Hazelnut Macaroons (Nussmakronen)

By Laura Vonessen

January 22, 2022 - 2 minutes read - 400 words

Ingredients

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F (or see step 8)
Beat the egg whites a little, then add 1 Tbsp of sugar and beat fully stiff
One spoon at a time, add the rest of the sugar (including vanilla sugar), and continue to beat for ~4 more minutes until the consistency is thick
Gently fold in the ground hazelnuts
(optional) Let the dough sit in the fridge for 30-60 minutes to get stiffer
With two teaspoons, make small heaps on a greased and/or parchment-paper-lined baking sheet. These will spread out a bit when baking, so not too close together
(optional) Place one hazelnut on top of each cookie, in the middle
(optional) Let the cookies dry for ~25 minutes. If you didn’t actually preheat the oven in step 1, now is a good time.
Bake for 16-20 minutes

My mom only uses 1/2 cup of sugar
Technically the original recipe calls for “a packet” of vanilla sugar, which is some sort of standard measurement sold in Germany, but that doesn’t seem to exist in the US. My mom sticks a whole vanilla bean in a jar of sugar, which as time goes on will infuse the sugar with vanilla flavor, and says she thinks she uses about 2 Tbsp. I’m pretty sure I’ve also made this recipe with no vanilla sugar at all and it was still delicious
My mom does not let the batter sit, either before it’s scooped onto the baking sheet or after. She thinks this makes them spread out a little more? But they’re still delicious
The original recipe says 20-25 minutes, but my mom’s notes say 16-20, and my grandma’s notes say that after the first batch, the oven will be fully hot at which point it’ll be faster by 5-10 minutes, so maybe the 20-25 assumes the oven isn’t fully preheated?
We keep these cookies in a closed container for storage. Sometimes this causes them to clump together into a single solid mass, but you can still break delicious pieces off!
You can also use ground almonds instead of hazelnuts, or mix them half/half, but why would you???