Experiments in Baking

I saw a baking trick in the latest Martha Stewart Living that I wanted to try. It was a recipe for pretty, swirled meringue cookies. (Meringues are kinda like macarons, minus the almond flour.)

For a while now, I've been trying to figure out how to make multicolored macarons without totally screwing up the batter. When you add too much food coloring or fold the batter too many times, you get messy macarons. I want pretty macarons.

Anyway, Martha's tutorial said to paint stripes on the inside of the pastry bag with gel food coloring before you fill it with your batter. I tried it, and it sorta worked. They weren't pretty & swirled like the meringues in her photo, but they were definitely different, and colorful. I think the green food coloring I used was too dark.

You can be sure I will try this trick again. And again. And again.  

Pretty Pastel Pastry

See why I love macarons? They're just soooooo pretty. Especially when you can display them in these clear plastic tubes. I find lots of great options for clear plastic food packaging here and here.

Baby Chick Macarons

Cheep! Chirp! Chomp! Who wouldn't want a bite of these Easter chicks?

I cut yellow jellybeans in half for the little wings, used an orange triangle decorator candy for the nose, and added some googley eyes (that I found at my local cake supply store.)

Easter Egg Macarons

Pretty pastel colors, sweet little speckles, what's not to love about these Easter egg macarons?

When you're piping them, it helps to start in the middle and swirl your way to the outside. Before popping them in the oven, fleck some festive speckles with a toothbrush dipped in some food coloring gel. (Watch where you fleck your specks though, my kitchen counters were quite colorful after I made these.)

I found this box at Hobby Lobby and glued a printout of the Little Golden Egg Book on the front.

Inside, are five different colors of speckled, Easter-egg macarons.

I found these cute, Easter-y takeout boxes at World Market.

Mastering the Macaron

Ten lovely ladies joined me today at Adriene Rathbun's Social Class to learn how to make french macarons. They asked lots of good questions and were quick learners. Our first couple of batches turned out absolutely perfect! We ran out of time - as we always seem to do - and didn't have a chance to bake them all. But I had made enough "samples" for everyone to take home boxes of treats to share.

It was so nice to meet everyone. I hope my love of this silly cookie inspires them to bake many colorful batches in their own kitchens. After 3 hours, I think they realized it's not a recipe for wimps. There's definitely a commitment of time & energy when you go to bake them. But they're worth it.

 

A special thanks to Rhonda, for being my most faithful student and my #1 fan!

Color Me Crazy

The thing I love most about macarons is the bright, cheerful colors. 

The thing I hate most about macarons is the TIME it takes to bake all those bright, cheerful colors.

I've spent the last three weeks, creating and experimenting with various Spring & Easter-y macarons for my upcoming class. I hope everyone enjoys what I'm about to share, because it's a helluvalotta work, for such a tiny cookie.

More fun photos to come.... stay tuned!