Double Chocolate Bears with Tiny Jack-O-Lanterns (w/Template)

I don’t usually do much baking for Halloween since I like to jump straight into preparations for the Christmas holiday season once September comes around. I always find it interesting that so many people rejoice the return of the Fall season while I, on the other hand, find the season a bit meloncholy. Having to say goodbye to my favourite season, summer, with it’s endless hours of sunshine and warmth, is definitely not something I look forward to each year.

This year I did end up getting my Halloween bake on since an opportunity came up to raise funds for charity. I was happy to create this new bear character holding onto his tiny Jack-O-lantern. Everybody seemed to love them and they ended up raising $50. I even won this gift basket so I guess I can now say I’m a baking champ? Just kidding. It was all in good fun and I was happy to be part of such a good cause.

Besides Halloween baking, I also had the opportunity to attend a special Tipsy Tea Party at the Fairmont Hotel this Halloween weekend. As you know, I love tea time and was most excited about trying a “spooky” tea service held in the evening. Take a look here. Now onto our little bears…

All Batter Technique
These bears are double chocolate meaning that the shells are infused with cocoa powder and assembled with chocolate ganache. To bake the chocolate bear macaron shells, simply use my regular macaron recipe and add cocoa powder into the dry mix of almond and icing when you are sifting. The design utilizes the all-batter technique so for the pumpkin, I made a second batch of orange batter. Since the pumpkins are so small, you will have extra leftover batter which you can use for regular round shaped macarons.

How to Pipe 3D Macarons
To pipe the arms, snout and nose, I wait until the shells have developed a “skin” or membrane before piping onto the surface. This will create the 3D effect. Be careful not to wait too long though as your macarons might become lopsided from too long of a dry time.

Piping order:

Pipe main body circles – do all bears at once to allow time to dry.
Tap the tray on the counter to rid of excess air pockets
Pipe ears – do for all bears
Pipe snout – do for all bears
Pipe arms – do for all bears
Pipe pumpkin – do for all bears

Then, I added green Christmas holly sprinkles as the stem. (See, I am looking forward to Christmas just a bit too much.) This is so important: wait until the whole bear has completely dried before baking, otherwise, it will crack along the seams. Lastly, after baking and once they have completed cooled off, I use a very fine edible pen to add on the details like the eyes, nose and Jack-O-Lantern face.

Hope you enjoy making these bears and below is a short video showing you how I did it. Please make sure to join me on any one of the following forums to keep in touch, see my latest projects and get free macaron templates:

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XOXO,

Mimi

♥ CHOCOLATE BATTER INGREDIENTS:

Makes 16 Double Chocolate Bear Macarons
– 85 grams almond flour
– 85 grams icing sugar
– 1 1/2 tablespoon of cocoa powder (sifted into the dry mix of almond and icing)
– 60 grams castor sugar
– 66 grams aged egg whites
– 1/8 tsp cream of tartar

♥Follow instructions on my ORIGINAL Best French Macaron Tutorial ♥

♥ PUMPKIN BATTER INGREDIENTS:

– 65 grams almond flour
– 65 grams icing sugar
– 45 grams castor sugar
– 50 grams aged egg whites
– 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
– Orange Gel Colour (2 drops of Orange from Americolor)
– Gren Christmas holly sprinkle
– Fine tipped edible pen in black

♥Follow instructions on my ORIGINAL Best French Macaron Tutorial ♥

Basic Chocolate Ganache Recipe

♥ 100 grams of semi-sweet chocolate
♥ 100 grams of heavy cream
♥ 25 grams butter

– chop up the chocolate and place in a heat safe bowl
– heat up the heavy cream in a small sauce pan on low heat, watch it so that it doesn’t over boil
– once it comes to a simmer, immediately pour it over the chopped dark chocolate
– let it sit on the chocolate for 1 minute
– blend vigorously with a spatula until fully incorporated
– add the butter
– place it in the fridge and let it cool off and firm up before piping (1-2 hours)