Attempt at macaroons turns out delicious meringues

Trying out a new cookie recipe is always risky. Sometimes the risk produces an amazing addition to the holiday baking rotation – and sometimes the risk produces something else all together.

Both Maria and I collect cookbooks.

SIDENOTE: Maria is a bit more of a collector than I am.

We’ve been collecting cookbooks for a long time, i.e. since our pre-internet baking days. I mention this because I am going to share some foreshadowing up front: If you’ve had a cookbook for a long time, check out the reviews before trying out new recipes.

I decided this year I would try a Chocolate Macaroons recipe I’d marked many moons ago.

Baking is a way to combat end-of-the-semester and holiday season stress and this recipe seemed perfect for this for several reasons. First, it called for finely ground almonds, which meant I had the opportunity to get out my mini food processor and pulverize an ingredient. Second, it gave me a chance to mark a recipe off the list. And finally, I love melted semi-sweet chocolate.

All seemed to go well as I mixed up the batter. I chilled it for 15 minutes as prescribed by the recipe and dropped teaspoon rounds onto the baking sheet.

Twenty minutes later I took two trays of the flattest, wonkiest cookies I have possibly ever pulled out of my oven. My husband taste-tested them and said they were good, but they looked awful.

By this point Maria had called. She was on the way from Publix to Kroger where she was using a digital coupon to buy more butter. As I described the disaster unfolding in my kitchen, she posited that the nuts probably needed to be more finely ground, and that it might be better to use almond flour.

This was not helpful in the moment.

However, she also advised I chill the dough longer, both before I dropped the batter onto the baking sheet and then again before I put the batter balls into the oven.

“I’m not chilling them a second time,” I said. “That will take forever.”

I did, however, chill the dough longer before putting the next batch on the baking sheet and into the oven. This, combined with making them half the size, resulted in a decent chocolate-almond meringue cookie.

Now here, after struggling with this recipe, is where I decide to look the cookbook up on the internet. This is where I discover that other people have made some of the recipes from the cookbook and found they didn’t work.

I’m sharing this cautionary tale just in case you are an over-zealous cookbook collector who tries new recipes without first checking with the internet. Read reviews of cookbooks. Read the comments under the recipes you find on websites and social media. Run the recipe by one of your baker friends.

And as my husband said, it’s not a total loss if they taste good. That’s all that matters.

Here is the recipe, adjusted. If you love meringue, you will like these. Also, I am throwing this book in the recycling bin.

CHOCOLATE ALMOND MERINGUE COOKIES

2 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup VERY finely ground almonds

2 egg whites

1 cup fine sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon almond extract

confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper or use a Silpat baking mat.

Melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. (I use the second method here.)

Let chocolate cool.

Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gently fold in the sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract and cooled chocolate.

Chill dough for about 20 minutes or longer so that it just holds its shape.

Place rounded teaspoonfuls of dough, spaced well apart, on the baking sheets.

Dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until just firm.

Let cool some before moving to a wire rack.

If you love meringue or have successfully made macroons, we would love to hear from you. Of course, we’d also love to hear about how you’ve turned around any of your baking fails. DM us on Instagram @itswhateverblog, email us at itswhateverblog@outlook.com or post to our Facebook page at http://bit.ly/amyandmariaFB.

Happy baking,

Amy