i have a frustrating love/hate relationship with macaroons. i actually think the "love" part is almost over... i first was wooed by the fancy french sandwich cookies in sofia coppola's marie antoinette (you remember that scene with "i want candy" blaring and all those great dresses and wigs!).
the macaroons used in the film were from the famous parisian bakery, laduree
it's a pretty good thing i couldn't convince oliver to host a marie antoinette themed party, because i could not have delivered in ways i advertised (and was most excited about)-- i can't make macaroons!
ashley has mastered them over and over. i blame her success on her stand mixer and that page in martha's book with the photos whipped egg whites that helps her identify when her 'medium-soft peaks' have been achieved. the stiffness of the peaks are key. once in austin, she offered to help me out. one batch of the handful we made together came out right.
ash and i's lemon macaroons resting before taking a trip to the oven
fresh from the oven. notice how the tops aren't smooth like the professional macs? another batch we sifted the almond over and over, which resulted in the shiny smooth tops.
at least these developed "feet" and didn't get stuck to the parchment. and they tasted amazing!
...but on my own i am completely useless. blame it on my hot apartment, not beating the eggs properly, not using fine enough almond flour... mostly i think i'm impatient with the whole process. the most successful batches come from lots of patience and prep-- letting egg white sit out overnight, sifting almond over and over, letting piped macaroons 'rest' a while before baking. so many rules! it's annoying because the ingredients are so simple, but the technique apparently takes some real skill. which i thought i had. some of my disgraceful results are documented below.
the first time i tried making macaroons at home didn't go so well. these strawberry monsters were all wrong. what's with all the lumps? and the colors are just terrible!
these espresso macaroons had blackberry jam inside. they were smooth on top, but didn't have the "feet" that give the cookies the proper thin outer shell and slightly chewy inside.
grabbed some maison burdisso macs at the market on saturday...
i devoured the vanilla and strawberry, but didn't care for the tiramisu.
well then, ms. burdisso, explain to me why a small japanese co-worker of mine can pound out seemingly ((thesaurus.com for perfect because i don't want to say perfect...)) macs and i, a "seasoned" baker can't!? i still think i should be good at it. hitomi just got lucky. twice.
Aw, I'm sorry your macarooning still isn't going well. I bet if you tried three or four batches in a row, you'd find your rhythm eventually. I know what you mean about time-consuming though. It's best to set aside a really large chunk of time (about a full day) to concentrate on them and them alone. Who has time for that?! Maybe we can give it another go next time we're in the same city! I could use some practice. And they taste SO good (even without feet and smooth tops) :)
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