spooky French Macarons

I tried once again to master the French Macaron, and.. well....
It was Halloween Eve...

I drew all the circles, then remembered I was using the Silpat -

The unbaked macarons air-dried and formed a firm crust over the top.

Per the recipe, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees (I think that was too hot.)

Into the oven I placed the ghostly, white blobs of meringue mixture that was to become a baked macaron.

At 5 to 6 minutes, there were feet.  Good sign!

I rotated the pan at 6 minutes, per the recipe (is this really necessary?).

At 6 to 7 minutes the nicely formed macaron tops began to  s - l - i - d - e  to one side, as if the sheet pan was tilted up and to the side.

At 9-10 minutes the unbaked batter beneath the nicely formed top began to  o - o - o - o - z - e  out the side of the cookie opposite the tilt of the top.

I just watched through the oven door and thought 'happy halloween.'  It was as if a casket lid opened (as the cookie top slid off the cookie,) and the puffy insides of some ghastly creature oozed out.

Despite their appearance, they did taste good.  The tops formed nicely, though they were not smooth enough.  The bottoms formed nicely.  The insides celebrated halloween.

Mistakes:
I measured 60 grams of egg whites, per the recipe, and aged them on the counter for 1 1/2 days.  The egg whites evaporated considerably, and weighed 42 grams when I began mixing the batter.  The next time I bake these, I will measure the egg whites after they are aged.

Since there were almost no whites to beat, the mixer worked hard and long to beat 42 grams of egg whites to stiff peaks.  I'm sure they were over-beaten.

The batter was too thick when piped; banging the pan a dozen times on the tile floor did not smooth the tops.

...back to the drawing board, again, next weekend...
these little ghostly globs will not defeat me!!!

#3