Today’s post is brought to you by the number 2 and the color green. And by this month’s Mac Attack, which challenged us to take a favorite tune and bake it into a mac. Now for some reason I drew a blank and could not think of a favorite song that inspired a mac flavor/color. The only color song that kept popping into my head was “It’s not Easy Being Green.”
It’s not that easy making green
Baking macs the color of the leaves
When I think it could be easier making white, or brown or tan
Or something much less colorful like that
It’s not easy making green
It seems you blend in coloring with all the other things
And you don’t add more color ’cause you’re
Not wanting to overbeat your egg whites
Or mess up your macs
But green’s the color of apples
And green can be light and happy-like
And green can be sweet like a grape,
or sour like a candy, or chewy like a mac
When green is what you want to bake
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why
Wonder, my macs are green and they’ll do fine, they’re delicious
And I’m glad it’s what I tried to bake.
Of course, the first picture isn’t of my sour apple caramel macs. This is my sour apple caramel mac failures.
My husband had the idea (of course I’m blaming him) to powder up sour apple Jolly Ranchers candies and substitute it for some of the powdered sugar. Maybe half powdered candies and half powdered sugar wasn’t the best idea ever, but if you love sour apple Jolly Ranchers, you would have loved these mac failures. I know we all did.
But the best thing about baking these mac failures was that I had a guest in my kitchen (the number 2) who baked macs with me. Kitty from Fahrenheit 305º came over to my house and baked with me. It was my first time meeting her and she is so nice. We had so much in common and it was so fun baking with her. We’ll definitely have to do it again.
Hers are the perfect little pink bubble gum flavored ones. That she filled with Nutella.
I couldn’t stand having two failed batches two months in a row, so I decided to stop being so daring and the next day made regular (green) almond macarons with the adapted Ottolenghi recipe. (Note to self: don’t put sprinkles on the bottom shells.)
Look at those beautiful little feet. I filled them with Nutella and am taking them to a Blogher meet and greet today, along with some chocolate macarons filled with caramel that I still need to make. Wish me luck!
Update: Here’s a picture of the final macs for the meet and greet. Probably my best macs ever.
Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Barbacoa Salad
I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies.
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Barbara they are absolutely gorgeous. I feel ashamed that my ridiculous ones will be presented in the roundup alongside such elegant puffs of perfection as yours! Well done! And yes, any time I have tried to play with the shell flavour, mine always mess up. And sometimes when I don't ;-)
THose are absolutely gorgeous! I haven't tried making macs yet but I want to. Just need to find the patience.
I think we all had our share of failed macs, I just didn't have the courage to post them. I think the Green Apple Jolly Rancher idea is worth a revisit. Nice.
Wow Barbara these are so impressive! Fabulous job!
Such a beautiful and colorful macarons Barbara. They are perfect :)
Oh boy, Barbara, when your macs turn out they are perfect! PERFECT!!! And I love the green because I have loved this song since I first heard it in high school! Clever you! Fab! Fab!
It's not easy being green…or making macs so I love the stories; the failures (though thinking anything with caramel could never be called a failure) and the successes and your final ones are such a success; beautiful.
I love hearing the pitter patter of little feet!
These look wonderful:)
What a beautiful job and what a cute post! I know…it ain't easy bein' green myself! :)
Barbara, These are beautiful. I love the idea of crushing the Jolly Racnchers. Could you just sprinkle them on the top instead of the decorating sugar? I bet the flavor was wonderful. These might be your prettiest yet.
¡¡Estos macs tienen un aspecto maravilloso!! You are getting better and better at making these!
I am totally stumped looking at the last shot..They are so eye-catching with the color contrast of green shells and nutella fillings. Umm Umm good.
All I can say is that I must – I really, really MUST – hold you at least partially to blame for my ever-expanding 'bottomous'! Oh, how I DO love ravioli, and yours is now on my next Wednesday's menu. And the maccaroons? YUM! One of only 4 sweet things I love, the other 3 being bread pudding MINUS raisins, flan, and molasses cookies. You torture me, Barbara! (Thank you! DO please, continue! LOL!)
Kermit and green apple mac's is one good combo. Love the Nutella:-)
Okay, these were absolutely fabulous! Thanks for bringing them. And it was great to meet you too!
They are such a beautiful green and turned out so well! I bet they were a hit at the meet and greet:)
Barbara, it was so great to see you tonight! Thanks for introducing me to the world of Macs….yours was the very first one I have ever eaten. Crispy, chewy, caramelly, and oh so good!
