Oh interesting! I've had some battles with humidity as well. Have you tried drying them in the oven? The recipe in Les Petite Macarons (which I started off) has that method. I've also put in a thermometer in my oven to see if the calibration was off. They're so finicky!
Sorry; forgot to share the recipe originally!
The recipe for the shells is the standard shell recipe from the book Les Petits Macarons by Anne McBride and Kathryn Gordon. I highly recommend the book; it's VERY detailed and has a lot of pictures demonstrating techniques. The only thing I changed is that the book recommends drying out the piped batter in the oven at a low temperature before baking them. That's never worked for me, so I just dry them on the counter until they form a skin and then bake for 18 min at 300 F.
The salted caramel filling is this recipe from The Tough Cookie. I decorated the shells with royal icing (recipe) and edible markers.
Here's the (slightly adapted) recipe for the shells from the book. Sorry it's absurdly long; I tried to incorporate all of my tips and tricks, but again, highly recommend the book for visuals!
So sorry for the delay in posting the recipe; I was away from home most of the day, and therefore away from my macaron cookbook most of the day. Here you go!
The recipe for the shells is from the book "Les Petits Macarons" by Anne McBride and Kathryn Gordon (I used the French method). I highly recommend the book; it's VERY detailed and has a lot of pictures demonstrating techniques. The only thing I changed is that the book recommends drying out the piped batter in the oven at a low temperature before baking them. That's never worked for me, so I just dry them on the counter until they form a skin and then bake for 18 min at 300 F (but if you make them into gingerbread man shapes, they'll probably need longer—like 20ish min depending on how big they are).
The recipe for the gingerbread buttercream filling is also from the "Les Petits Macarons" cookbook (included instructions below). I decorated the shells with royal icing (recipe).
Here's the (slightly adapted) recipe for the shells from the book. Sorry it's absurdly long; I tried to incorporate all of my tips and tricks, but again, highly recommend the book for visuals!
Five-spice shells recipe:
Gingerbread buttercream recipe: