Drumroll please…check that last item off my Christmas to-do list.  My Christmas baking is complete!  This holiday, I decided to go full force macarons; no sugar cookies + no mixed nuts, just straight up macarons.  When I made this ‘all in’ decision, I was extremely excited at the thought of delivering a festive box of Parisian delights to those on my gift list.  However, when it came to actual execution, I began to almost regret this decision.

I learned, more than ever, that when baking multiple batches of macarons I was limited to the confines of my baking sheet and my oven size.  I really could only bake 1 sheet of cookies at a time to ensure ultimate middle shelf ‘not too hot not too cool’ baking capacity.  On each baking sheet, I could only pipe about 30 cookies.  As I’ve baked multiple macaron batches over my obsessive macaron baking lifetime, none of this is actually news to me but it is all highly annoying when attempting to bake in mass quantities and this last baking session reminded me of that.

In one of my previous Christmas posts, I mentioned that I wanted to bake a box of macarons inspired by classic holiday gifting boxed chocolates.  Well I came out 3 for 4.  By default of a need for a pop of festive red [which turned out more pink in the end] I added a 4th non boxed chocolate flavour into the assortment.

…for macaron shells recipe click below…
ingredients
instructions

Flavour 1: Ferrero Rocher
To the macaron cookie, I added smashed bits of hazelnuts to its surface.  The filling was a ganache of milk chocolate flavoured with hazelnut essential oil.

…hazelnut ganache…
[enough to fill 35-40 macarons]

170g of milk chocolate chips
1/4c + 1/8c whipping cream
hazelnut essential oil

in a sauce pan add whipping cream and 1/8 tsp of essential oil | stir and bring to a simmer
once simmering remove from heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes
bring cream mixture back to a simmer and remove from heat
pour cream over chocolate chips and let sit for 30 seconds
mix until smooth + combined
pour into shallow dish | let ganache cool to room temp
cover with plastic wrap directly touching ganache surface | place in fridge for 2hrs [until mix thickens] to overnight
when ready, whip ganache with mixer until light and fluffy
transfer to pipping bag and start filling macarons

Flavour 2: Terry’s Chocolate Orange
To jazz up the macaron, I drizzled melted chocolate over each cookie.  I suppose you can say it was my abstract way of representing the orange segments.  The ganache centre was dark chocolate flavoured with orange extract.

For the recipe, follow the same recipe detailed above and substitute dark chocolate for the milk and orange extract for the hazelnut essential oil.  

Flavour 3: After Eight
Achieving an After Eight green was quite the challenge.  I mixed shade of green with shade of green.  The outcome, though nice, wasn’t the right shade of After Eight green but I went with it.  To push it over that festive edge, I splattered gold dusting powder on each cookie.

To create the mint ganache, similar to the orange ganache, substitute dark chocolate for the milk and use mint extract in lieu of the orange.  

Flavour 4: Red Velvet
I baked this macaron last year as a part of my Christmas cookies and it was extremely well received so i decided to do a repeat.  Though my efforts for a red cookie failed, I actually liked the shade pink that resulted and decided to further embellish each cookie with silver dusting powder.

…red velvet ganache…
[enough to fill 35-40 macarons]

170g of white chocolate chips
1/4c + 1/8c whipping cream
1 tbsp of red velvet emulsion

**follow directions detailed above

Though I was more than happy with my boxed outcome, after batch 1 was baked, I decided that I all I really wanted for Christmas were extra long baking sheets to fit the length and depth of our oven; essentially made to measure couture baking sheets. However, according to Mike, sheets in my desired dimensions do not exist.  So, I decided to flip the script and asked for a double oven instead…maybe not for now but for our future home.  Let’s see what Santa brings!

I’m too exhausted from baking to elaborate on other details form my Sunday.  In short, the Cowboys defeated the Colts and are now guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.  Mike’s ecstatic.  For dinner, Mike made Wvrst style gourmet hotdogs.  Yum!

As this is my last post before Christmas, I wish you all a happy + safe + peaceful + gluttonous holiday.

See you after Christmas and stay tuned for the culinary spread Mike whips together for our holiday feast.