These Pumpkin Spice Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache are a fall-flavored treat that feature chocolate ganache and pumpkin butter sandwiched between two macaron shells. Bring them to Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the post-pumpkin patch party!
Jump to:
- ⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- ❓ Macaron vs macaroon
- 🍴Ingredients
- 👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips for Making Ganache
- The Beauty of Homemade Pumpkin Butter
- 📖 Step by Step Instructions
- 👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
- ❄️ Storing Pumpkin Spice Macarons
- 💭 Recipe FAQs
- More fall-flavored macarons to try
- Pumpkin Spice Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache
- 💬 Comments
⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
If you’re like me, then you’re probably obsessed with finding a macaron flavor for every season. My Passion Fruit Macarons are a refreshing summer dessert and these Rose Dark Chocolate Macarons are the ultimate Valentine’s Day treat. Once the cold weather and the holiday season rolls around, that’s when these Pumpkin Spice Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache shine.
These pumpkin macarons are the perfect treat to pair with your pumpkin spice latte, warm apple cider, or pumpkin spice affogato! The warmly spiced dessert features homemade pumpkin butter and dark chocolate ganache sandwiched between two macaron shells. Fall-flavored treats don’t get much better than this!
For more tips on making homemade foolproof macarons, check out my complete guide here!
❓ Macaron vs macaroon
Macarons (pronounced “mack-a-ruhn”) and macaroons may have almost the exact same spelling but are very different! Macaroons are made with shredded coconut, egg whites, and sugar, while macarons are sandwich cookies made with almond flour and customized with various flavors and fillings.
🍴Ingredients
- Almond flour - I usually use blanched ground almond flour when making macarons. The skins of the almonds have been removed in this flour variety, meaning you won’t end up with brown speckled macaron shells.
- Egg whites - The egg whites need to be at room temperature and whipped together with granulated sugar to achieve a stiff meringue.
- Sugar - Both granulated sugar and confectioner’s sugar are needed to transform the egg whites into a sturdy meringue.
- Gel food coloring - This is optional, but a fun way to help the macaron shells match their filling. Use orange food coloring or brown food coloring to match the fall theme!
- Pumpkin Butter- Dairy free pumpkin butter is made with all of your fall favorites, like pumpkin puree, apple cider, brown sugar, maple syrup, and warm spices. It’s piped into the center of the macarons and kept in place by a wall of ganache.
- Chocolate ganache - This rich and chocolatey sauce is really easy to make using dark chocolate, heavy cream, glucose syrup, and butter. Not only is it my go-to in macaron recipes, but it’s just as delicious drizzled on cakes, tarts, cupcakes, doughnuts, and more!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips for Making Ganache
Essentially, ganache is defined as an emulsion of equal parts of chocolate and heavy cream! Before we get into the method, let's break down a few tips to keep in mind in order to make a successful ganache.
- Chop that Chocolate- taking a few moments to roughly chop your chocolate into small pieces will allow for the hot cream to easily melt your chocolate leading to a lovely ganache texture and mouthfeel.
- Quality is Key - Since there are so few ingredients in ganache, I'd highly recommend using quality chocolate as the flavors and textures will shine through!
- Heat the Cream Thoroughly - The cream's temperature needs to be hot enough to gently melt our chocolate. Your cream is ready to pour over chocolate when it comes to a slight simmer.
- Softened Butter - Ensuring that the butter is at room temperature will help during the immersion process. If your butter has not been softened, it will be quite challenging to incorporate it into the chocolate & cream mixture.
- Immersion Blender - Using an immersion blender to make ganache will help to make sure that all the ingredients are properly mixed together!
The Beauty of Homemade Pumpkin Butter
Let your stovetop do the work as you cook down pumpkin puree, sugar, and warm spices into pumpkin butter! The luxurious texture and fragrant aroma pairs well with the dark chocolate ganache, and is also a great addition to your morning breakfast! Slather on toast, muffins for an instant fall upgrade.
📖 Step by Step Instructions
This is a lengthy recipe but well worth it in the end. Follow along with the steps below and you’ll have a sweet and delicious fall treat:
Step 1: Make the meringue. Whisk the egg whites (with no egg yolks) until they start to foam using a whisk attachment on medium speed in a large bowl, then add the granulated sugar. Keep whisking in the bowl of a stand mixer on high speed until you end up with stiff peaks. This is when you can add the food coloring of your choice.
