Macarons, the little French meringue-like sandwich cookies (not to be confused with macaroons, the coconut cookies) are one of my boyfriend's favorite things on earth.
They've taken over food blogs and may be (or are they already?) the next food craze. Pierre Hermé and Laudrée in Paris are the masters of macarons and feature the cookies in a multitude of flavor combinations.
I've shied away from making them after reading on blogs that they are a pain in the butt to make. Every step of the recipes is portrayed as a delicate procedure and requires painstaking effort.
Well since today is Valentine's Day, I've decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at making some macarons for the boyfriend.
I followed the Martha Stewart macaron recipe I found at the blog Giver's Log, penned by a baker named AmberLee. The post gives detailed instructions, along with helpful tips and photos. I followed AmberLee's recipe to a T, and my macarons came out fabulous. Considering all the hubbub around the difficulty of macaron making, I was astonished that my macarons came out nicely my first attempt. They even had perfect little "feet" (pied in French), the little ruffled bottoms.
I made the little hearts on my macaron shells by dying a bit of reserved batter a darker pink, dropping a little blob of that batter atop of freshly piped shells, and then drawing a toothpick through the centers.
Get the recipe here.
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