Ever since I put up the Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie recipe, I’ve gotten a lot of requests to do more Undertale food. It took a while to decide which item I wanted to do next, but I’m pretty happy with my decision. So, strike a post, because it’s Glamburger Time!

Little Glamburger macarons that is! Yes they’re not actual hamburgers, but the game claims they are made of edible glitter and sequins anyway. I don’t know about you, but when I hear “edible glitter” I’m thinking SUGAR, and there’s plenty of sugar in these little guys!

I’ll be honest with you all upfront, that making macarons is not cheap or easy and it may take a few tries before you get the hang of it. To that end, and because I’m not a pro yet myself, I’m going to be borrowing heavily from Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer’s macaron recipe in his book The Art of French Pastry.

Anyway, let’s get started! Order up, Burgerpants!

+ French Macaron ‘Buns’ +

Recipe adapted from The Art of French Pastry, by Jacquy Pfeiffer

ITEMS

EQUIP

• Large Mixing Bowl
• Sifter
• Electric Stand Mixer
• Wooden Spoon/Rubber Spatula
• Small Sauce Pot
• Candy Thermometer
• Piping Bag with Round Tip (3/8″ is ideal)
• Baking Sheets
• Parchment Paper or Silpat
• Cooling Rack

WALKTHROUGH

1. Begin by sifting the almond flour and the confectioner’s sugar together into a large mixing bowl. Add to this the first quantity of egg whites and use a wooden spoon, or a spatula, to stir them together into wet dough.
2. Next we’ll be making an Italian meringue (this is a pretty tricky procedure, and is very dependent on time and temperature so I’ll do my best to guide you through it). In a small sauce pot, over medium high heat, add the sugar, water, corn syrup, and icing dye and stir to combine. Once it begins to boil, stop stirring and insert your candy thermometer. We want to cook this mixture until 244F/118C, so keep an eye on it!
3. While the sugar solution is cooking, add the second quantity of egg whites to the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, and turn it on medium speed (here’s where you need to stay vigilant, because we want to egg whites to be foamy once the sugar reaches 244F; don’t beat the eggs too quickly or they will over-whip by the time the sugar is ready).
4. As soon as the sugar has reached 244F, and your eggs are foamy, turn your mixer to the highest setting and carefully bring the hot sauce pot over to it. The goal here is to add the hot sugar, bit by bit, to the whipping egg whites, so that they cook, but not so fast that they end up scrambling. We also need to make sure we don’t pour the hot sugar on to the whisk attachment or it will splatter all over the sides of the bowl and crystalize (not only will it make the egg whites all lumpy, but it’ll be a pain the clean the bowl too!). The best way to do this is to turn off the machine, add a little of the hot sugar to the eggs and then immediately crank the mixer to high for about 5 seconds to incorporate before stopping it again, adding a bit more hot sugar, cranking to high and repeating. All together it might take about a dozen stoppages before all of the sugar is added (I apologize I wasn’t able to get more pictures of this step, but you really do need to move quickly so the sugar doesn’t cool down too much!). Once all the hot sugar has been added, keep the mixer running on the highest speed for an additional minute and a half before reducing the speed to medium. Hey! You’ve made an Italian Meringue! Congratulations, I know it wasn’t easy.
5. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the meringue into the large mixing bowl that the almond flour mixture was in and gently fold the two together to combine. In order to make sure the macarons are nice and smooth, raise the spatula out of the batter and watch the drips as they fall back into the bowl. If they don’t completely disappear back into the batter within 15 seconds, continue to mix for another 30 and then test again. This process is called “macaronner” and it will ensure that the batter will spread out evenly when they are piped onto a baking sheet tray. Once the drips begin to disappear in a timely fashion you can transfer the macaron batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 3/8″ round tip.
6. On a baking sheet tray lined with parchment paper, or a Silpat, begin piping small rounds (about 1 1/2″ diameter) with at least an inch between them, as they will spread out slightly. The best way to do this is to hold the bag perpendicular to the sheet tray and continue to pipe in a single spot rather than in a circular motion, as you may be tempted to do. I fit about 28 macaron halves on an 18″ by 13″ sheet tray.
7. Let the macaron halves hang out at room temperature for about 45 minutes, so that they have enough time to form a dry shell on top. In the meantime, you can preheat your oven to 300F. (If you’re feeling especially ambitious, you could take this time to jump ahead to working on the ganache or fondant later on in the recipe, but then again you probably have a bunch of dishes you probably should be washing instead :P)
8. After the dry shell has formed, and your oven is ready, bake the macarons for 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during this time. I would suggest baking only one sheet at a time so you don’t crowd the oven. Also, different spots of your oven can be different temperatures so it’s easier to maintain control if it’s just one thing at a time. Once they are baked, remove from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Resist the temptation to try and remove them from the tray before they are completely cool or they will break.

