I was so pleased when our editor, Sheree, added some favorite macaroon recipes last week. With my interior and exterior house decorations for the neighborhood’s Holiday Home Tour now complete, I could turn to holiday baking – and visions of macaroons were soon dancing in my head.
Peppermint Chocolate Macaroons, decorated with a Peppermint Chocolate Drizzle, started the holiday baking jam. Gently simmering in the background was a fragrant mix of orange slices, cinnamon stick, cloves, water, and a splash of apple cider – yes, I was all set.
Originally created by Danielle Walker, author at Against All Grain, I tweaked her recipe for these macaroons with variations on the cacao powder, and I added the minty drizzle.
Do you still use printed recipes? I’ve learned to put a printed recipe in an upright plastic picture display holder, so it takes up less counter space, stays clean, and does not require my having to refresh a digital screen with my messy hands. You can download your recipes to print or not.
I had both regular and extra dark cacao powder on hand, so I used 1/4 cup each. The resulting macaroons were quite dark looking, so if you prefer a lighter looking cookie, you could stick with the regular.
These mint fudge flavored morsels have become our favorite addition to brownies, so I thought using them for the drizzle would be perfect for these minty macaroons. My drizzling techniques need to improve, but using coconut oil to thin the drizzle is the trick for creating the proper flow for piping a steady stream – and not overheating the drizzle. If you do, just stir in more coconut oil to remedy.
Almond Macaroons were next; but there was something niggling in my memory about them being way too sweet.
They were always visually appealing, especially if using a bit of maraschino cherry on top, but they were a sugar bomb to my palate. Hmmm.
After taking a pinch of the almond paste to taste, I knew that adding the 1/2 cup of sugar the recipe asked for, would be too much. So, I went with 1/3 cup sugar and added about 1/3 cup of almond flakes left over in the bag from the chocolate macaroons.
However, my tweak changed the moisture balance of the dough, so I added about half of an additional egg white to make the dough pipeable. Using a food processor for this recipe is a must to get the coconut flakes small enough for successful piping.
Maraschino cherries are FULL of artificial food color; but by using about 1/8th of one cherry on top of my mini-cookies provided that needed holiday wink of color.
Wishing you health and many warm moments to pause and take in the wonders of this season –
Deidre
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