By Liesel Davis
Of course pie comes to mind when you think of a traditional Thanksgiving, and if you were at my grandmother’s house–she cooks and bakes tirelessly for weeks before–there would also be a lovely coffee-can steamed pudding with a rich caramellike sauce, fudge, divinity with and without nuts, cookies of all sorts, suckers, several kinds of candied popcorn, cinnamon rolls, and a variety of toffees, turtles, and other candies alongside those pumpkin, pecan, and lemon meringue pies. And you can’t go wrong with any of that. In fact, on any given Thanksgiving weekend throughout the years that I have spent at her home, I consider it my duty to work through tasting each and every last one of those temptations.
But, in the years when I have been the hostess of my own (and much simpler) Thanksgiving feasts, and being a bit of a free spirit when it comes to the kitchen, I like to take advantage of the holiday to try new renditions on the requisite dishes and flavors. With that in mind, I was thinking how delightful a variety of macaroons would be in the line up this year. Small and light, they are the perfect amount of sweet for when you don’t want to polish off an entire slice of pie (and sometimes I don’t want to) or bury yourself in a pile of sugar overload. Plus, any excuse to play around in the kitchen is enticement enough for me. For my first line of inspiration, I turned to Katie Rosenhouse’s Lemon-Thyme Macaroons from our Fall Conference. But don’t be surprised to see something apple–maybe spiced or with a touch of rosemary or caramel–or fig, or sweet potato, show up at my table, too. We’ll see what those baking experiments bring….
Katie Rosenhouse’s Lemon-Thyme Macaroons
Makes 24 large cookies
3 1/3 cups (400 grams) confectioners’ sugar
3 cups plus 2 ½ Tbsps. (300 grams) almond flour
1 2/3 cups (325 grams) granulated sugar
8 large egg whites
2 drops yellow food coloring
Lemon-thyme curd (recipe follows)
1. Heat an oven to 375˚F.
2. Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a food processor and grind until very fine, 3 to 5 minutes. Sift into a mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Place the granulated sugar in a small saucepan and add just enough water to make a wet sand. Bring the sugar to a boil. Cook to soft ball stage or until the mixture registers about 235˚F on a candy thermometer.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Gradually add the boiled sugar, with the motor running. Add the food coloring. Whisk to medium peaks.
5. Fold the meringue into the reserved dry ingredients until smooth. Place in a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe small circles onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets and bake until just brown on the edges, about 7 minutes. Remove from the oven. Cool completely. Spread half of the cookies along the bottom with some curd and top with the remaining cookies, bottom side down, to make sandwiches.
Lemon-Thyme Curd
Makes 1 cup
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice, along with the zest of the lemons
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Pinch of salt
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1. Bring a small pot filled with about 3 inches of water to a boil. Combine all of the ingredients except the butter in a small bowl and place over the pot of water. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring, until the mixture has thickened, 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the butter. Strain through fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Discard solids. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least overnight or until ready to use.
