Sur La Table Fall Macarons Baking Class

I stumbled upon a baking class for Fall Macarons at Sur La Table.  I knew my little sister would love to do this class.  I took a cake baking class a while ago with my BFF.  We liked it so we knew this would be fun.  They also offer many cooking classes.  I want to do a one of those sometime.

My sister and I had made macarons last year.  They didn't turn out the best but they were good.

My BFF, and I surprised my sister for an early birthday gift.  :)  She had no idea until we pulled into the mall area where we were going.  YAY!!

Once we came in, we grabbed our name tag with our name, an apron and a clip board with recipes etc for us and we took a seat right in the front.

A little guide on a dry erase.

There is a lot you need to know before you just go in and bake macarons.

Here's the front page of my packet.

After about 20 minutes we split into 2 groups of 4.  My sister and BFF on my team and then a lady named Pamela who'd taken the class before.

We got right to it.  We made 'Pumpkin Macarons" first.

Meringue was nice and firm.

Food coloring being mixed in.

Nice light orange.

Almond flour being mixed.

Once it was good, there's a special technique you have to do to make sure it's ready.  Chef Paula, is showing us.

Then you fill your bag.  Our batter was perfect!

There was a nice template on sheet for you to know how much batter goes in dot.

Here's my sister piping onto cookie sheet.

Taking the template out.

Tray is full and perfect.  You have to let the cookies rest for about 30 minutes to form a 'skin' before putting into the oven.

Baking

Here are the cookies once they were done baking.

We began our next batch of cookies.   "Spiced Macarons",

Here we are mixing in some Vanilla Bean Paste.

Once batter was ready it was then added onto the cookie sheet.

Cookies waiting for oven and forming skin.

We then made some "Apple Spiced butter cream".  It was delicious!!

Here's Chef Paula making caramel.

Adding to mixer.

Mixing

Chef Paula, explaining how to make ganache.

The other team made the ganache since it was for the "Hazelnut Macaron" they made.

After the ganache was finally chilled, here's Chef Paula pulling it off plastic wrap.  It really didn't turn out right.

Funny picture.  Not sure what Chef Paula is doing here.

Our spiced macarons turned out perfect and Chef Paula was impressed.

We got to take about a 10 minute break to walk around the store and do some shopping.  When we came back in our cookies were put on plates with our names, so we could finish prepping them.

Here's the pumpkin ones.

I put the caramel on them.  These turned out to be my favorite.

I made a hazelnut/ganache one.  How cute?

We then finished decorating and got to try some and take any extras.

Here's my plate of Macarons.  So cute!

Here's my sisters plate.

We had little bags to put them in but a box would have been nicer.  (Which I won't recommend because some of my broke)

Adorable right?  Florian would approve.  :)

I stored my packet of papers in my baking/cooking class book I started years ago when I took some classes at a local farm.  :)

This template is really cool.  :)