Recipe #38 - Macarons

I'll be honest. These little heavenly cookies intimidate me. They're beautiful, often made with bright hues and gorgeous fillings. They look like edible perfection. I, on the other hand... I'm messy in the kitchen. You can often find me with flower in my hair and something caked to my shirt as I've forgotten, yet again to don my apron.

I'd read that macarons are difficult, temperamental  little creations. You need a delicate hand and over folding can ruin the cookie. I was terrified. Then I said, "You know what... I can do this, I will do this."

I did it! eeeeeeeeeeeee! I DID IT! They aren't quite as pretty. As all the pictures I've seen. I didn't toy with coloring. I just wanted to get them to work. You bake them in two stages and after the first bake I looked at them and said, "*expletive* I messed these up!" I put them in for the second bake and what to my wondering eyes did appear? *gasp* They worked! I did it! I'm a baking genius! Ok... let's not go that far, but I was really excited! (Sidebar: Prior to the second bake I try to describe to T what they should look like. His response, "So... like little hamburgers?" This is why I'm marrying him, because he never fails to make me laugh... not just giggle, but a full belly laugh.)

I didn't add any flavoring as I like the mild almond flavor they have. I filled them with a simply chocolate butter cream. I'll experiment more in the future with fun flavors (Tartelette has a recipe for Creme Brulle macarons, yum! This is also where I found the recipe I used: Macarons, from Claudia Flemming's The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern.).

So here are some pictures:



 After the first bake, I was nervous.

Then after the second bake they looked pretty good, not perfect, but pretty good. I'll need more practice but the texture was correct.