Vegan Macarons

At Skinny Bakery HQ we are always looking for recipes and ideas with just a little extra something different.

Treats and bakes that mean the most people possible can enjoy them. That’s why this week our Head of Marketing Emily O’Reilly has been experimenting with a festive vegan macaron recipe.

Normally macarons consist of egg whites, ground almonds, and sugar. But with so many dairy alternative products on the market it’s now much easier to come up with new and exciting inventions.

The key ingredient here is aquafaba or bean water essentially. This perhaps doesn’t sound too appetising but trust me its a fantastic ingredient with so many uses. There are ready-made aquafaba products out there, but the simplest way to get your hands on this miracle component is to buy a couple of tins of chickpeas and strain and keep the liquid.

To prep the night before:

We took 3 tins of chickpeas and strained the liquid. From this we measured about 200ml of liquid into a pan then reduced it by half to end up with a 100ml of aquafaba.
This is then stored overnight in the fridge to get a slightly more egg white consistency.

Difficulty: Hard
Time: 2 hour(s) 20 mins
Servings: Variable

Dairy Free
Gluten Free
Vegan
Vegetarian

Ingredients

For the macarons:

3 x 400g tins chickpeas
140g of icing sugar (plus a bit extra for decoration)
150g ground almonds
pinch of blue spirulina powder (optional but great for a festive twist)
15g cream of tartar
100g sugar
choice of filling - why not try our low fat greek yogurt frosting found here naturally-festive-cupcakes

Instructions

Step 1:

Mix the icing sugar, ground almonds, and natural food colouring in one mixing bowl till combined.

Step 2:

Place the chilled aquafaba in another bowl and whisk until soft peaks just start to form ( you can’t over whisk this like egg whites so don’t panic with this stage)

Step 3:

Add the cream of tartar and sugar to the aquafaba and continue mixing till good soft peaks fully form.

Step 4:

Now sift the dry almond mixture gently into thew aquafaba and fold lightly till mixed in.

Step 5:

Transfer your mix to a piping bag and pipe your macarons on to parchment paper on a baking tray.

Step 6:

You now need to leave them for about an hour or so to dry out slightly before cooking.

Step 7:

There is some debate on if you should pre-heat your oven or not. I’ve found it works best if not but either way set your oven to 120°c, pop your macarons in and bake for around 30 minutes.

Step 8:

Remove from the oven, let cool, and then pipe your chosen filling on one side and top with another macaron.

Step 9:

For an extra festive look use the extra icing sugar to make a little icing and pipe a wintery snowflake on to each.