Step 2: Time to macaronage. Fold the powdered sugar and almond flour mixture into the french meringue. The macaron batter should be thin, drippy, and easily slide off of the rubber spatula.
Step 3: Pipe the batter. Transfer the batter into a piping bag or pastry bag and pipe the shells onto your templated parchment paper on the baking sheet in one inch rounds. Get rid of any air bubbles, then let them rest for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Bake, then cool. Bake the piped macarons until the top is set and they have a distinct “foot” around the bottom edge. Leave them to cool while you make the ganache.
Step 5: Make the ganache. Place the cream and glucose in a saucepan and bring it up to a gentle boil. Take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate in a small bowl. Once it’s melted, add the butter.
Step 6: Make the pumpkin butter. Pour all of the ingredients into a saucepan and bring it up to a simmer. Reduce the heat and continue simmering until the sauce is quite thick.
Step 7: Assemble the macarons. Pipe a circle of ganache around the edges of one bottom french macarons. Add a dollop of the cooled pumpkin butter in the middle. Top with the other french macaron shell and then serve!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
- Mise en place - Macarons are time-sensitive! Prepare your mise en place (meaning to set up your working space in preparation for an activity) before you get started so your ingredients and equipment are ready to go.
- Use a piping template - A foolproof way of making perfect macaron shells every time is to trace identical 1-inch diameter circles onto the parchment paper to use as your piping template.
- Use an oven thermometer - Baking the shells at the right temperature is important, so I highly recommend using an oven thermometer.
- Weigh the ingredients - While macarons only use 4 ingredients, if one isn’t measured correctly, your odds of macaron success are considerably lower. I highly recommend investing in a kitchen scale so everything is precise!
- Chill overnight - For the best texture, chill your macarons overnight. It helps dry the shells out further to achieve that light, crisp surface.
- Practice makes perfect - It’s no secret that making macarons can be tricky. Just keep practicing and experimenting with different macaron flavors, and you’ll be a pro in no time!
❄️ Storing Pumpkin Spice Macarons
Technically, allowing your completed macarons to sit overnight in the fridge allows for the best texture for consuming! If you have the patience, place your macarons in the fridge overnight and enjoy the following day.
Macaron shells can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for a month and still taste as good as new! Take the frozen macarons out of the freezer and let them sit for 10-15 minutes before enjoying, In the fridge, filled macarons should be stored in an airtight container for no more than 3 days.
💭 Recipe FAQs
This is the act of mixing your dry ingredients into your french meringue and folding them enough to allow for the perfect desired consistency. The finished result should be shiny and easy to pipe into smooth macaron shells.
This probably means your meringue wasn’t stiff enough or you knocked all of the air out of the batter during the macaronage.
The assembled macarons will last for up to 3 days when kept in an airtight container in the fridge.
Yes! Macaron shells can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 1 month. Just let them thaw on the counter for 10 to 15 minutes, then add the filling!
Yes, blending the almond meal and sugar mixture in a food processor ensures a fine consistency for the best results in your macarons.
For an authentic fall flavor, combine real pumpkin with pumpkin pie spice in the filling for your macarons. Check out my eggnog macarons, bailey's macarons or birthday cake macarons for other filling options!
More fall-flavored macarons to try
If you try the recipe for this Pumpkin Spice Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache, please leave a 🌟 review and share your creation with me on social media! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Pinterest - for more delicious recipes sent straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter! 📧
Pumpkin Spice Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache
Equipment
Ingredients
Macarons
- 76 g (⅓ cup + 1 teaspoon ) Granulated Sugar
- 90 ml (About 3 egg whites) Room Temperature Egg Whites
- 80 g (¾ Cup + 1 Tbsp) Almond Flour, Blanched
- 150 g (1 ¼ Cup ) Confection’s Sugar, Powdered Sugar
- Gel Food Coloring, optional
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- 100 g (⅓ Cup + 1.5 Tbsp) Heavy Cream
- 32 g (1.5 tablespoon) Glucose syrup, or corn syrup
- 175 g (1 Cup) Dark chocolate, roughly Chopped
- 25 g (2 tablespoon) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
Pumpkin Butter
- 1 15 oz Can (2 Cups) Pumpkin Puree
- 60 g (¼ Cup) Apple Cider
- 4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 50 g (¼ Cup) Brown Syrup
- 1.5 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground Cloves
Instructions
Macarons
- Line each baking sheet with your prepared parchment templates and prepare your piping bags along with your piping tips. I like to use a small, round piping tips for piping.
