Happy Holidays, friends! Today I have a fun cookie recipe to share with you, along with some links of great cookie recipes around the web.
For the last several years, I have been seeing these super photogenic cookie boxes all over instagram from bloggers like Constellation Inspiration and Cloudy Kitchen. This year, I wanted to make one of my own.
Hi readers! It has been way too long since I have posted here. There are a couple of updates in the life of the Cake Merchant. First, I got a new oven! And it has a convection setting, which I am so excited about. I’m hoping it will make my life easier when it comes to macarons. Second, I started my doctorate in the fall while still working full time, which means I hardly have time to bake in my new oven, but I have gotten so many requests for a post on Italian method macarons that I felt like I had to post sooner rather than later. However, I plan to keep updating this post as I continue to experiment.
The Italian method of making macarons can seem even more intimidating than the French method, but once you get the hang of making Italian meringue, the rest of the process is not all that different than the French method. And since Italian meringue is more stable then French, the macaronage process is actually easier. When I first started using this method, I had a lot of trouble with making the meringue itself and getting it to the right consistency, and I had even more trouble finding information on how to do it correctly.
My goal is writing this post is to be as detailed as possible when going step-by-step through the process of making these. After I posted my recipe for the French method, I was really surprised at how many readers not only appreciated the recipe, but were as obsessed and detail oriented as me at wanting to master macaron making. I’m glad to have found kindred macaron spirits out there who are willing to go down this rabbit hole with me, and maybe together we can use our internet hive mind to perfect this finicky little cookie.
So let’s start with the recipe. Unlike the French method which can vary greatly, the Italian method generally has an almond flour:powdered sugar:granulated sugar ratio of 1:1:1. The egg white content can be anywhere from 60-90% of the weight of almond flour. A very low egg white content can cause a dry/crumbly macaron and a very high egg white content can cause a finished product that is too soft. I like the go somewhere in the middle with this percentage. Italian macarons also tend to have a higher sugar content than French.
There are only four days left until Christmas, and I’ve just started my holiday baking! Normally I wouldn’t be super stressed, since I can whip up a batch of Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies in about 10 minutes, but this year in particular I’ve been baking for people with a lot of dietary restrictions. Yesterday I was meeting a friend who doesn’t eat gluten or dairy, and I could not for the life of me think of what to bake for her.
Macarons are obvious choice for the gluten free peeps, but how would I make a filling without dairy? I like to fill my macarons with swiss buttercream or some kind of ganache, both of which require copious amounts of dairy in the form of butter or heavy cream.
