In defence of the slackaron
Nature Week on The Great Canadian Baking Show but Vegan
It’s week six of my commitment to baking along with the Signature challenge each week of The Great Canadian Baking Show this season. The gist of the challenge: the show airs on Sundays and I give myself until the following Sunday to come up with my concept, test, and deliver to my fearless judges, Sam and Shannon (my upstairs neighbours) who incredibly kindly fill out my lightly deranged feedback form. Then I put it all here for you, dearest reader, complete with some form of recipe. Here’s last week’s focaccia painting of the Toronto skyline in case you missed it.
It was Nature Week on the Great Canadian Baking Show, and the signature challenge was “Macaron Critters.” I’ll admit my heart sank when I heard this. If you’re into baking, you probably know that these delicate meringue sandwich cookies are notoriously finicky to make with egg whites, let alone doing them vegan. I’ve made a few aquafaba projects in my day, but they’ve been hit and miss (we all know what aquafaba is these days, right? Just in case: it’s the cooking liquid from legumes. That’s right, bean juice). I didn’t really have high hopes.
Now that I’ve completed the challenge, though, I have something controversial to say: I think the online “mac community” needs to chill out a little bit about “feet.” All this time, watching Bake Off contestants freak out about the emergence of the feet — the lifted, slightly bubbly bit at the bottom of each meringue cookie — I assumed that something would actually happen if they didn’t emerge. It would mean the innards would be gluey, or burnt. It would mean they would be tastelessly hollow inside, a ghost of a macaron shell. But no. All that happens is…they don’t have a lifted, slightly bubbly bit on their bottoms. That’s it! Having now learned this experientially, I have feelings about the tyranny of feet, and some of the other marks of perfection, too.
I’m the first to admit that I could easily have become outrageously obsessive about this week’s bake — could’ve made ten batches, cried at the fourth set to come out footless, etc. But because I was super busy at work, and to honour my goal of prioritizing the writing of my novel over baking, I set myself some ground rules:
I could research recipes all week, but I couldn’t start baking till Friday. This was easy to enforce because I needed to borrow my friend Fiona’s stand mixer — my current hand mixer does not have the torque needed to turn bean juice into meringue. I scheduled the pick-up for Friday morning so I wouldn’t be tempted to start early by the shiny red machine.
I could only do one-and-done, no test batch first, no need to destroy the kitchen twice of a weekend.
Since it was my first go, I would do a bog-standard macaron and focus on technique instead of creative flavour combos. I had low-key decided on chocolate already so as to finally make a dessert my partner David would enjoy. This was solidified when I ran into Bake Off judge and neighbour, Shannon, in the hallway with her five-year-old, Elias. We chatted about the macaron-to-come for a bit, and Elias specifically requested chocolate. Done! And though the show’s brief included making two fillings, when Elias sharply vetoed my chocolate-cherry idea, I came to my senses and decided to only do one. Elias, thank you so much.
Friday came, I hauled the KitchenAid home in an uber, and after work I got the party started. Though there are many popular vegan macaron recipes online (see below), I went with one posted some years ago to the macaron subreddit, guided by gut feeling. Also based on nothing but my own intuition and laziness, I added fava bean flour instead of chickpea flour because that’s what I already had. Midway through preparations, I realized I didn’t have enough powdered sugar so I threw in extra granulated and an eyeballed pinch of cornstarch (I have a Vitamix, I could have powdered the sugar myself, but…I didn’t). I pretty much eyeballed the cocoa powder, too. Though warned to sift the dry ingredients thrice, I did about once-and-a-half. It’s been years since I last made aquafaba meringue, so I couldn’t remember how it felt when successful. In my reading, some vegan macaron makers insisted on the world’s stiffest peaks, others suggested the peak should droop ever so slightly into a “hawk’s beak.” To be honest, every time I’ve whipped aquafaba I become so mesmerized by the power of bean juice that I feel a bit high, and Friday was no exception. Were the peaks stiff enough? I don’t know! I was tripping so hard on the fact that there were peaks at all!
