Gingerbread Macarons

The month of December, and with it comes the time for Christmas treats ;-) And since for me the Christmas season rhymes with cinnamon, I wanted to make cinnamon and gingerbread macarons! I lightly flavored the shells with cinnamon, and I made a mousseline cream (like for my crème brûlée macarons) with gingerbread.

Preparation time: about 1 hour
Difficulty: it all depends on your experience with making macarons…

For about thirty macarons:

Macaron shells:

128g of icing sugar
128g of almond powder
47g of egg whites (1) at room temperature
47g of egg whites (2) at room temperature
32g of water
128g of granulated sugar
QS of cinnamon and/or food coloring

Sift the icing sugar and almond powder, then add the egg whites (1) and the cinnamon, mixing well.

Next, prepare the Italian meringue: make a syrup with the water and granulated sugar.

When it reaches 110°C, start beating the egg whites (2). When the syrup is at 118°C, pour it in a thin stream over the egg whites and continue beating until you obtain a shiny meringue.

Take half of the Italian meringue and pour it into the first mixture to loosen it. When the mixture is homogeneous, add the rest of the Italian meringue, mixing with a spatula or a rubber spatula (this is called macaronage). You need to loosen the batter so that it is homogeneous and flexible, but definitely not liquid; it should form a ribbon.

Put the macaron batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle, then pipe the shells onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Personally, I let them dry before baking, but some people don’t do this and it works well too, so it’s up to you ;-) Once the crusting is done, I sprinkled the shells with a bit of cinnamon.

Once the batter no longer sticks when you touch it with your finger (about 15-20 minutes), bake the shells in a preheated oven at 145°C for 12 to 14 minutes (the oven temperature and cooking time are given as a guideline; you will probably need one or two tries to find the right combo for your oven).

Once the shells are baked, let them cool before peeling them off the parchment paper.

Gingerbread cream:

65g of milk
60g of liquid cream
30g of egg yolks
30g of sugar
12g of cornstarch
50g of butter
13g of honey
75g of gingerbread

Heat the milk and cream with the honey.

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and cornstarch.

Pour the hot liquid over the eggs while stirring well, then return everything to the saucepan. Thicken over low heat while stirring constantly, and when the cream is thick enough, transfer it to a dish and add the gingerbread in small pieces. Blend with an immersion blender to obtain a smooth cream, then cover with plastic wrap and let cool.

When the pastry cream is cold, whip it (in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk or with an electric mixer), then gradually add the softened butter cut into small pieces while continuing to whip until you obtain a smooth cream.

Place it in a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle and set aside until assembly.

Assembly:

Pipe a ball of gingerbread cream onto half of the shells, then close the macarons with the other half of the shells.

Your macarons are ready!