- Pour your egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer and start whisking on medium speed. Once they start to foam, slowly add your sugar and bring up your speed to medium for about three to four minutes.76 g Granulated Sugar, 90 ml Room Temperature Egg Whites
- While your meringue is whisking away, grind together your measured powdered sugar and almond flour using a food processor for one minute. Sift these dry ingredients into a large bowl with a fine sieve and set aside.80 g Almond Flour, 150 g Confection’s Sugar
- Your meringue is complete when it holds stiff peaks - add desired food coloring and gently whisk for a few additional seconds to incorporate,Gel Food Coloring
- Now it’s time for the ever so important Macaronage! This is the act of mixing your dry ingredients into your french meringue and folding these ingredients enough to allow for the perfect desired consistency. To start, pour your dry mixture onto the meringue and slowly start to fold with a spatula. While rotating the bowl, continue to fold ingredients together. Press mixture on the side of your bowl until the batter flows off your spatula rather slowly and smoothly. You should see that the batter will drip off the spatula back into the bowl, and rest on top for a moment. Then, the batter from your spatula will slowly sink back into the mixture. One too many folds and your batter could be over mixed leading to it being impossible to work with, so be careful not to overmix!
- Pour your macaron batter into your prepared piping bag and pipe in circles onto your templated parchment paper. In order to get rid of any air bubbles within your piped shells and to even out your tops, tap your baking sheet firmly on a flat surface. You can always use a toothpick to gently pop any extra air bubbles that you see hovering on top of your shells.
- Allow the shells to rest for approximately 30 minutes. Once the top of your shells are dry to the touch they are ready to bake!
- Place your macarons in your oven that has been preheated to 310 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 9 minutes, then rotate the baking tray and bake for an additional 2 minutes.
- You will know that your macarons are ready to remove from the oven when you gently touch the upper shell, and it barely moves, while the developed foot of the macaron stays set to the parchment paper. Remove from the oven to cool completely before removing shells from the parchment paper.
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- Add cream & glucose to a saucepan and bring to a slight boil.100 g Heavy Cream, 32 g Glucose syrup
- Remove from heat and pour over the dark chocolate. Stir to combine as the warm cream starts to melt the chocolate.175 g Dark chocolate
- Add the butter into your warm chocolate mixture, using an immersion blender, blend ganache until the butter has fully incorporated and your mixture is smooth.25 g Unsalted Butter
- Allow the chocolate ganache to cool completely before assembly.
Pumpkin Butter
- Mix ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a slight simmer over medium heat. Once you’ve reached a simmer, reduce the heat and allow to continue simmering gently, uncovered.1 15 oz Can Pumpkin Puree, 60 g Apple Cider, 4 tablespoon Maple Syrup, 50 g Brown Syrup, 1.5 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon Ground Cloves
- Continue to cook, taking a moment to stir every few minutes until the pumpkin butter is quite thick. This should take about 20-25 minutes.
- Pour the pumpkin butter into a container in the fridge to cool completely before piping into macarons.
Assembly
- Once cooled, the shells will peel easily off of your parchment paper. Find each shell’s matching half and pipe a circle of ganache around the edges of the bottom shell leaving room for piping the pumpkin butter in the middle. Finally, top with the matching half.
Notes
- Mise en place - Macarons are time-sensitive! Prepare your mise en place (meaning to set up your working space in preparation for an activity) before you get started so your ingredients and equipment are ready to go.
- Use a piping template - A foolproof way of making perfect macaron shells every time is to trace identical 1-inch diameter circles onto the parchment paper to use as your piping template.
- Use an oven thermometer - Baking the shells at the right temperature is important, so I highly recommend using an oven thermometer.
- Weigh the ingredients - While macarons only use 4 ingredients, if one isn’t measured correctly, your odds of macaron success are considerably lower. I highly recommend investing in a kitchen scale so everything is precise!
- Storing your macarons - Technically, allowing your completed macarons to sit overnight in the fridge allows for the best texture for consuming! If you have the patience, place your macarons in the fridge overnight and enjoy the following day. Macaron shells can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for a month and still taste as good as new! Take the frozen macarons out of the freezer and let them sit for 10-15 minutes before enjoying, In the fridge, filled macarons should be stored in an airtight container for no more than 3 days.
- Practice makes perfect - It’s no secret that making macarons can be tricky. Just keep practicing and experimenting with different macaron flavors, and you’ll be a pro in no time!
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