Unfortunately, all I could find was whole pumpkin seeds so I ended up chopping them up by hand to make the meal. In the future I definitely need to invest in a food processor.
I used the same general ratio as my previous recipes but reduced the amount of dry ingredients (1 part egg white, 1.4 parts seed meal, 1.4 parts powdered sugar, 0.5 parts granulated sugar). I also attempted a Swiss meringue buttercream filling, which started off as a disaster. I whipped the egg whites to stiff peaks but as soon as I added the butter, it turned into a liquid-y chunky mess. Several online sources claimed that it could still be saved but at that point it was past midnight and I was tired.
Today, I followed a recipe more religiously, based off this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uLQ3-I2qgQ. I used about 1.5 egg whites (one from a large egg, one from a medium egg) and 3/4 cup sugar (a little less in reality...it looked like a crap ton of sugar). I whisked the egg white and sugar mixture over a little pot of lightly simmering water and even checked to make sure all the sugar was dissolved. Then I started whipping. For some reason, it never reached a stiff peak stage and kind of just turned into a weird consistency that was thick yet didn't hold its shape completely. I was like "fuck it" and ended up mixing in the room-temperature butter anyway. It seemed to help it stiffen up, actually. Then I turned up the speed on my mixer, and that REALLY helped it stiffen up to a true frosting consistency -- fluffy, airy. I didn't really understand how or why it happened but I'll take it. I flavored half of it with strawberry preserves and the other half with crushed freeze-dried mango. Both taste pretty good. The strawberry one in particular tasted like strawberry ice cream or a strawberry milkshake.
In the future, I'll say 1 egg white worth of macarons should go with 1 egg white worth of Swiss meringue buttercream.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1.5 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick of butter (ROOM TEMPERATURE!! Cut into chunks)
1. Heat a small amount of water in a small saucepan to simmering.
2. Put egg whites and sugar into a heat safe bowl. Place bowl on top of simmering saucepan and whisk the egg whites and sugar together until you feel no more grains of sugar with your fingers.
3. Take the bowl off and beat the egg whites until stiff peak (or at the very least, very thick). This may take a while, up to 10 minutes.
4. While on low speed, beat in one chunk of butter at a time.
5. When all the butter is incorporated, check texture of the buttercream. If it's not stiff enough, beat the mixture for a few seconds on high speed.
6. Add flavorings as desired, e.g. strawberry preserves. Use a spatula to mix in the ingredients.
Note: This makes a decent amount of frosting, probably enough for 12 cupcakes. I had about double the amount I needed to fill maybe 15 macarons.
