Macaron anyone?

The first time I successfully made my first french macaron, I was hooked. Those crazy, cool, sweet & crunchy morsels of joy are are addictive. In more ways than one.

The folks at She Knows just posted a gallery of my many macaron adventures. Take a tour. I hope they inspire you to try them yourself someday. If not, I hope they at least make you smile.

P.S.

As I went through all of my photos last month, gathering images, it suddenly occurred to me how many FREAKIN' macarons I've made in two years. Geez. No wonder my house is such a mess. ;)

Bachelorette Bakery

Some friends of mine hosted a bachelorette gathering the other night and asked me to make a dessert for the bride-to-be. Knowing Amy - and how sweet, chic, and sophisticated she is - I tried to make something equally elegant, with just a "bite" of humor.

I printed out this phrase on a poster:

Before Amy says "I do," let's take her out for one more night of "Oh no you didn't!"

Then I mounted it on foam core, cut holes where all of the O's were, dropped a macaron into each hole, and lined the outside with 4 dozen more macarons.

I'm hope they were enjoyed over much laughter and a glass of wine or two, or three.... or four.

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. 

So, I had to eat him.

I've been baking some nursery rhyme and storybook sweets this week for a baby shower on Saturday. (More photos to come. Lots. More. Photos.)

It seemed a shame to crack this little egg-shaped Humpty Dumpty macaron for a photo. But, as the story goes..... all the kings horses, and all the kings men, couldn't put Humpty together again.

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.)

Carrot Macarons

I'm lovin' these cute colanders of clever crunchy carrots. (I got the mini colanders at World Market. Only $1.99! So, of course, I had to buy three of them.)

When I made these carrots the first time, I just piped the macaron batter into the shape of a carrot. But the next time I made them, I left the batter a little stiffer and piped them with this zig-zag pattern. Much better, dontcha think?

Cut up some lime green licorice for the leafy tops, and voilà! ... the cutest carrots you'll ever wanna crunch!

Funny Bunny Macarons

Hey Mr. Easter Bunny.... fill my basket with these sweet little guys this year! 

The trick to keeping white macarons WHITE when you're baking them, is to put a layer of tin foil on the top baking rack above your cookie sheet. It keeps them from browning.

To make the bunny's ears, just cut a mini marshmallow in half, and then dip the sticky edge in pink sanding sugar.

Little Lamb Macarons

I posted on these a few weeks ago, but I thought I'd highlight of few things that I experimented with when I attempted to make them again.

First of all, if you leave the macaron batter a little stiffer, they pipe into nice fluffy, puffy wooly circles. Also, the 1-1/2 inch circle template works better. They're smaller and easier to eat. I still used black licorice for the legs, but after I was done, I realized that pretzel sticks might have been better. (More people prefer to eat pretzel sticks instead of black licorice.) And instead of attaching tiny pieces of licorice for the ears, the next time I piped them on with black frosting - much easier.

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.

March Macaron Madness

The kids and I are taking the week off for some Spring Break fun. In between trips to the Sedgwick County Zoo, Botanica and maybe a movie or two, I plan to test out more marvelous macaron recipes for my class on Saturday, March 24th.

These clever carrots turned out great, once I found the perfect ingredient for their leafy green tops - lime licorice!


And in case you didn't know, March 20th is World Macaron Day! I will be celebrating, for sure.

Mmmm. Mutton.

In my macaron-baking experiments this week, I attempted these sweet little lambs. Not too baaaad, if I do say so myself.


I discovered, after my first failed batch, that you need to leave the macaron batter a little stiffer than normal if you want to pipe a nice fluffy, wooly surface. I ended up using mini Oreos for the black sheep heads, black licorice for the legs and ears, and a decorator heart for the nose. The eyes are a genius, time-saving item I found at our local baking supply store, Cake Stuff. I think I've seen them at Jo Anne Crafts too. I loved them so much, I bought three packages, in three different sizes. I don't know who's job it is to make googley sugar eyes all day, but THANK YOU, whoever you are.

Somebunny Stop Me

What is it about these crazy macarons? I CAN'T STOP BAKING THEM! I'm completely addicted, and slightly obsessed with coming up with new ideas for my next macaron-baking class at Adriene Rathbun's on Saturday, March 24th. I think there's a few spots left if you'd like to join in on the fun. Please do! Just click here for all the details. 

So far, my list of fun-macarons-I-wanna-demonstrate includes:

Bite-sized Bunnies

Eggcellent Eggs

Little Lambs

Crunchy Carrots

Pastel Posies

Cheeky Chicks

And some clever, seasonal macaron toppers

I'd better stop there. Seems like I'm always trying to share 16 hours worth of ideas in a 3-hour class.

Macaron Madness

For weeks now I've been in a baking frenzy, preparing for my Mad About Macarons class. And today I had nine, wonderful women join me at Adriene Rathbun's for a Social, in-home cooking demonstration. It was so much fun.

I showed them how to make a basic, round, french macaron. Then we attempted a pink bunny macaron. And we finished the class with a demonstration on how to make two kinds of macaron fillings - vanilla buttercream and whipped chocolate ganache. I also brought to class an assortment of other fun macaron ideas to try - Hello Kitty, bumblebees, Very Hungry Caterpillar, turkeys, birds, graduated colors (ombré), snowmen and Mickey Mouse.

I had a fantastic time. I hope they did too. And I hope they'll all attempt this tricky little recipe in their own kitchens soon. Remember, practice makes perfect.


If you'd like your own copy of the recipes and instructions - I highly recommend this PDF from Irina Kogan of PastryPal.com. After testing about six different recipes, with varied success (mostly failure), this one was by far THE BEST. Her tutorial gives wonderful, step-by-step instructions, recommendations on what you might be doing wrong, and variations to try.


Here are a few photos from today's class. These gals can rock a pastry bag, that's for sure... Watch out, Martha Stewart!