Piping the cookies was the first time in my entire life that I had wielded a piping bag. As such, I wasn’t mad about how they looked, but like. I probably did a terrible job technically? Also by this point it was already 9:00PM, so I only rested them one hour before baking even though many experts recommend two for vegan macarons. I had three small trays to bake, and I changed the oven temperature and rack height for each one, but saw no appreciable difference in outcome. I confess I stared into the oven each time, willing those feet to form. But when they didn’t, I didn’t sweat it that much — after all, I had done so many things wrong!
The next afternoon, I made my ganache filling with chocolate chips rather than chopped baking chocolate. Yes, I know chocolate chips contain stabilizers to keep them chip-like which could mess up your ganache, but you know what? They’ve never messed it up for me that much, I hate chopping chocolate, and I wanted to have some time left in the day to lie down and read my book. Finally, I eschewed making royal icing and piped on faces with extra ganache instead. I was done ahead of schedule for the first time since this Bake Off challenge began and I was pretty chuffed.
If you’ve spent any time on Macaron Internet, you’re probably like, “What were you chuffed for? Surely your macarons failed completely, you committed at least 18 of the 25 deadly macaron sins!” Indeed, they arrived into the world cracked, footless, mostly hollow, and really wonkily shaped. This is the first one I ate:
An actual hole at the peak of its naughtily domed and cracked top. And yet? A wildly delicious, special-tasting little treat; a very pleasurable eating experience! Once, in the early aughts, long before the macaron craze in North America, before I went vegan, a friend brought me a box of macarons from Ladurée in Paris, and they blew me away. They were unlike anything I’d ever tasted. Eating them felt like a serious luxury event. I was careful to eat them very mindfully, savouring the crisp, yet soft and slightly chewy texture of the cookie, the silky filling, the intense sweetness, the clean, vibrant flavours. And I can seriously say — I wouldn’t lie! — that eating that ugly little guy up there gave me some of the very same vibes.
Though maybe not elegant per se, I also think my so-called failures still look pretty cute. Sure, maybe the faces look piped on by a ten year-old, but…I’m kind of obsessed?
Look, I’m not saying my cracked meringue cookies are the actual same thing as the gorgeously ruffled, unblemished confection you spent the last two years of your life perfecting! I’m not saying, either, that people shouldn’t care about such things. They should! In other areas of my life, I, too, am interested in pursuing aesthetic perfection and respecting long-held tradition and hard-won expertise. I do believe the stunning beauty of the product is part of the thrill of eating a professionally-made macaron from Ladurée or Sweet Maresa’s (vegan macarons supreme!). Some people might say “it’s fine to enjoy your treat, but it’s not a macaron.” Maybe I even agree with them.
In light of the above, I wish to propose a new term: the slackaron. Not only is this something to call your messy-ass macarons so recipients know what to expect; it’s also a whole vibe, an ethos if you will. It’s making macarons, but not giving a shit if they “fail.” No feet? No problem. Cracks? Cute! Lopsided? Sure. Browned? Toasty! Because trust me when I tell you THESE COOKIES ARE ALWAYS EXCEPTIONALLY DELICIOUS! NO MATTER WHAT. If you apply the slackaron ethos and turn out a perfect specimen instead? Great! They can switch back to macarons just like that. Slackaron energy is just about making these cookies with zero fear in your heart. Whip up your bean juice and have a little fun. Your recipe may say, “The macaron is science! You cannot be off by a single gram!” Slackaron energy says, “Actually you totally can, within reason.” You can make slackarons when you’re a little high, either on the magic of foaming bean juice, or something else. When making slackarons, you can stay chill during macaronage — the art of deflating your meringue just enough (which I definitely messed up) — and simply enjoy the music of teeny air bubbles popping. Slackaronage!
