Round, green, and only one eye? Must be Mike Wazowski. Or these delicious macarons!

So I was very nervous about this recipe. If you don’t know, macarons are essentially marzipan meets meringue, and I’ve heard a number of things can go wrong with regular macarons, let alone macarons using an eggless meringue. But they turned out really good, and with a lemon-lime flavor, they taste like Froot Loops.

For the macaron shells, you will need:

• 150g aquafaba that has been reduced
• 1/4 cup water
• 200 g sugar
• 200 g almond flour
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• lime green food coloring
• 1/4 tsp lime extract

And for the lemon buttercream:

• 1/2 cup vegan butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp lemon extract
• 2-3 TBS lemon juice

I also used candy eyes to put on top, but you may want to omit these as they include confectioner’s glaze.

So first, preheat the oven to 310F. Then, measure out about 210g of aquafaba. Aquafaba is literally “bean water”. You can get this directly from any can of white beans (I usually find chickpeas the best). Just use the lid to separate the liquid from the beans. Or you can even buy aquafaba in bulk if you want.

Heat the aquafaba on the stove until it thickens and reduces by about 30%. Measure out your 150g for the macarons, and mix 75g of it with the cream of tartar with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium high until it gets to the soft peaks stage. It may take some time; longer than it might with egg whites.

Meanwhile, pour the sugar into a clean saucepan with 1/4 cup water. Heat it over medium low, using a candy thermometer to bring it to 245F. Once the sugar has come to temperature, slowly pour it into the mixer bowl and whisk on high speed until the meringue is glossy and white. It should have reached stiff peaks.

Then, measure out the dry ingredients, sifting the powdered sugar and almond flour into a bowl. Add the other 75g of aquafaba into this mix. This is your marzipan. Add about half of the meringue into the marzipan. Stir until it’s mixed well. Then, add the other half of the meringue, and carefully fold it in.

Add the lime extract and food coloring. Continue scraping and folding until you can draw a figure 8 with the batter that falls off the spatula.

Transfer the batter to a piping bag, and gently pipe small circles about 1 inch in diameter onto your baking sheets. You can draw circles on your parchment paper to help, or get a special silicon mat for macarons that has the markings on it.

Here’s where it gets a little scary. You want to knock all the air bubbles out of the macaron shells. Smack the tray on the counter a few times. Then, you want to set the tray on a flat surface and wait for the shells to form a slight dry skin. It should take about 15-20 minutes, and you should be able to touch the shells without it sticking to your fingers. Then, leave them out for another 20 minutes. After that timer is up, bake the shells for 20 minutes. Once done, they must also cool for 20 minutes.

While the cookies are baking and cooling, make the buttercream. Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Start mixing at low speed, and gradually increase until the frosting is thick and smooth.

Once the cookies are cool, they should peel off the baking sheet easily. Peel them off of the baking sheet. Scoop your buttercream into a second piping bag and pipe a bit of frosting onto half of the cookies. Top it with another macaron. I also used the frosting to stick the candy eyes on. Enjoy!