X-mas (It is my policy to only refer to it as X-mas.) is a magical time. A time of joy and cheer. And apparently a time for cookie parties. What is a cookie party? A cookie party is a wondrous event at which gaggles of young to middle-aged ladies gather to exchange cookies. Everyone brings a different type of cookie and everyone goes home with an assortment of whatever was brought. This year, I was invited to two separate cookie parties, which required the creation of a total of 9-dozen cookies. That is 108 cookies for those of you who unable to do maths. And that is a shit-ton of cookies for those of you who are unable to do visualization of quantities of things.
Riding high on my previous victory over the macaron, I decided to produce two types of macarons for these events, both infused with sufficiently X-mas-y flavors. Hmm... The quantity of hyphens in the word 'X-mas-y' is making me rethink my commitment to the term X-mas. Regardless, we soldier on. The two flavors I chose were cinnamon/nutmeg and cranberry. I modified a basic buttercream frosting recipe by adding a teaspoon of both cinnamon and nutmeg for the former and a quarter-cup of cranberry jelly for the latter. This left me with most of a can of cranberry jelly which I ate with a spoon for dinner one night. What? That isn't sad at all. I just love cranberry jelly.
Determined not to spend $13 on a pound of almond flour again, I resorted to ordering my almond flour from Amazon for approximately $4 less per pound. Normally, I would balk at the idea of obtaining grocery items from the faceless internet, but my frugality overrode my squeamishness. Also, it's flour. Unless it gets bugs it doesn't really go bad, right?
Fortunately, unlike the film Titanic, my flour-acquisition came in on time and under budget. Also unlike the film Titanic, it's really good flour.
For the cinnamon/nutmeg flavored macarons, I used the basic macaron recipe and dusted the tops with nutmeg before throwing them in the oven. For the cranberry ones, I added a few drops of red food coloring. Interestingly, the addition of even a few drops of food coloring caused the batter to be significantly runnier. Both images above and below are of pre-baked macaron shells.
This image was taken mere seconds before I accidentally jostled the cooling racks with my elbow, sending delicate macaron shells flying everywhere. Shattered shells all over my kitchen floor. Quelle horreur. Luckily, I habitually over-bake and there were enough salvage-able shells left over for me to meet my party-imposed cookie quota.
Following the Bostini episode, I have become a firm adherent to the ways of the Dollar General. A quick trip to the store yielded a cheap yet serviceable serving tray for my macarons. Delightful!
The zillion macarons I made were both beautiful and tasty as all hell. And elbow-jostling aside, the process was relatively without hassle. Following this victory, I am prepared to accept the title of Queen of Macarons. Kneel before Zod!
Chen KaiLin! Come back to Tejas and make me some Macarons!
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