Pistachio Macarons

Here are some shots of the pistachio macarons I made. I just substituted half of the almonds in a normal macarons recipe for pistachios.

The peaks disappeared after a few good pounds on the counter.

I'm not sure what was up with this batch but all of them baked crooked where they formed feet on one side and not on the other, some exploded through the top and didn't form feet at all, and there was no obvious pattern of why that occured.

Here's another view of the weird crookedness. But, since I was just making these for my own consumption, it didn't matter how pretty (or ugly) these looked.

One of the fillings I chose to make was a chocolate hazelnut one. I took 1/2 cup of 90% cocoa (which was disgustingly bitter by itself) and 1/2 cup of milk chocolate to make my own dark chocolate of sorts. I chopped it up, warmed up 1/3 cup of whipped cream, and then poured it over the chocolate. Once it was all dissolved, smooth, and creamy, I added in a bunch of chopped hazlenuts. So, once you chewed the cookie, you'd end up crushing the hazelnuts into the chocolate and make a faux nutella INSIDE YOUR MOUTH. Incredibly delicious.

I love the speckled tops, which comes from the pistachio skins. I think they look lovely.

Here's a batch that ended up with beautiful frilly feet. These are filled with the faux dulce de leche.

And because I have this dachshund dish (which is meant for serving olives in), I decided to do a silly photoshoot.

Woof!