Christmas cookie box + macaron myths, facts, and tips and tricks
Everyone loves a good cookie. If you don't, that's gotta be a lie, everyone likes cookies (I jest).
The oat cookies are the same as the ones for my ice cream sandwiches (see my previous post), however they are great when sandwiching two together with some speculoos spread.
The jam filled speculoos cookies are a twist on a previous post (see: Christmas speculoos cake).
The two new recipes are the gingerbread spiced snowball cookies and the fruit cake macarons.
With two egg free options, a gluten free option, three nut free options, and a vegan option, there's surely something for everyone.
Honestly, I think the one I am the most chuffed about is the fruit cake macarons. The ganache is made with white chocolate and the cream is infused with mixed dried fruit and mixed with some mixed spice.
I was sceptical when I was first infusing the cream with the fruit because the fruit had a funky kind of smell and that was all that I could taste in the cream. However, as there weren't any peels in the mix, I decided to add some orange zest. This seemed to bring out the fruit more, without tasting of orange. I let it sit for an extra half hour, then I added the spice in and BOOM I could taste the fruit cake.
As the macarons are probably the trickiest cookies here, most of this post will be dedicated to them.
It's funny how I've never posted a macaron recipe. I used to make macarons so often that my immediate family was getting tired of them.
But then again, I don't think making macarons is about the recipe used - it's about the technique. Of course there are ingredient ratios that work and ones that don't work, but in general small changes to macarons recipes don't affect it too much. I personally think the best way to learn the technique is by watching videos and practising.
So in the mini guide that follows, I won't be trying to teach you how to macaronage, for instance. I will note things that I don't think are as commonly addressed.
I personally have not tried to make vegan macs before, but I know people have had great success with them. These notes are specifically for non-vegan macs and may vary for vegan ones.
Camila from Pies and Tacos has an in-depth vegan macaron guide.
Just scroll to the end if you just want the recipes and none of my macaron notes.
I am NOT going to claim that my recipe is foolproof. Calling a macaron recipe 'foolproof' is bull and I personally don't trust any recipe given that title. Likewise if it is called 'easy' whilst glossing over details. The recipe might be foolproof and easy for the creator, who has practised and developed the recipe themself, but not for those who haven't practised and do not have the same environment. Yes, macarons can be easy! But they will only be consistently easy once you know how they work and what makes them tick in YOUR environment.
Macarons are not consistently easy to begin with, but anyone can achieve success with them if they try.
The process is deceptively 'easy', but the technique may not be.
Macaron myths and facts
You can bake them without letting a skin form
You can, BUT there is a higher chance of cracking. I've found that this is because when it starts to bake, a skin does actually form. However, this skin is likely to be less even than a skin formed at room temperature. So if the skin is only partially formed, the parts with and without a skin will react differently and cracks are likely to form where the skin meets the batter. If you find that your batter tends to form a skin rather slow, and your oven is quite even, it might work for you. I still would not recommend it though. Think of the skin as a kind of safeguard.
This also means that if you let your macs form a skin only half-way, your likelihood of cracking increases drastically.
If you've mastered the technique though, baking without forming a skin first might be something you may want to experiment with!
You must grind your almond meal otherwise larger pieces will cause cracks
I never grind my almond meal (because I'm lazy lmao sometimes I even just push slightly larger pieces through my sieve because I don't want to waste any 🙈) and I have never experienced this. Your shells just won't be as smooth. As long as you allow your macarons to FULLY form a skin (see above) and don't have any unreasonably large pieces, you should be good.
You must be super gentle when folding the batter
This is only partially correct. You want to be fairly gentle when initially combining the dry ingredients and the meringue, but once they are incorporated, you actually want to get kind of rough with it. This process is the macaronage. You actually want to press some of the air out of it. I personally press the batter up against the side of the bowl with a spatula, scrape it all down, and repeat. I'd highly recommend searching up a video.
You must only use aged, room temperature egg whites
I never use aged whites anymore because I never found them to make a significant difference. It might make them easier to whip up, but I personally never felt a difference.
