mad for macarons

can you believe i went to paris and never ate a macaron or any other baked goods besides croissants and baguettes? no macarons??! well, two years ago i hated sweets. and now i can't get enough of them. i still don't love sweets, but i am in love with trying them.

actually, now that i write that ... can you believe that two years ago i never even heard of a macaron? the horror!

and of course, some of my favorite bloggers are the queens of sweets, and since then i've learned what they are and seen the most beautiful macarons ever. so when minko over at couture cupcakes announced a mad for macarons event, i was instantly excited! here was my chance to try baking the wonderful loveliness that every one adores and which i have never had!

after hemming and hawing with whose macaron recipe to try first, i decided to go with david lebovitz's chocolate version. why not? i have a blog crush on monsieur lebovitz and the idea of chocolately meringuey almondy cookies sounded delish.

and for my first ever batch of macarons, i'm pretty happy. not ecstatic, because they didn't really come out correctly. but happy that i tried them and more than happy that they taste absolutely delish.



i got the cute little feet on my macarons, but the majority of them cracked on the top, as you can see in the tray above. the optimist could reason that i did them right, but some messed up. or the realist could argue that i f*cked them up, and was lucky to get a few to come out nicely. but either way, i would really love it if any of you more experienced macaroners could clue me in to what might have been wrong?



because i've never had a macaron, let alone an excellent one, i don't know what to compare mine to. basically the filling was lovely (although i think i may have not put enough on) and the cookie crust was thin, not really crisp, but like a thin shell, and the inside was soft. i don't know, it's hard to describe it properly (or maybe les adjectifs français serve this purpose better.) the taste was oh so chocolatey and the smell of these were just amazing.

next time, and oh yes there will definitely be a next time, i would like to sift my almond meal even a little bit finer to get a smoother shell. and pipe out my batter a little more evenly in size and shape so i can actually match tops and bottoms!

but this macaron virgin is now officially in love. i can't wait to visit paris again to get the real thing.



for david lebovitz's recipe, click here and you won't be disappointed!

for a description of french macarons, i really like this write up.