are just as slimy as gooey as chickpea brine. It's a matter of perspective. Also, to mask the eggy taste, lots of recipes call for vanilla, and eggless meringues benefit from vanilla as well to mask any perceived bean taste.

Personally, I'm all for kitchen experiments. I'm not vegan by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like the idea of taking something that was formerly a waste product and turning it into something fabulous and cool or making something, like cheese, out of nuts. My next experiment is going to be aquafaba mayonnaise.  Fortunately, I have plenty of canned chickpeas (I pressure can big batches of beans once every 3 months), so I have organic aquafaba galore!

I'm a deficient baker, so if anyone has any idea why my meringues turned out hollow, please leave me a comment! I added 1/2 c of sugar to probably 1/3 cup of aquafaba, and baked these at 200 °F for 2 hours. I don't think I ever made traditional meringues before, so this is all new to me.