These gluten free French macarons dressed up as Frankenstein are perfect for your Halloween party!

Yield: 24 shells, 12 macarons
Prep time: 40 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Gluten Free Frankenstein Macarons

I am a little obsessed with Halloween! I just love the idea of all that candy, the costumes and the cute decorations. Two years ago, I created a pretty simple orange Halloween macaron recipe that was a big hit, but this year I wanted to take my Halloween macarons one step further! These little Frankenstein heads are just the cutest. They're easy to do -- no, really; they are! And they'll be the talk of the table at your Halloween party! Don't worry if you're not the greatest artist, I'm not either! No one's going to care if your stitches are wonky or your mouths are too small; it's all about their incredible taste!

A couple of notes: feel free to make these as green as you'd like. If you're in the UK and not using American gel colours, you'll probably find that due to EU regulations, the colours aren't exactly vibrant. I think it's fine; there's not many E numbers in the gel paste colouring here. If you're in the US, however, your food dye is a lot more concentrated and will probably yield a deeper green. Either way is fine!

Ingredients:

For the macarons
2 egg whites
35 grams caster or superfine sugar
70 grams ground almonds or almond flour
140 grams icing or confectioner's sugar
a few drops green gel paste food colouring
a few drops black gel paste food colouring
vanilla buttercream

For the Frankenstein decorations
edible googly eyes
chocolate vermicelli sprinkles
black edible pen
simple sugar syrup
Nutella
Need a conversion? Use this handy chart.

Decorating these macarons is definitely the fun part! You could use liquid glucose to stick the vermicelli hair and the eyes on, or you can improvise like I did. For the hair, I whipped up an easy simple syrup of sugar and water. Simply put one part sugar in a saucepan with one part water. Boil to dissolve and allow to thicken. You'll have a lightweight, tasty glue that you can use for the hair. The glue won't be strong enough to stick the heavy eyes in place, so I just used two dabs of Nutella and it did the trick! Here's how to decorate each macaron in photos, text instructions are below.

Frankenstein Halloween Macarons

Instructions:

1. Separate the egg whites and the yolks, placing the whites in a clean porcelain bowl, free of any residue. Save the yolks for another use.
2. Sift the almond flour and the icing sugar together.
3. Whisk the egg whites with the caster sugar and the green food colouring until it is just beyond the stage of stiff peaks. 
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the whisked egg whites and spoon into a piping bag.
5. Pipe circles on a baking tray lined with silicone or parchment.
6. Tap the tray against the counter to release any air pockets and let form a skin for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to between 120 and 150c. (The right temperature will vary on different ovens, my oven's optimal temperature is 125.)
7. While the macarons rest, prepare the filling by mixing the buttercream with black food colouring until your desired shade is reached. Cover and leave at room temperature until needed.
8. Bake the macarons for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until cooked through. Allow the macarons to rest before removing from the tray.
9. Make a simple syrup following the directions above.
10. Decorate half of the macarons by drawing a nose, mouth and stitches onto the face of each macaron. Then, paint some of the sugar syrup onto the top of the macaron then dip immediately in the chocolate vermicelli for the Frankenstein hair. Dab two dots of Nutella where the eyes will go and stick the edible eyes on, pushing down for a few seconds to ensure they adhere. And you're done! Happy Halloween!

More gluten free Halloween recipes: 

Gluten Free Spooky Halloween Macarons

Gluten Free Halloween Honeycomb 

Monster Hot Chocolate & Vodka Shooters