Christmas red French Macarons

macaron #9

Just when I think I can relax while mixing the macaron batter, I ruined these pretty Christmas red macarons.  While adding an excessive amount of food coloring gel, I achieved the color, but ruined the shells.  Some of the shells puffed up and then fell off to the side while baking.  Some of the feet squished out beyond the edge of the macaron shell.

In addition to the gel food coloring problem, I only had 84 grams of aged egg whites; they evaporated more than expected.  So, I added vanilla flavoring to compensate for the missing egg whites.  That Did Not work.  Such lessons we continue to learn....

One of my favorite Santa's overseeing my Christmas baking.  I needed a little of his magic to help these poor examples of the delicate French Macaron.

You might think this doesn't look bad - that this is acceptable.  Notice there is only one in the picture---that's because most of the others slid off their feet like snow sliding off a roof.

What did I learn?
I'll only use the coloring gel if I want a very light color, thereby using only a little of the gel on the tip of a toothpick.
I'll keep trying until I get this right!
I've ordered the powdered food coloring; it's in the cabinet waiting for its debut in a macaron.
If the recipe requires 90 grams of egg whites, be sure to have 90 grams of egg whites.