So. A few weeks back, I got an email from Felipe, who works with none other than THE Francois Payard. They are testing out a new concept called MakeCarons – pre-baked macaron shells shipped to your door, ready to be filled with the filling of your choice. I was lucky enough to be offered a sample, and I quickly accepted!

I invited my pal Kate over to help me fill them (and eat them). We had a huge stockpile of possible ingredients, and she whipped up so many options! We ended up making:

• raspberry macarons with lemon-thyme icing
• chocolate macarons with toasted marshmallow, Nutella & graham cracker crumbs
• vanilla macarons with grapefruit-rosemary-ginger icing
• chocolate macarons with peanut butter & honey
• vanilla macarons with vanilla icing, muscovado sugar & Bolivian rose salt
• raspberry macarons with Nutella & flake salt
• vanilla macarons with pumpkin butter & chocolate chips
• raspberry macarons with lemon-thyme icing and graham cracker crumbs

We went a little outside of the box, and the whole thing was so dang beautiful that I decided to film it (see below!). Justin edited the film, and it really shows what a wonderful rainy, sweet evening it was.

As a thank you for our video and feedback, I was sent a massive holiday gift from Francois Payard – I am completely freaking out about it! So. Much. Chocolate. 🙂 It’s opportunities like these that I want to take on – chances to be creative, make something, do something. I hope you enjoy the video!

Ful-filling Macarons from Crystal Esquivel on Vimeo.