Yes! I can attest the failed macs were delicious!! I'm so impressed with your second and third batches! Those feet look perfect! I owe you a big thank you, and you are getting a huge shout out on my blog (when I get on top of things enough to write a post)! I only have you to thank for teaching me how to make macarons – I'm so thankful in fact I just might share my super secret caramel recipe with you! Thank you for everything again, I just loved spending the afternoon with you and I adore you! Well done, of course!
These are gorgeous! This isn't the first time I've visited your site, but this is my first comment. I see macs across the blogs I read, and read about the difficulties and the failures (most of which still look lovely). I've read about the perfect macs, and now I've finally seen them! I'll be bookmarking this post for when I finally get the chance to try them for myself!
Woo Hoo! Great work on both the perfect macarons Barbara. And the sour apple ones sounded tasty even if they didn't look as pretty as the other two.
Well done! I've only successfully made macarons once =(
Fabulous, Barbara! You did such a lovely job on these macarons. I STILL haven't tried to make them. :(
I like the sour apple idea and even if they weren't picture perfect, they still tasted good!
These are really beautiful, Barbara! I'm going to have to check out the recipe since I always have so much trouble with macs!
I admire your tenacity mum! They look fantastic and I would have tottally eaten all of them. Waste not after all! ;) xxx
Wonderful, Barbara. Your macs are picture perfect. I don't know what it is about the crushed candy, but I won't be trying that one again either. And not putting sprinkles on the bottom half…duh, why didn't I think of that. I couldn't get mine to sit straight. Oh well, it's live and learn, right? Wonderful post.
I know these are good cause I tasted them:)
B, love the poem and your macs.. they are incredibly gorgeous and PERFECT!!! SIghh!! LOL.. love your hub's idea ;-))
Barbara, these look FABULOUS! The chocolate ones remind me of mini burgers:) They're all beautiful!
Well I think they are all just precious looking, and I'm sure they're delicious :)
barbara those are perfect! i love them and i am jealous of kitty… i know how fun baking macs with you can be!!!
Ha ha, by coincidence Ted and I were watching The Muppet Movie on dvd this afternoon! They look wonderful and I'm glad you triumphed after the problems with humidity lately. I like those pink ones too, mine never look pink enough!
Barbara…first I'm envious that you had the company of another passionate foodie…2nd…those macarons look incredibly amazing…and I can't touch them ;o(
Fantastic creations!!! The photos are so great too.
BTW…the next time you stop by my place…there is something for you to pick up on my APPRECIATION page.
Ciao for now,
Claudia
I LOVE the pink ones! Of course.
I love your Kermit macarons! And green apple and caramel would have to be a stunning combination. Kitty's bubblegum ones are gorgeous too – the colours are to die for. Now why are mine never such a nice colour?
i love you macs, they are perfect, oh green apple and caramel, I liked the idea of jolly ranchers,..oh too cute
sweetlife
Wow, those all look fantastic. I've never made macarons but so want/need to! I've only tasted two in my life and they were SO good!
They all look lovely. I finally figured out how to make them. but I need to practice a little more ;D.
gorgeous green macs! I love Kermit too!! He's my fave muppet..lol! Right before that swedish chef..lol!
My mouth is watering at the sound of green apple and caramel macs! We've all had our share of less-than-picture-perfect-macs, but in my experience, they still taste delicious! Fantastic job, and love the muppets – classic!
Oh Barbara, those look really wonderful. I'm sure you had a blast making them with Kitty. And I so wanted to go to the meet and greet. Beautiful Mac's, and to think they were your very best and I could have sampled them!!
How lovely! All these macaron posts are really inspiring me to try and make these treats one day! They look beautiful and you are quite the macaron pro!
I love your inspriation! Your mac look perfect.
Mimi
I think I would feel guilty eating them – because I wouldn't want to mess them up. But something tells me I could overcome that guilt…because they look delicious too!
Those macs are incredible! Amazing feat of feet! How could anyone not love Kermit singing that classic song? Great idea.
I'm so jealous that you get to cook with another foodie friend. And create these fab macs at the same time! They look gorgeous, the colours so vibrant. So glad your second attempt wasn't a failure!
These are truly gorgeous, and I'm sure they were delicious! Beautiful colour and flavour combinations.
So cuteeee! it is pretty fun baking from a fav song. I could almost hear it while I was admiring this perfect macarons…
Sawadee from Bangkok,
Kris
Oh yes, these are the best macs ever. Can you wing down here GF, PLEASE? I need help with my feet too! I DO!! Love the song … and the macs are wonderful flavours, feel and fillings! WOW!!
Those macs are perfect!!! I love ALL the flavors and I the think the "failures" are such fun cookie! Your platter looks like it came from a French bakery. I bet you impressed the heck out of everyone at that meet and greet. Now tell me more about that.
These look awesome!! Nice work here…very mouth watering! :)
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