Colorful Cinnamon Easter Egg Macarons Recipe

Last year I some enacted some Lifetime Eggdramas with colorful chocolate eggs before heading to Berlin for Easter break. This year, I can’t not play with my food again!

If you notice in my pictures, I love color. I think colors represent life and the more of them, the better! Is it any wonder that I love decorating Easter eggs? I used to do it every year with my mother, and I would relish the smell of hot vinegar water as we dipped and colored our eggs. Since it’s now just the two of us, it’s hard for me to justify dyeing a dozen eggs just for us two.

So I had to find suitable substitutes.

This year, I am choosing the unwitting macaron as my playful subject. I am pretty new to macarons – I studied Laduree macarons looking for the perfect macaron recipe, and tried my hand at some rich chocolaty macarons.

But since I so admired the colors of the macarons in my Laduree box, I wanted to recreate some of that at home for some Easter fun.

I decided to make a cinnamon flavored macaron (one of my favorite flavors) and of course tinted it bright red to match. I also further tested my piping skills by making some macarons in the shape of Easter eggs! I took a simple buttercream frosting and made some whimsical decorations, but you could do it to a white ganache as well.

Cinnamon Macarons

I think the ratio is pretty easy to remember: 1:1:2 for eggs:almonds/other nut flour:powdered sugar, plus some extra sugar for the egg whites. I have seen a lot of recipes for 110g of egg whites, a little extra won’t hurt!

I also think this temperature is the right one – my macarons were excellent! Crispy and fragile on the outside, and a bit chewy on the inside, with no cracks!

100g. egg whites (I suggest weighing above using a # of eggs), aged 2-3 days at room temperature
100g. almonds, finely ground
200g. powdered sugar
4-5 T. white sugar
2-3 T. cinnamon

1. Grind the almonds as finely as possible. In a small container/bowl, whisk the powdered sugar together with the almonds to blend well and break up lumps. If you have a large food processor, you can pulse them together.
2. In another, large mixing bowl, begin to (electronically) whisk the egg whites. After they start foaming, add the granulated sugar one tablespoon at a time and continue whipping until it gets thick and “like magma” to quote Tartelette.
3. Fold the dry mix carefully (and slowly) into the meringue – I used a spatula – and add the food coloring, if desired, until fully mixed.
4. Fill your piping bag and pipe the macarons out onto a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or regular parchment paper. If you want to do an egg shape you can trace it out first or just improvise! Leave them to set for 30 – 60 minutes to form a skin.
5. Preheat the oven to 160° C / 315F. Cook macarons 8-10 minutes, keeping a careful eye on them. After taking out of the oven, let cool completely before filling them.

My freestyling piping resulted in some interesting-looking eggs and rounds! I love them!

Different colored fillings really make them festive!

I also wanted to pair the cinnamon macaron with something simple but that would contrast and blend well with the pretty powerful cinnamon. I received a jar of Locanda Toscana (ack, site in all Flash! My professional tip of the tip: Never design a site in all flash. No one can link to your pages) Peperoncino in Miele di Toscana – Tuscan Honey with Hot Peppers. With a thin layer of this spread between two cinnamon macarons, there was a sweet and spicy kick to my crispy shells.

A spiky creation.

Will you be decorating Easter Eggs this year? What about macarons?