First Attempt

After deciding that I would learn how to bake french macarons, I discovered I already had a recipe for them. I have David Lebovitz' book "The Sweet Life in Paris" and he has one recipe for chocolate macarons. David was a chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He wrote this book about living, eating, and cooking in Paris. It's really interesting and a good guide to the city, interspersed with great recipes.

I checked his website before I began and found he has a section on macarons and the techniques for making them as well as another recipe, one he said was more popular with his French friends. So that is the one I made - chocolate macarons with chocolate, prune and cognac filling. He says to use Armagnac for the cognac. I went off to the liquor store to get a small bottle and was told the only bottle they had cost $1,100.00. That can't possibly be right. Certainly would not be included in my first batch of macarons. I found a $3 mini bottle of Courvoisier, which I hoped would be adequate.

I made the cookies over Thanksgiving weekend. I was quite tense after reading about all the disasters possible and the importance of technique. What technique? You are supposed to use a pastry bag to make small circles with the meringue. I had never used a pastry bag. I bought a kit by Wilton with disposable plastic bags and a few different tips. This worked well except that as a new user my technique produced almost as much batter out the top of the bag as through the tip on the bottom. Eventually I got enough batter circles on the parchment paper on the cookie sheets and got the cookies in the oven. I finally relaxed a little when they were done and they each had the small footing on the bottom, characteristic of the macaron cookie. It's called the "pied." You can see this in the photo above. Two of these cookies will be put together with the chocolate filling to make the macaron.

If you decide to make this recipe, I have found that my oven cooks the macarons in about half the time of the recipe. I have also learned that Lebovitz' requirement of rapping the cookie sheets on the counter before you put them into the oven is essential. I slam them on the counter about three times before baking. It pops the air bubbles out of the meringue.

Life Altering

That was how french macarons were described to me before I took a trip to Paris in the winter of 2009. Hard to believe. A friend and I went searching for them at various bakeries. And finally got to the two famous pastry shops, Laduree and Pierre Herme. Oh my goodness. We ate those cookies on the street outside both shops, because we couldn't wait to get to the hotel or even a bench to sit down, to taste them. We swooned. We moaned. We wanted more. Those little cookies are amazing, and definitely life altering. They are nothing like the coconut macaroons that we know in the U.S. I decided that I had to learn how to make these. How difficult could it be? Three months after this trip and several tries baking them and I'll tell you they are not easy and they are labor intensive. But even the rejects taste good. I am not a cook by profession and have had many years of hardly cooking at all, but I like to bake and these are so good I thought it would be worth the effort.

What are they? Small meringue sandwich cookies with a creamy center. Any flavor can be added to both the cookie and the cream. Bigger is not better. There is something about the proportions with the smaller cookies that make them more delicious than the larger ones. Since returning from Paris, I have learned that they have become the new dessert craze in the U.S., replacing cupcakes. And, by the way, they are spelled with only one "o" even in English.