Now that our “buns” are cooling we can work on making the “burgers!”

+ Dark Chocolate Ganache ‘Burger’ +

ITEMS

EQUIP

• Microwave-safe Bowls
• Small Sauce Pot
• Whisk
• Thermometer
• Plate or Plastic Wrap
• Piping Bag with Round Tip (3/8″ is ideal)

WALKTHROUGH

1. This is a pretty quick ganache recipe, that has a lot of applications. We’re going to start by half-melting the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. This can be done with a few 30 second blasts at 50% power. Keep an eye on it and make sure you don’t melt it completely.
2. While the chocolate is melting, pour the heavy cream and vanilla into a small sauce pan over medium heat. As soon as it begins to boil, remove it and pour it over the half melted chocolate. Immediately cover the bowl with plastic wrap, or a plate (anything to help trap the heat), for about one minute, before removing it and then beginning to stir them together with a whisk.
3. After they are combined, check the temperature with a thermometer. Once the mixture has cooled to around 102F, add the softened butter and whisk it into the chocolate until it disappears. Adding it at this temperature ensures that you will get a creamy ganache, as adding the butter while the chocolate is too hot can cause it to melt too quickly and get ugly. (An easy trick to soften a small amount of butter is to measure it out and wrap it in plastic wrap, then simply use your hands to knead it until it’s soft. The heat of your hands does most of the work!)
4. Transfer the ganache to an uncut pastry bag. It will still be liquid at this point and we need it to set up a bit before we can pipe it. Place the bag in the refrigerator until it has the consistency of cookie dough and knead the bag several times to ensure it has an even consistency throughout.
5. Once it’s ready to use, cut the bag and place it inside another pastry bag fitted with a round tip (again, I prefer 3/8″).

+ Green Fondant ‘Lettuce’ +

Remember to eat your greens!

ITEMS

EQUIP

• Toothpick
• Rolling Pin
• Parchment Paper or Wax Paper
• Round Cutters (similar to the diameter of the macarons)

WALKTHROUGH

I am not a bit fondant proponent, but I can’t deny that it does have its applications sometimes. 

1. First thing’s first: we need to make it lettuce-colored! So grab some green and dust your work surface liberally with confectioner’s sugar (to keep the fondant from sticking to the surface). 
2. Use a toothpick to transfer a small amount of color to the white fondant. A little bit really does go a long way so use it sparingly.
3. Fold up the fondant around the dye, being careful not to get any on the table or your hands and begin to knead it much in the same way you’d knead a dough. Slowly you’ll begin to see the green color spread and become homogenized. Keep kneading until there are no more streaks .
4. Place the fondant between two pieces of parchment, or wax, paper and use a rolling pin to roll it out as thinly as possible. 
5. Use a round cutter to cut out circles approximately the size of the macarons we made. Feel free to crinkle and stretch them into organic shapes to more accurately represent the lettuce.

+ Glamburger Assembly + 

Now that we have all of our components, it’s time to build the Glamburgers!

ITEMS

EQUIP

• Offset Spatula
• Pastry Brush
• Piping Bags

WALKTHROUGH

1. In order to most safely remove your macarons from the parchment paper/Silpats, use an offset spatula to slide underneath them and gently pull upwards. Haste makes waste here, so take your time with it, you’re so close!
2. Match up the macaron halves so that each side of the “bun” is roughly the same size.
3. Pipe a tiny bit of ganache onto the underside of one of your macaron halves, in order to affix the fondant lettuce to it. Then, pipe a good amount on top of the lettuce to represent the burger itself.
4. Top with the matching other macaron half and you’re basically done! There is one more little garnish we can do though.
5. In order to apply the sprinkles, lightly brush the tops of the finished Glambugers with simple syrup (simple syrup is equal parts water and sugar that’s heated until the sugar is completely dissolved). Once coated, you can top your creations with anything you’d like. I happened to find these pretty nice looking sprinkles in the baking aisle of my grocery store.

Hey! Thanks for reading all the the way to the end! You’re awesome :D! If you haven’t already and are looking for more nerdy food stuff, consider following me on Twitter, Facebook, tumblr and Instagram. I post a lot of work in progress pictures for the blog as well as some stuff from my real job as a pastry chef. If that sounds like something you’d be into, please check out those links above! Anyway, take care everyone and I’ll see you soon with an all new recipe!