Monday, October 26, 2009

Oh yes, I'm a Daring Baker and this month's challenge was making Macarons. "Macaron" is french for "Damn much work for this neat little cookie". I've been dying to try them from the first time I saw them last year on internet. Cute little cookies with different fillings and in rainbow colors - that was quite intriguing.
For the challenge we were supposed to use the french technique. I started full of enthusiasm, grinding my own nuts, letting the eggwhites age on the counter and putting high hopes into the result. Suffice to say that I failed competely at that. The macarons came out flat and brittle and I felt defeated. Fortunately after reading the comments on the forum I realized that I was not the only one. Many fellow bakers did have problems with the recipe and some have suggested trying Tartellette's recipe. It worked like a treat! For my Pesto-inspired macarons I did sub half of the almonds for pine nuts and prepared basil-infused white chocolate ganache. The macarons came out quite pefect, cute little feet and all, even though I wish I had made smaller circles. The flavors played toghether nicely and the cookies were gone whithin an hour :)
Would I make them again? Not on a day-to-day basis, but for some fancy party surely yes!

4 commenti:

Wic said...

love what you did with the challenge. adore the picture.

Audax said...

Yes Helen's recipe is superb. Lovely looking and delicious sounding macarons well done. Cheers from Audax in Australia.

Lauren said...

Gorgeous macarons! Love the flavours you chose =D.

Adelaide B said...

I am lucky to have a couple of places that make wonderful macarons in my city. (Although the best I have ever had was in South Korea.) I would like to bake them myself, but have not got up the gumption yet. Maybe for christmas.

Post a Comment

Template by:
Free Blog Templates