homemade macaroons

I haven’t gone crazy for them in their trendiness as I am more savoury than sweet. But my commitment stretches far enough to buy them from three different places in Paris last year in the name of a taste-testing experiment. Unfortunately I didn’t like any of them, even the famous ones. I think there might be a difference in the sugar that tasted strange to my tastebuds?

I set macaroons as April’s Cooking Club task so that I could face my fear that I might not be able to make them all by myself. Making macaroons are set to be forever linked to memories of a former flatmate. She was the one with whom I made them for the first time when she visited last year. Admittedly, I was quite prepared that I may not succeed without her baking skills. But I was determined to try my hardest. Some chilled music was playing, the mobile phone was off and I was in the moment.

For those of you who are minimalists and/or irregular bakers like me, you might find the trick she showed me very useful – a large zip-seal sandwich bag to pipe the mixture. Next time I would cut off a smaller hole to allow full control of the outflow. I would love to show you straight rows of uniform sizes on the cooking tray. But I was hunched over the bench focusing my eyes intently on each one I was creating, unable to see if I had aligned it with the previous one. As I stood back to examine my handy work I found the gaps in which to fill with the mini macaroons. Ah but the minis are kinda cute!

Did they bake perfectly? No way! But wow, they were much better than I thought they would be. A few were sticky and fell apart as I peeled them off the baking paper. Perfect for taste testing samples. My ganache was also very runny and messy but solidified into a lovely texture after refrigeration. Perhaps I should have cooled it more before spreading?

Finding the magic pair in the baked macaroons is rather a sweet affair. It’s nice to think that despite the haphazard creation of sizes that there might be the perfect other half for each one. Kind of a nice metaphor for life, isn’t it? My other half got to choose the recipe from the book. He was a very happy husband. I ate my first ones with some green tea. Afterwards I sat back and wrote to a couple of gorgeous girls on my postcards.

Pop over to Quiet Paws to see her mocha macaroons! If you want to join the cooking club for May, please leave me a comment and I will email you the details. It’s very casual, non-competitive and about inspiring and supporting new adventures in our kitchens.