I love to bake when I have some spare time... or when I need to stop writing an essay and take a breather. I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times so I usually like to master recipes that are the staples - a good chocolate chip cookie here, a vanilla pound cake there. But a few weeks ago I decided to dive into the unknown land of French pastries and tackle the world famous macarons. Yes, those beautiful little sandwich cookies that you can find on everyone's Instagram feed and that look almost too cute to eat - almost! I looked online to find a recipe that would explain how to make them, as I'd heard that these cuties are quite temperamental. Thankfully, I stumbled upon Entertaining With Beth's Foolproof Macaron Recipe which basically made the process 10 times easier than it would be otherwise. She gives you the crucial tricks to combat any disasters - and hopefully you'll end up with the perfect little treats!
I went to the grocery store and rallied up all of the ingredients and made my way back to the kitchen to see if these French delights would get the best of me or not! Long story short.... my first attempt went pretty catastrophic. NTS: when they say use parchment paper, USE PARCHMENT PAPER. They got stuck to the cookie sheet and burned on the bottom - whoops! I was determined to get these right no matter what, so I tried the recipe again. What I learned was to make sure you get a feel for your oven's temperature stability. My oven is a lot hotter so even at 350 F I had to be careful not to burn my macarons. I took them out early because they were about the get too brown and it caused for a hollow inside in some of them so keep that in mind. Also, if you can, use another cookie sheet under the one you're using to prevent the cookies from browning on the bottom too quickly.
Other than that, my macarons turned out pretty cute and delicious! Maybe not to Laduree standards but close enough haha! If you try out the recipe let me know, that way we can share in the struggle that is French baking techniques.
One word: WOW! Your macarons look AMAZING! I would argue these could be Laduree-standard. The Beth's macaron recipe is the one I always use and it's fantastic. I've attempted macarons twice and while they've turned out, they certainly haven't been professional standards aha :)
ReplyDeleteYou are too sweet Meggie! Yes, her recipe really great. I think if I make them a dozen more times I might be able to make them without feeling so pressured haha!
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