Macarons are tricky to make but stunning
I already finished my holiday shopping.
In anticipation of this year’s Christmas card season, we planned ahead and took photos in matching sweaters during the last snowfall last January.
I have several batches of cookie dough frozen, just waiting to be sliced and baked.
The tree is up and the house is decorated to the nines along with full outdoor lights.
And just to top it off, I made these stunning nut-free spiced macarons with cranberry buttercream!
For those of you rolling your eyes or starting to panic, the only grain of truth in those last five sentences is that I made macarons — and they are far from stunning. But you know what? They’re delicious, my 8-year-old had a blast helping me fill them, and no one judged me on their lack of “feet” (an important feature of French macarons) or their abundance of cracks.
There’s enough pressure throughout the year for things to be perfect, and now we’re expected to pull it all off with inclement weather? No way. This year I’m not caving. I refuse to feel bad if the house isn’t festive enough or if I don’t get every neighbor, deliveryman and teacher the perfect holiday trinket.
I will wish everyone good cheer, play lots of games with my children and enjoy any wintry weather that comes our way.
Making macarons is a great practice in letting go. They are not an easy cookie to master, but they usually taste great no matter what happens. If they crack, don’t rise or stick to the pan a little, they are still chewy and melt in your mouth. And bonus, they are even better three or four days after making them!
If you want lots of solid and unfussy macaron tips, check out Stella Parks’ blog at Or just gather your equipment (you do need a few things to pull these cookies off) and go for it. You’ll love them, cracks and all. The macaron base recipe and technique comes from the quirky and talented Stella Parks of bravetart.com. The cranberry buttercream was adapted from food52.com. If you want more in-depth information about macaron technique, please see Parks’ blog, but in the meantime, they will be delicious no matter how they look. It’s important to use a food scale here for precise measurements. In addition to a food scale, you will need parchment or a silicone mat to line your baking sheet, a pastry bag and a plain tip and a stand mixer.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees and have two lined baking sheets ready. If you want, use a 1 1⁄2-inch cookie cutter to trace circles about an inch apart on parchment paper. Flip the paper over, line the pan and use it as a guide while piping cookies. Make macarons: Sift millet flour (or whatever you’re using) with the powdered sugar and set it aside.
In bowl of a stand mixer, combine egg whites, granulated sugar and salt. With whisk attachment, beat on medium speed 3 minutes. Increase to medium-high for another 3 minutes, then up the speed a bit for another 3 minutes. Add vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom and beat on high 1 more minute. You should have a dry, stiff meringue. When you pull out the whisk attachment, there should be a clump of meringue stuck in the middle. If not, beat another minute or until this happens.
Add dry ingredients and use a large rubber spatula to fold them together, pressing against side of bowl to deflate the egg whites. You will do about 40 turns with the spatula. Undermixed batter is very stiff, and overmixed will be too runny to pipe. You want the batter to look like molten lava — when you pour a ribbon of batter on top of itself, it will very slowly incorporate back into itself. Watch carefully, as there is no turning back from overmixed batter.
Place half the batter in a large pastry bag fitted with a plain tip. Pipe 1 1⁄2-inch circles onto baking sheet, about an inch apart. Repeat with remaining batter. Bake in preheated oven 18 to 21 minutes. Macaron is done if you can carefully peel it off the liner. If the bottom sticks and the top comes off in your hand, bake another minute.
Let cool completely, then use a metal spatula to carefully move cookies to a cooling rack.
While cookies cool, make cranberry
buttercream: In a saucepan, combine cranberries, water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 5 to 7 minutes until cranberries begin to pop. Puree in a blender or food processor until smooth.
With a stand or hand mixer, beat 1⁄4 cup cranberry puree with butter, powdered sugar and almond extract until smooth and creamy. (Makes 1 cup buttercream.) Reserve extra cranberry puree.
Spread a thin layer of cranberry puree on the underside of one cookie and a generous amount of buttercream on the other, stick together to make a sandwich cookie.
Almond flour (or ground and sifted almonds) are the most traditional macaron base, but you can use pecans, hazelnuts or more. If you want to make a nut-free macaron, use millet flour as in the recipe, or toast and grind pumpkin seeds for another alternative. Bob’s Red Mill makes millet flour and is available in well-stocked grocery stores.