7 Smart Things to Do with Failed Macarons

We’ve all heard the expression “practice makes perfect.” But what that statement doesn’t imply is that we’ll fail a lot along the road while practicing. This is absolutely true when it comes to baking.

Baking the ideal macaron requires tremendous talent, which can only be developed through many hours of practice. You will have a lot of macarons that don’t turn out exactly right along the road.

Nonetheless, the results of these failures are often delectable. Furthermore, you most likely put forth a lot of effort to create them.

Let’s look at some of the ways you may save unsuccessful macarons instead of tossing them out. After all, no one likes to waste wonderful food, and you have the chance to spread the love.

What Characterizes a “Perfect” Macaron?

Before we get into what to do with the damaged goodies, let’s take a look at why you would need to repurpose them in the first place.

This will help us understand why a failing macaron is more than just a lack of taste.

The cookie should have a smooth texture with no lumps, and the filling should be smooth and silky, not sticky. The cookie should also be soft, but not doughy or too wet, and it should not be crispy or burnt. The cookie’s inside should be thick and fluffy, with no air holes.

For a typical macaron, the cookies must be round, and precisely round is clearly preferable. They should be modest in size, with just two to three little nibbles in each macaron.

The color of the cookies should be vivid, and although you may choose whatever color you like, it should be even, with no fluctuations or streaks. Pastel colors are, of course, the classic hue of macarons.

All of this is without even mentioning the flavor! That is why you may end up with defective macarons that yet taste delicious. Let’s look at what we can do with them now.

1 – Use Them as a Topping

If your macarons did not turn out perfectly, you may crumble them and use them as a topping on a number of dishes.

If you want to leave them whole, bake a cake and line the whole exterior with macaronsimagine how beautiful that would look!

You may also crumble the cookies if they are too dry or burnt when they come out of the oven. Simply place the empty macarons in a blender or food processor and pulse a few times until the crumbs reach the consistency you wish.

The sky is the limit from there. One delicate suggestion is to sprinkle them on top of anything covered in white icing. The colors might even be used to create a rainbow.

Another fantastic way to utilize botched macarons is as an ice cream topping. The almond flavor of the biscuits complements chocolate ice cream very well.

You may freeze the crumbs and use them as a topping anytime you like. Simply store them in an airtight jar in the freezer.

2 – Turn Them Into Something Else

If the macarons you baked are still delicious, why not repurpose the cookies? To mask surface defects, use frosting and piping bags to create elaborate designs.

Make your child’s favorite cartoon character or animal. Since you have the option, use icing to join them together to form various forms.

3 – Let Your Kids Play with Their Food

Allow your kids (or someone else’s kids) to be creative with the damaged cookies, similar to the concept above about converting them into something different. They may use the macarons to build temporary collages or other forms.

Make it into a sensory activity for preschool kids. Inquire about how the cookies feel when squeezed or squashed, how they smell, how they sound when broken, how they feel at various degrees of disintegration, and, most importantly, how they taste.

A word of caution: this is a terrific activity to have friends over for, but make sure you check with your parents beforehand about allergies. Naturally, macarons include almonds, which are a popular allergy, particularly among youngsters.

4 – Mix Them Into Something

If you’ve opted to crumble your macaron cookies, you can utilize them for more than simply a topping. You can add them to a variety of recipes and other goodies to provide a colorful pop and a blast of taste.

You might include them into sugar cookies, cake batter or icing, or even cannoli filling. They do an excellent job of generating that wonderful confetti appearance in various baked items.

In the morning, combine them with pancake or waffle batter for extra sweetness. This is a terrific way to brighten someone’s day, especially if you have children.

If you’ve never tried making your own ice cream, now is the moment. Crumble your macarons and mix them into your vanilla ice cream for a beautiful flash of color.

The options for crushed macarons are almost limitless, but what about the ganache? Crumble the cookies before adding the ganache filling.

If you want to try again in a few days, you may save the ganache and use it to make more flawless shells. Use it to fill another kind of pastry, such as a doughnut.

5 – Share the Love by Donating Them or Giving Them Away

If you seek hard enough, you’ll probably find a restaurant that will happily take less-than-perfect macarons. Try nursing homes, hospital waiting rooms, or churches in addition to food banks.

You may also take them to places where you know homeless people gather. Many homeless individuals appreciate food, particularly a tasty prepared treat.

Use your imperfect macarons to express gratitude to public services. Drop off your gift to a domestic violence or children’s advocacy center, library, fire station, or any other place where people volunteer.

You may offer them to a neighbor, family member, or friend to make their day brighter. Give them to someone to bring to work with them, or bring them to a meeting or social function.

Enlist your coworkers in your new pastime, but tell them you’re attempting to perfect the macaron and invite them to be taste-testers. You will very certainly have a large number of thankful employees in your workplace.

Put them in your kids’ lunches or give them to them as a treat: they won’t notice the little bumps on the surface.

Food banks and other food providers are often hesitant to receive handmade products for good cause, so call ahead before dropping them off.

6 – Use Them as Decorations

Do you know anybody who is planning a wedding or baby shower? Perhaps you’re hosting a dinner party this weekend and your home might need some cheering up.

Macarons may be tastefully organized and utilized as decorations for any event. The best part is that you don’t have to worry about keeping them fresh or hygienic, and they can be tossed away afterward for simple cleanup.

7 – Eat Them Anyway!

What better way to motivate oneself to try again than to eat the broken macarons yourself? Besides, you’ve worked hard and deserve part of the credit!

Making errors and learning from them is an important part of becoming a great baker. If you toss away every flawed result, you’ll squander a lot of genuinely wonderful delicacies and lose out on chances to interact with people.

So, go ahead, eat your heart out.

What NOT to Do with Ruined Macarons

There are a few things you should never do with destroyed macarons. Let’s go through a few so you don’t add to your problems.

They should not be given to pets or left outdoors for other animals. Some of the substances are harmful or even deadly to animals (regardless of how much they beg for a taste).

They should not be composted. Baked items, like bread, should not be composted since they attract the wrong pests.

If you or anybody else does not want to consume them, do not push yourself or them to. We know we just advised eating them, but forcing yourself to consume a treat if you’re not going to enjoy it defeats the point.

Finally, whatever you do with them, remember to learn from your errors; you can’t correct what went wrong until you first understand what went wrong. That is the most wasteful of all.

Most Importantly…

Please try again! Part of what makes macarons such a decadent treat is knowing the kind of work and skill that goes into making them in the first place.

Don’t give up if you’re having trouble making the ideal macaron. Hopefully, you’ve discovered some amusing substitutes for the sweets that didn’t quite measure up in your search for perfection.