Notable Edibles - Cape Cod Macarons
Owning a small business can sometimes feel like a three-ring circus. In that regard, there are not many people more qualified to take a shot at creating their own brand than Kristin Stewart of Harwich. She and her husband Jay were once professional clowns, and traveled the country with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for several years. The couple returned to Cape Cod to raise their two boys, KJ and Nick. Kristin and Jay both continue to work helping others. Kristin has moved to a non-profit organization, The Healthy Children Project Center for Breastfeeding, which teaches best practices in newborn health care. Her husband is still in the happiness trade. “Jay works for a non-profit called The Laughter League, which sends clowns into children’s hospitals,” she explains of the extremely difficult job of bringing smiles to the faces of children and their families while at their lowest, most stressful moments. When the pandemic drove her work online, Kristin worked from home (and still does), and this allowed her the time to launch Cape Cod Macarons – a business born from curiosity and creativity.
“I should not be good at this,” Stewart admits with a chuckle. “I’m not a baker. My husband baked all of the birthday cakes. I’m just not a precision girl.” What she does have is determination. The establishment of Cape Cod Macarons stems from a need to perfect the process of making one of those tasty, beautiful, and extremely delicate treats.
In 2021, Kristin started watching the Great British Baking Show and thought to try making macarons like the ones she saw on the show. “I thought, ‘how hard could they possibly be?’” She recalls. “So, I Googled a recipe, made them, and good Lord, they were a disaster. Just an utter failure.” The results lit a fire within, and Stewart was not going to be defeated by these delicacies. So, she vowed to make a batch of macarons every day for the month of March back in 2021. “I recorded the baking temperature, the ambient temperature, the humidity,” she explains. “It was a little over the top, but by the end of March, I had figured it out. I tweaked the recipes, I knew my oven, and I could make them consistently.” Evidence of that research is in plain sight with two kitchen timers attached to her oven. One is set for three minutes, the other for nineteen. “I figured out I needed to bake the cookies for three minutes with the door cracked open,’ She explains. “And another nineteen with the door closed.” The cookies come out of the oven with the smooth, hard-shell appearance that features the traditional rough edge bottom known as the “foot”. The cookies are allowed to “mature” in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. This allows the soft, chewy interior to expand within the hard shell. Macarons are gluten free since the meringue-based cookies only have four ingredients: egg whites, sugar, powdered sugar, and almond flour. “I love playing with the colors,” Stewart says of the vibrant array of tints the cookies have. The recent fall line had a more muted palette to them.
A decadent buttercream filling is sandwiched between two cookies, and a macaron is born. The cookies (no matter the color) all have the same, mildly sweet flavor. The filling is where the taste of each different macaron is derived. Stewart has created over one hundred different flavors of filling over the years. The flavors change seasonally, except for the “Rainbow” sleeve, which features six of her most popular flavors: dark chocolate, orange cream, lemon, key lime, vanilla, and salted caramel. The fall season introduced maple, pumpkin spice, almond, pistachio, caramel apple, and chai spice. Stewart is working on some flavor profiles which will fit perfectly during the holidays. “Oh, there has to be a candy cane in there,” she laughs.
Once perfected, friends (as they often do) started to urge Stewart to sell them professionally. Stewart researched the Massachusetts Cottage Food Laws and went about the onerous task of getting her home kitchen certified for retail production of Cape Cod Macarons. With the retail license, Stewart can sell her macarons both on her website, and at events like farmers’ markets this past summer, and a recent Love Local Fest in Hyannis. “I panicked, and signed up for three farmers’ markets,” Stewart admits, fearing no one would buy the macarons, yet sales took off . “Thank God my son Nick was home this summer. He handled the Osterville and Chatham markets for me.” Now, to handle the expanded production needs to sell both retail and wholesale, Stewart received her wholesale license through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and handles that side of the business through her membership at the Cape Cod Culinary Incubator at KAM Appliance in Hyannis. Cape Cod Macarons can be found at several stores across the Cape, including Cape Abilities Farm Stand and Montilio’s Bakery at Ring Bros. Marketplace in Dennis, Nauset Farms in Orleans, and Angel Foods in Provincetown.
Macaron making is a challenge to be sure. The bones of cracked, shattered, and/or crushed cookies past are in a tub labeled “Eat These” in the family fridge, but Stewart bakes onward. The tweaking and experimenting with tastes will continue for Stewart and Cape Cod Macarons. “What draws me to it is the endless possibilities,” she gushes. However, continuing to offer customer favorites while introducing new, seasonal flavors to scratch that itch of creativity can be a bit of a juggling act. One which Stewart can deftly handle, for sure.
Cape Cod Macarons
capecodmacarons.com