Likewise with room temperature whites (though the following recipe uses the Swiss method, so this matters even less).
However, if you're having trouble with too much moisture in your macarons, you could try aging the whites, since aging them allows some of their water to evaporate.
If your macarons are hollow, it's because they have too much air
Not necessarily. Hollow macarons can be a result of overwhipping (or even underwhipping) the meringue or not pressing enough air out when macaronage-ing (or undermixing), but it can also be a result of underbaking. If the insides are still soft, they will collapse when you take them out of the oven.
You cannot use liquid food colouring
Using some liquid food colouring is fine. Once I tried to make red macarons and I only had liquid colouring. I used at least a good third of the bottle and my macs still came out fine (I was using an Italian method recipe at the time, and the ratio of whites was lower than what I use now). However, I would not recommend using that much, of course! If you're trying to get a deep colour, use gel or powder because they are much more efficient. Too much moisture may result in patchy, wet tops of your macs.
For these macs, I used red gel colouring with a few drops of blue liquid colouring.
You can't make macarons in humid weather
You absolutely can. However I preface my explanation by saying that I do not live in an exceptionally humid place. I have made them on humid days, but that is humid to my standards (I didn't check the humidity percentage). The problem most people have with humidity and macs is with forming the skin. I have a tip regarding skins not forming - scroll down to see 'Macaron tips and tricks'.
If making macs in humid weather, you'd also want to ensure you do not add any more additional liquid. My little liquid food colouring anecdote above? Don't do that. Although it was fine when I did it, it wasn't humid that day (and even then, I'm surprised it turned out fine). You macs may end up soggy or with wet patches on top. You'll want to ensure your ingredients don't have any additional moisture (I've heard you can bake your almond meal to dry it out, but I have not tried this) and that your meringue is properly whipped to stiff peaks. You may even choose to age your egg whites to allow some moisture from them to evaporate.
Everything needs to be weighed perfectly to the gram
I used to follow a recipe requiring 4 egg whites. I never weighed them out and my macs turned out fine. Always weighing your ingredients perfectly will certainly lead to more consistent results, however I've tried different ratios (this round I tried a ratio of 1:1:1.3 for whites to icing sugar to almond meal, as well as 1:1:1, and I've previously tried 1:1.3:1.3:0.9 for whites to icing sugar to almond meal to castor sugar) and they've been fine. Being 5-10g off also shouldn't make too much of a difference. You often discard 5-10g of almond meal after sifting anyway.
Does this mean you can use cup measurements? Absolutely not. There still needs to be some degree of accuracy, and cup measurements are definitely not accurate nor are they consistent.
Macaron tips and tricks
If your macarons are taking forever to dry/ form a skin and you have a fan-forced oven, place the tray of macs onto the opened door of your oven (or anywhere near the oven where you can feel the hot air coming out). The hot air will dry them.
If you put it on the door or very close to the source of hot air, you will have to periodically rotate the trays so that the skin forms evenly and you don't get lopsided macs.
I first noticed this when the tray of macs that I put towards the back of my stove to dry (hot air from the oven comes out from there) dried faster.If you're worried about hollows, cool the macarons upside down with their bottoms still attached to the baking paper.
Make sure the tops are fully set and cooked though, otherwise cooling them upside down will make the tops soggy.
Also make sure you leave a few upright so you can see whether they were fully cooked inside or not (i.e., if the upright ones are hollow but the upside down ones are not, it's likely that the insides were not fully set).When making the meringue, make sure you start beating on a LOW speed. This forms smaller bubbles and thus yields a more stable meringue. I usually start on 2 or 3 on my mixer.
KNOW YOUR OVEN. You may have to alter baking time or temperature depending on your oven. You also should know where the heat in your oven comes from. You may have to experiment a few times.
