Macarons Obsessed

Why is it that I am obsessed with macarons? They seem to be everywhere I turn, in my virtual blogworld, and they are so darn cute! Months ago I decided I would try my hand at making macarons. So I researched, and read, and studied, and compared recipes.

All the while getting more and more stressed out about it. Would they turn out? Would they have those little feet that make them so cute? Would they be good? What do they even taste like? I bought a kitchen scale for the sole purpose of making my first macarons. Well, okay, I must admit, it was the perfect excuse to get one and I love it to bits! A few days ago I decided I had researched enough and got to work.

It helped that I had found Helen’s tutorial in Desserts Magazine, Issue #2. Our lovely Tartelette has given us all of the tricks she uses to come up with those wonderful little confections and I felt a bit like she was with me in the kitchen as I looked through her article. I whipped my egg whites, folded in the almonds, placed my pastry bag in a tall glass to fill it (one of Helen’s tricks), and then I noticed a lot of the batter was staying at the bottom of the glass. That’s when I knew I had given the batter a few strokes too many, it was too thin. Oh, well. I piped the little guys out anyway and threw them in the oven. There. I was sure they would lay flat on the baking sheet and turn out into thin little meringue cookies.

Imagine my surprise when they started growing little feet right before my very eyes. So the second baking sheet went in the oven and when all the macarons had cooled enough I noticed that the ones from the second batch were a little less fragile. Perhaps there’s a reason for the rest period after all!

My little macarons friends are certainly not perfect and I’m sure their fragility is also due to the fact that my batter was too thin, but I’m extremely proud of them all the same! That is why I am sending these to Minko over at Couture Cupcakes for her event Mad for Macarons in May. And now, I think I know why I’ve been macarons obsessed lately. It’s the process that intrigued me. All those questions I had to ask myself, all that research I did, that’s what I loved about these. I can’t wait to make my next batch! I might go easy on the caramel next time…

Macarons with Fleur de Sel Caramel Filling

For the macarons recipe, I’m sending you to Helen’s turorial in Desserts Magazine, it’s so well written and extremely helpful! For the caramel sauce, I used my usual one but added a 1/2 tsp of fleur de sel at the same time as the butter for a fleur de sel caramel.