You'll Geek Out Over These Kawaii Macarons
Leanne Pietrasinski can turn a macaron into anything. Seriously, anything. She and her husband, Pawel, have built a 164,000-and-climbing Instagram following - while growing from an airstream trailer to three California stores - all for her desserts that look like anime, video game, and reality TV stars.
Every Saturday at noon, people line up at Honey & Butter's two stores to see her latest creations, which are often inspired by whatever catches her attention that week. Sometimes, it's a throwback to Rugrats or Spongebob Squarepants; others, it's just something she loves, like corgis.
"After going to BlizzCon, I started designing macarons that looked like all of the characters in their games," Leanne said. When we visited her Irvine, CA, shop, she was into Overwatch, designing macarons that looked like Pachimari, the onion squid from the game.
The Pietrasinskis are completely self-taught, learning the ropes through a series of trial and error as they tackle one of the pastry world's most notoriously finicky desserts. "I started with really simple shapes - at first, I just wanted to make macarons that looked like cats - then I gradually started more complex designs and colors," Leanne explained. Now, her team makes up to 2,000 "creatures," as she calls them, a day.
As Pawel and Leanne whipped up a batch of Pusheen-inspired treats, the couple shared some of their tips for nailing macarons - and not in a Pinterest-fail-meme way.
Whip That Meringue Like You're Going Super Saiyan.
Macarons start with making a meringue - AKA whipping egg whites and boiled sugar, until it forms a stiff, cloudlike fluff - and folding it into a mixture of almond flour and powdered sugar. "You want a strong meringue, because that's the skeleton of the cookie," Pawel said.
Most recipes call for whipping them into "stiff peaks," but what does that really mean? Pawel suggests taking a cue from Dragon Ball Z: When you pull the beater out of the meringue, the batter should stand up on its own, so it "looks like Vegeta's hair."
This should take 5 to 10 minutes to whip up the meringue - but no more than that. "It'll start to deflate and get worse," Pawel explained.
See Yourself In That Batter.
You'll know the batter's ready when it's "shiny, glossy, and smooth," Pawel said.
Trace It Out To Start.
Once you've made a batch of macaron batter, you'll have to work quickly, using gel food colors to tint the dye. (Water-based ones could affect the consistency of your batter.) Leanne suggests starting with simple designs - you could even print out a basic image and put parchment paper on top, tracing the image with your piping bag.