Err on the side of undermixing rather than overmixing if you're unsure. Undermixing can cause lumpiness and hollow macs, but overmixing can result in a sticky mess. The batter will also continue to 'mix' as you handle it when piping it and transferring it to your piping utensil, so this can be a good opportunity to see whether you have macaronaged well. If your macs still have streaks or peaks from piping, they are undermixed.
Again, I suggest watching a video.Make sure you bang the trays and pop the air bubbles each time you finish piping a tray and NOT once you finish piping all the batter. If your batter dries quickly, you'll have unsightly marks where you popped the bubbles.
Macarons are mostly about the technique. Once you nail the technique, then you can start experimenting with different ingredient ratios and whatnot.
Experiment with using the French, Italian, and Swiss methods to see which one works best for you. This recipe uses the Swiss method, though I used to use the Italian method then switched to the French and now I'm switching to the Swiss. If anything, this should tell you just how much about technique it is, rather than specific recipes.
On the note of experimentation, experiment with oven temperatures. A factor that affects the way the feet form (excluding the meringue and macaronage) is the temperature. Honestly, I've seen different people prefer different types of mac feet, so you do you. For my oven, I find that the feet tend to spread out in a way I do not like with a lower temperature. I personally enjoy a teeny tiny spread (as seen in the photo below).
I suggest making macarons using ratios so that you don't have to struggle with getting the right amount of whites. Weigh out your egg whites and weigh everything else out according to the ratio. For instance, I used 4 egg whites which totalled 152g. Thus, I weighed out 152g castor sugar, 152g icing sugar, and 197g almond meal (I used a ratio of 1:1.3 for whites to almond meal, though I tried a ratio of 1:1 the next day and it was all fine and dandy. The lower ratio of almond meal to icing sugar caused them to be smoother in fact, though keep in mind I do not process my almond meal. A higher sugar ratio also tends to yield shinier shells).
Recipe
For the fruit cake macarons
Makes roughly 35 4cm macarons (70 shells)
INGREDIENTS:
150g egg whites
150g castor sugar
150g almond meal (can increase to 195g if desired)
150g pure icing sugar*
Red and blue gel colouring (optional)
1 batch of fruit cake ganache (see recipe below)
*I have had some success with icing sugar mixture, but I have not tested its use extensively, so I suggest sticking to pure icing sugar
METHOD:
1. Line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Make sure the baking paper lays down flat and doesn't go up the sides of the tray. This prevents lopsided macarons. Set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, sift in the almond meal and icing sugar. Discard any overly large almond pieces. You may choose to process the almond meal with the icing sugar for a finer texture. Do NOT process the almond meal by itself - it will become almond butter. Set aside.
3. In a medium sized heatproof bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, place the egg whites and castor sugar and briefly whisk to combine. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, ensuring the bowl does not directly touch the water. Whisk continuously until the sugar has melted. You can test this by rubbing some between your fingers. The whites should also feel hot.
4. Remove from the heat and start beating on low with a hand or stand mixer. Once all of the whites are frothy, you can increase the speed to medium low. Once soft peaks are just beginning to form, you may increase the speed to medium and gradually to medium high. Just before stiff peaks form, add in your colour and then keep beating until stiff peaks form.
5. Add the meringue to the dry ingredients and fold gently to combine. Once combined, you can begin the macaronage process. Using a spatula, bring up some batter and press/ smear it against the side of the bowl. Repeat until you have batter all around the side of the bowl then scrape it all down. Repeat this process until you can draw a figure 8 using the batter flowing off the spatula without the batter ribbon breaking OR until when you drop batter into the bowl it sinks back into itself in roughly 30 seconds.
6. Pour the batter into a piping bag or piping tool (I actually use a cookie gun) and start piping them out onto the lined baking tray, ensuring you leave roughly 3-5cm of space between them (depends on how much batter you pipe in one spot). Hold the tray roughly 5-8cm above the surface (your floor or tabletop) and drop it. Rotate the tray and repeat. This is to bring any air bubbles to the surface. using a toothpick or a similar utensil, pop the bubbles and swirl the batter to fill in the hole.