Would I be singing a different tune had my slackarons by some miracle turned out smooth and be-footed on the first try? We’ll never know! But truly, I think we can all just lighten up and enjoy our nutty little meringue cookies with creamy fillings however the hell they want to come out, cracks and bulges and all. The slackaron is self-care! Long live the slackaron!
Judges Notes:
I was already halfway done writing this post before the judge’s feedback forms came in, and lightly nervous I’d have to switch gears on the whole “slackarons are awesome” thing when they did arrive. Instead:
Sam: These were a slam dunk! The chewiness and flavour reminded me of delicious marzipan and I never in a million years would have guessed I was eating chickpea juice. I did not even notice the lack of feet or the domed shape. To be honest, I preferred these to any macarons I have ever tried before. I loved the dark chocolate filling and probably could have eaten a tray of just the outer macaron meringues. My eight year-old was a big fan of the cat shapes.
Shannon: A hit! The texture was spot on, right balance of crisp and delicate. They were extremely tasty, though the ganache may have been a touch too sweet. It would be impossible to know they were vegan. I did not notice the feet or lack of! I did notice how adorable they were. Elias said they were “purrfect.” 😻
Recipes & Shout-outs:
As mentioned, I used a recipe found on the macaron subreddit, specifically from user spinyitis in this thread. Spinyitis uses aquafaba, granulated sugar, almond flour, and powdered sugar in a 1:1:1.2:1.2 ratio, but what sets their recipe apart is they also add 4 grams of chickpea flour per 50 grams of aquafaba. I was intrigued by this! I didn’t actually have chickpea flour, but fava bean flour usually works the same if not better for most things in my experience, so I went for it. Because it wasn’t otherwise specified, I used the French meringue method — no heating of the aquafaba or melting of the sugar. This seemed easiest, and I got started late, so time was of the essence. If you’re a) more skilled than me, or b) have already embraced the slackaron vibe, I think it’s a good recipe to try. This Pies & Tacos recipe is another popular vegan one that uses French meringue.
For my ganache I did 150 grams of chocolate chips and 150 grams of coconut cream (the hardened part scooped from the top of a refrigerated can of coconut milk). The latter I heated in the microwave until bubbling, then poured over the chocolate chips in a bowl, covered for 2 minutes, then stirred until smooth. I chilled that down, whipped it with the hand-mixer, and it was ready to pipe.
When next I make slackarons, I’m going to try a Swiss meringue, where you melt the sugar in the aquafaba first. This recipe from Project Vegan Baking gets quite a bit of love and uses the Swiss method. Another redditor who makes the most exquisite macarons recommends the Swiss meringue-employing Broma Bakery recipe, simply replacing aquafaba for the egg white. That one interests me as its proportions imply it might end up a tad less sweet than others. But I’d probably add some cream of tartar for extra whipping insurance.
This vegan recipe from Cooking on Caffeine seems to be successful for many, and uses Italian meringue, the most involved of the three. The blogger there is riffing on this recipe at The Blenderist, which also looks good if you can handle the faff of Italian meringue. At the moment, making sugar syrup and taking its temperature before any of the other million steps does not seem in keeping with my slackaron attitude, but you never know, things can change!
A lot of people are starting to experiment with isolated potato protein to make their vegan macarons as it’s apparently more consistent than aquafaba. I’m of two minds about this. If it makes it easier for vegans to have delicious treats, I guess that’s great? And of course consistency is king for professional bakers. But I personally love the of-the-people-ness of aquafaba. It’s as cheap as your can of chickpeas, no tech bros required, you know? Still, if you want to try it out, you can get SOSA PotatoWhip in Canada here (and other places, I’m sure).
Finally, thanks to Fiona for making time in her busy day to corral her stand mixer and attachments for me. And to my online friend and fearless baker,
(whose aquafaba meringues are a sight to behold) for baking camaraderie and convincing me that I did, indeed, need to borrow a proper mixer.
Just two weeks of the baking challenge remain! Thanks for your enthusiasm and readership, it means the world to me!
ok these are GORGEOUS! you're inspiring me to try.
They look great