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Hazelnut Macaroons

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These hazelnut macaroons are made with ground hazelnuts instead of desiccated coconut. These gluten-free cookies are also naturally sweetened with honey. Add cocoa powder for a chocolate version.

Hazelnut Macaroons with Honey

Over the last few years I’ve spent several holiday seasons away from home and family, simply because our travels took us too far away to visit. It’s especially during these festive seasons that I miss them the most though.

With lots of great memories from previous years to reminisce on, not being with family during the holidays makes it extra nostalgic for me.
Being a foodie, my most cherished memories of course involve food. In fact, my fondest holiday food-memory includes a ton of German Christmas cookies we made (and ate) growing up.

Hazelnut Honey Macaroons

Macaroons with Honey and Hazelnuts

Cookies were our treats, snacks, and dessert during the holiday season. After coming home from school, I would make a hot chocolate to warm up and grab a few cookies – there always were some – to sweeten up my homework time.

In those days the weekends leading up to Christmas were always filled with lots of baking. My mom, sisters and I would bake countless dozens of cookies – always at least 2-3 different kinds at a time. We basically lived in the kitchen during those times.

We had a creative system of rotating baking sheets and stacking cooling racks to accomplish this in our one trusty oven. Things would have been so much simpler with one of these stylish Double Ovens from the GE Café™ Series. We could have baked more cookies in less time using the convection mode.

GE Café™ Double Oven

Oh my, this makes me swoon! Other women might add jewelry to their Christmas wish list, I’d much prefer sparkly stainless-steel appliances.

Ahh…where were we again? Right! Cookies!

Classic coconut macaroons are one of the cookie types we would always make for Christmas. Today I made a variation of the classic with ground hazelnuts.

Honey Hazelnut Macaroons on Plate

These soft hazelnut macaroons melt in your mouth. Instead of refined sugar, they are made with with honey. There is also no flour in this recipe. Which means those macaroons are gluten free and paleo friendly!

For a chocolate version, I added cocoa powder to half of the batch. The macaroons are baked on low heat for a longer time which keeps (at least the non-chocolate ones) from browning too much.

Hazelnut Macaroons on Baking Sheet

A delicious clean-eating treat for the holidays or any time of year.

 

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5 from 5 votes
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Honey Hazelnut Macaroons

Honey Hazelnut Macaroons are a holiday twist on the classic coconut version. These soft, gluten-free cookies are sweetened with only honey and there is a chocolate version too. They are paleo-friendly as well.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cookies, hazlenut macaroons
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 16
Author LeelaLicious

Ingredients

  • 3 cups 250 g ground hazelnuts
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa optional
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 eggs separated
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup 80 g honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 16 whole hazelnuts

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 250 F (120 C). Line a baking sheet with wax paper or parchment brushed with a thin coat of oil.
  2. Whisk together ground hazelnuts and cinnamon (and optional cocoa) to combine and set aside.
  3. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites with salt until they start to stiffen. Add the honey and vanilla and keep beating to a soft peak meringue stage (the mixture will stay in the bowl if turned upside down, but the peaks at the end of the beaters softly turn downwards).
  4. Carefully fold in first the egg yolks, then the hazelnut mixture. Using a cookie scoop, place 16 mounds of the batter onto the prepared baking sheet. Top each cookie with a whole hazelnut.
  5. Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes. Let the finished cookies cool on the sheet. Store airtight for a few days at room temperature.

Recipe Notes

In Germany, macaroons are typically baked on edible wafer papers. To skip that step but still keep the macaroons from sticking, use wax paper or lightly coat parchment with oil and use a sharp thin knife to remove the cooled cookies from the paper.

Disclosure: Insight for this post was provided by GE Café™ Series – innovative appliances that bring the expertise of the restaurant, home, during the holiday season. Thank you so much for supporting the brands that make Leelalicious possible.

 

Honey Hazelnut Macaroons are a holiday twist on the classic coconut version. The soft, gluten-free cookies are only sweetened with honey and paleo-friendly

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    • Regina

      Yay to nut flours. I recall ground nuts (hazelnut and almonds) being readily available for a low prize in every Germany grocery store. Maybe thats why so many traditional German Christmas cookies use nut flours and are thereby naturally gluten-free.

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