7. Allow the macarons to sit until a skin forms. You'll know they are ready when the batter no longer sticks to your finger when you touch them. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 150°C.
Once the oven has preheated and the skins have formed, bake them for roughly 15 minutes or until the tops and feet are firm and they do not stick completely to the baking paper (mild sticking is ok).
Cool on the tray until fully cooled.
8. Pipe some fruit cake ganache (recipe as follows) onto one shell and place another shell on top. Gently press to sandwich. Repeat until you've used up all your shells.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator and allow 24-48 hours to mature before consuming.
For the fruit cake ganache
INGREDIENTS:
375g cream, plus extra (roughly 400g altogether)
125g mixed dried fruit
Zest of half an orange, or to taste*
345g white chocolate
1tsp mixed spice, or to taste
*You may not need as much if your fruit mix already has peels in it
METHOD:
1. Pour the 375g of cream into a medium sized pot and add the zest and mixed dried fruit. Bring the cream to just under a boil. Turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid. Leave to infused for roughly 90 minutes. The longer the better.
2. Drain the cream through a sieve. Make sure to really squeeze all the liquid out of the fruit. Set aside or discard the fruit. Using the extra cream, make it up to total of 315g of cream.
3. Add the chocolate to the cream and heat gently over a medium-low heat until smooth. Stir in the mixed spice to taste. I preferred it with 1tsp, but reduce or increase to your liking.
4. Leave it to cool at room temperature or in the fridge until it hardens to a pipable, spreadable consistency. This took me roughly 3 hours with a mix of room temperature and fridge cooling.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Recipe
For the gingerbread spiced snowball cookies
Makes 45 1tbsp sized balls
INGREDIENTS:
230g unsalted butter
75g brown sugar
18g (1tbsp) golden syrup
290g plain flour
1/2tsp cinnamon
1tsp ginger
1tsp mixed spice
125g icing sugar mixture*
*I suggest using icing sugar mixture as it is easier to sift and much softer, however pure icing sugar will work fine.
METHOD:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line 4 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the golden syrup.
3. Sift in the flour and spices and mix until smooth. It may look a little soft, so place in the fridge for 10-20 minutes until it has firmed up a little.
4. Remove from the fridge and scoop 1tbsp of batter. Roll it into a ball and place on the prepared baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
Return to the fridge for another 20 minutes if it feels a little too soft.
5. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Whilst they are still warm but cool enough to handle, roll them in the icing sugar and leave to fully cool on a cooling rack.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Recipe
For the jam filled speculoos spread cookies
Makes 22 6cm sandwiches
INGREDIENTS:
1.5x batch of speculoos spread cookie dough
425g jam
Icing sugar mixture, to dust*
*I suggest using icing sugar mixture as it is easier to sift and much softer, however pure icing sugar will work fine.
METHOD:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line 4 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper to 7mm thick (I divided the dough in two). Using a 6cm cookie cutter (or whatever size you prefer), cut out rounds from your dough. Using a smaller cutter (I used the large end of a piping tip, roughly 2cm), cut out small circles from the centre of HALF of your big circles. You should have half big circles and half big circles with holes.
3. Take your small circles and other leftover dough and repeat the process. Chill the dough if it is getting too soft.
4. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. They will be quite soft when they come out, but will harden as they cool. Cool on their baking trays then transfer to a cooling rack once sturdy enough to handle to fully cool.
5. Once cookies have fully cooled, they are ready to be dusted, filled, and sandwiched. Place the donut shaped cookies (the cookies with a whole in the middle) on a tray or cooling rack and dust on the icing sugar.
6. Stir up the jam to loosen it up. Take one whole cookie circle and dollop some jam on it. Take a donut shaped cookie and place it on the top. Press gently to sandwich them together.
Repeat with your remaining cookies.
*NOTE: Only fill and sandwich your cookies on the day of or the day before eating. The cookies will absorb the moisture from the jam and cause them to become softer. Still enjoyable though.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
