Salut! And welcome back!
Traveling Europe and getting the chance to taste the famous macaron is a time everyone will remember. Oh how delicious it was. Ever since that moment I’ve been in search of finding a macaron so decadent here in the states. I can tell you first hand it is not easy. Unfortunately, I’m only able to search in the surroundings of my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Which, isn’t the best location for European inspired things.
Luckily, I managed to find the perfect little french bakery named La Baguette. This beautiful restaurant was a fantastic gem I was so grateful to come upon. The people working there speak perfect french. They make me feel like I am back in France every time I walk through their doors. At first it was quite difficult to find French worthy macarons, this bakery thankfully had some that met my oh so high standards. They were so good that I decided to have the delicious treats as my dessert choice at my wedding along with eclairs and tarts. No shock to me, all the desserts were gone within minutes of being brought out.
I’ve had an original macaron and now one from my local bakery. So now, its time to make my own. With the help of my husband and my mother, I tried my hand at the impossible macaron. This post is not a post about how to make macarons because I am no master {yet}. It is merely a post about my experience with making them.
As a gift, I received a macaron kit for Christmas; Mastrad 11-Piece Macaron Making Kit. This kit provides a recipe book with recipes from different countries as well as tips and tricks. I decided to not make it complicated and just do the simplest macaron possible. So here we go, almond powder is a main ingredient for macarons and I’ve never used it before, we got the Unblanched Hodgson Mill brand.
Being that it was my first time making them, I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve read that the mixing process is extremely important but, I’m not a baker… I mixed it as best as I knew. Another complication I ran into was the ‘crisping’ moment of the process. The ‘french meringue’ recipe tells you to let the macarons crisp for 15 to 30 minutes before baking. I had no idea what this meant but, it said that the cookie should not stick to your finger.
Unfortunately, I was going to be late for work {because I thought it would be cool to bake macarons for the first time an hour before work}. We were too impatient to wait so we tried putting them in the fridge or outside to get them to crisp faster. Bad idea; I am no expert baker. We made some simple vanilla filling and called it a day. They ended up being about an inch wide and about 1/4th inch thick. They looked bland and had a boring tan color so non interesting I forgot to take pictures. Which is really bad because once you start to get to know me, you never I never leave a moment without a picture. The crisp never actually worked because the macarons were extremely sticky when you picked them up. Needless to say, our first time macaroning was an absolute fail on many accounts.
What were the findings?
First and foremost, allow for plenty of time to bake them. Second, have patience. Third, do plenty of research. Now, I did do some research but the more you read on how others have accomplished them the better. The research not only has to be about the process it can also be about the ingredients you buy. I bought my almond powder at our local Copps grocery store but, perhaps I could have explored other stores to see what kinds and brands they had. I’d say the best part of this experience was being able to learn with my mom and husband. It made the process fun and enjoyable. #bakingwithfamily
Will this be the last of my macaroning days? Absolutely not. Stick with me and you’ll see how I learn new things every time I bake a new batch of macarons!
