Thanksgiving macarons will melt in your mouth when you eat them after your Thanksgiving dinner.
You can make macarons for Thanksgiving by decorating the tops of them into fall leaves, or drawing a turkey with colorful feathers.
You can even shape your macarons into pumpkins with a green leafy vine on the top of it.
See video here.
Thanksgiving macarons are the perfect addition to a family dessert table.
You can use your favorite macaron recipe and bake for the exact time in your recipe to make these specialty Thanksgiving macarons.
Pumpkin Macarons
Pumpkin macarons are shaped into pumpkins and look more 3 dimensional with the ridges of the pumpkin popping out.
You can make pumpkin macarons by piping orange macaron batter (learn how to color macaron batter) into small circles.
Wait 15 minutes for the small circles to dry, then begin piping the rest of the pumpkin macarons.
Go over the circles with a thinner tipped piping bag to make the ridges.
Start at the side of the pumpkin and make a “C” shape on the edge of the macaron circle. Make another “C” a little further in on the macaron circle. Repeat on the other side of the pumpkin.
Pipe an upside down “J” onto the top of the pumpkin.
You’ll want to pipe the “J” going both ways on different macarons, because it will need to be sandwiched after, so it will line up perfectly.
Therefore you’ll want to pipe half with the “J” going on way, and half going the other way.
Let the macarons dry for 15 minutes.
After the macarons have been baked and filled, you can add a little paint to them to jazz them up.
Make a mix of brown food coloring (powder or gel) and almond extract. Make another mix of green powder or gel food coloring and almond extract.
Using a fine tipped food safe paint brush, you can add brown to the top of the pumpkins for the handle. Add a little green for the vine and leaves if desired.
Leaf Macarons
Leaf macarons are made by outlining a leaf shape using an edible marker.
Add the center part of the leaf by making the line a bit wavy.
Add crosses on the center line.
Make a mix of red, yellow or brown food coloring (powder or gel) and almond extract. You need a pinch of color, and only 1/4 tsp or less of almond extract. The less almond extract, the more potent the color will be.
Using a fine tipped food safe paint brush, color inside the drawing of the leaf you made on the macaron.
Turkey Macarons
Turkey macarons are made by drawing a face, and then adding the colored feathers afterwards.
Begin by drawing the outline of the head, it should be almost a teardrop shape, except it will be missing the pointed part.
Draw the 2 eyes in the upper part of the head. Alternatively, you add 3D eyes by melting white chocolate.
Poke the chocolate with a toothpick, and gently touch the chocolate to the macaron for the eye.
Do a circular motion as you remove the the toothpick from the macaron, it will pick up the chocolate and leave a nice round shaped eye.
Once it’s dried, you can add a touch of food safe black marker for the pupils of the eyes.
Draw a pointed nose below the eyes.
Now you can add the feathers. You can make semi circles around the macaron for the feathers for the outer layer.
The inner layer should be in the middle of the outer layer, to look like the feathers have multiple layers.
Once the macaron has dried, you can start coloring in the feathers.
Using multiple colors – red, brown, yellow, orange, etc. Color the feathers by varying the colors alternately.
You can make the colors by mixing together food coloring (powder or gel) and almond extract.
Make at least 3 different colors for the feathers.
Using a fine tipped food safe paint brush, gently brush inside the lines of the feathers you’ve drawn on to the macaron.
Once the macarons are decorated, let them dry for 20-30 minutes before storing them in an airtight container in the fridge. You can store them for up to 3 days in the fridge. Or, store them in the freezer for up to 1 month.
