Cinnamon Macarons

Please read the Notes before starting these!

Cookie

4 egg whites, left out of refrigerator for 30 minutes

1½ cups almond flour or 1½ cups oat flour (See notes)

1¼ cups powdered sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¾ cup sugar

Filling

4 oz cream cheese, softened

3 tbsp butter, softened

1 tsp GF vanilla

1½ cups powdered sugar

Additional cinnamon for decorating

Cookie 

Sift together almond flour, powdered sugar & cinnamon. (I don’t have a sifter, so I use a mesh strainer. If the mesh is fine, sift once, if the mesh is not fine, sift twice. This is where the video came in handy!)

Sifting this way takes awhile, but be patient & keep at it!

You will notice a big difference in the texture of the sifted vs unsifted mixture.

 Beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, about 1 tbsp at a time, beating at high speed until stiff peaks form.

Soft peaks

Stiff peaks

 Fold flour mixture into egg white mixture. (It should be the consistency of thick honey & when you draw a figure 8 in the batter, it should take about 8 seconds to melt back into itself. (Another handy tip from the video!)

 Spoon dough into pastry bag with a wide round tip. (Another tip from the video, place the pastry bag in a large glass & fold the edges over the top of the glass, then spoon the batter into the bag.)

 Pipe cookies to about 1 inch rounds on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

When baking sheet is full, smack entire pan on counter a few times to flatten out the cookies. (Don’t skip this step! If you don’t flatten them out, they will not flatten out much while baking.) Let cookies rest for about 30 minutes, until they are dry & no longer tacky on top when you lightly touch them.

 Bake at 325° for 9-12 minutes until set & lightly browned. Cool on pan for 1-2 minutes, then gently remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Filling 

Beat cream cheese & butter until creamy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until fluffy. If the filling is too soft, just chill in refrigerator for about 10 minutes to firm it up a little.

 Spread about ¼ inch of filling on bottom of cookie. This can be done with a small spatula or with a pastry bag. Then top with another cookie. Sprinkle with cinnamon. You can sprinkle the entire top or just half – be creative with your decorating!

 Store in air tight container in refrigerator. Or you can freeze them! You can assemble them & freeze or just freeze the cookie shell & when you are ready to serve them - just defrost then put together will filling. Either way works.

Notes:

This recipe is based on tasteofhome.com/recipes/cinnamon-roll-macarons. But I will warn you - making these are not for the faint of heart – haha! They take a lot of patience! I had not made macarons before, but I watched this video (sallysbakingaddiction.com/french-macarons) & it was very helpful! The recipe is a little different, but the techniques are the same.

If you use oat flour instead of almond flour - it works great for anyone with a nut allergy! The texture is about the same, but you definitely don’t get the hint of almond flavor. But my taste-testers still thought it was delicious with the oat flour, if not the “traditional” tasting macaron.