Pistachio French Macaroons (Macarons)

Yum. These are definitely going to be among my favorite flavors. The pistachio extract was a bit of a pain to find and took a while to be delivered, but it’s definitely essential. I ordered two different kinds to compare and contrast. They are similar in flavor, but the one from Jacksonville Mercantile is clear and the one from Spices, Etc. is yellow-ish in color, so if you’re going to be baking something that is NOT going to end up being colored green, that might matter to you.

Sometime soon, I will type up my adapted version of this recipe, but it’s getting late tonight. I started out with the basic Martha Stewart recipe, but I used pistachios instead of almonds. Unless you’re lucky enough to find pistachio meal, you’ll need to grind the pistachios in the food processor yourself (be sure to start with UNROASTED and UNSALTED ones, and BEWARE: they’re not easy to find). Grind them with the powdered sugar, so that you don’t end up with pistachio butter. In both the meringues and the buttercream, use half vanilla extract and half pistachio extract (the pistachio extract is VERY strong, so I think it would be too much on its own, at the full recipe amount). I added a few drops (about 4?) of Leaf Green gel food coloring to both the meringues and the filling. I used Americolor brand, but any brand of gel will do. I prefer the gel because it’s very concentrated. You don’t need to use as much and it doesn’t mess with the consistency of your final product. I did find that the tops of the meringues browned a bit and it wasn’t quite as obvious, from the top, that they were supposed to be green, rather than just toasted, but they still looked green on the sides and the insides. I am going to try another batch soon, without the food coloring, because one of my guinea pig taste-testers has an allergy to the Yellow #5 dye that is an ingredient in the green dye.

These were YUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMY!