This recipe is another Simply Delicious “take” on something that already largely exists in a slightly different form. These aren’t really these kind of macaroons (the Passover kind). They’re not these kind of macarons (the French kind) either.
17-52: Apricot Macaroons were part of my big batch of assorted baked goods that I made as gifts for people this year–you can find the others linked at the end of this entry.
Mine were a horror show compared to the picture on the card–I blame poor tools (my pastry bag blew its side out early on, rendering it useless and me bagless) even though any chef knows that’s a cop-out. I also blame exhaustion–these were the last ones I made of all of the recipes.
These have a simple flour/butter/sugar dough base (making them very unsuitable for Passover) and almond paste piped on top–most macaroon varieties do not contain any flour whatsoever. I’m guessing this was either a cost-cutting measure (almond paste isn’t exactly cheap) or a bastardization of traditional macaroons to make them more relatable to a wider audience.
Ingredients. I’ve never seen almond paste in boxes like this before (usually always in tubes), but these were 8 oz. each, which is perfect for this recipe.
Threw together the simple base dough and wrapped it to chill in the fridge.
Almond paste, roughly chopped to make it easier on the mixer. It’s really similar to marzipan, if you’ve ever had that.
I loaded my (admittedly pretty old) pastry bag, attached the star tip, and set it down to take this picture and start rolling and cutting the round cookie bases. I should have tested it with less almond paste first before loading the entire batch into the bag.
While I cut circular bases (using a old baby food jar from work), my sous chef/husband picked up the paste-loaded pastry bag to start piping out tops. With the first cookie, the side of the bag completely blew out, and the bag was useless (but still full of most of the paste).
We now had to resort to the alternative methods listed on the recipe card (forks and spoons, essentially), which made most of them look like weird little piles.
That was about the best we could do without a usable pastry bag and after a long day of baking several batches of different cookies & pastries. At this point, I just wanted to finish.
Since there’s not much you can do with a pile of almond paste, we just piled a bit more of apricot on top. How bad could it be?
Sheets are loaded, and we start rotating them through the oven.
Visibly, they suck. Taste-wise: they were pretty good. We made them small enough that you could eat them in one bite, and if you didn’t look too hard, they tasted great.
A somewhat more dignified close-up of some of the more reasonably attractive ones. Each box got about three, sequestered away in a plastic bag to keep them from getting even more messed up.
Here’s this recipe, 17-52: Apricot Macaroons along with the other recipes I made for my holiday gifts this year:
- 17-31: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
- 17-37: Holiday Cookies
- 17-43: Orange Date Quick Bread
- 17-61: Vanilla Chip Cookies
- 17-67: Coconut Crescents
I’d like to attempt these again once I get a new pastry bag and now armed with the knowledge of what they can look like versus what they ended up looking like. They were pretty good taste-wise (but again, a flour-based cookie on the bottom is a weird addition), and I think they deserve to look a bit better than what I made.
Grade: B
