Macaroon 2.0

A bit of honesty here: while all of my Pittsburgh born-and-bred friends are gearing up for the Steelers game, I am working on business ideas and plans in my bedroom.  My cable-less bedroom.  And at 9pm I'm watching Revenge on television.  Let me know when hockey's back, and then you'll see the true sports fan within me come out.

We're not here to talk about hockey, though (sad :-( ...)  We are here to talk about my second attempt to make the perfect macaroon!

As you know, my bakery skills are self taught, from my Easy Bake Oven days forward.  I have never sat for a single class (that will change soon), and everything I've learned has come from friends, family, the internet, and maybe 20 bazillion Food Network shows.  Oh, and a little common sense too ;-)

That being said, sometimes my first tries are far from perfect.  My first tiered cake was, well, a disaster.  It took me 3 times longer than it should have to actually get enough cake to use, and then it heavily leaned to the one side.  My first chocolate cupcake was either the best or worst cupcake in the world, depending on who you ask.  My original attempt at spritz Christmas cookies almost burnt the Mexican crack den I live in to the ground.  Sometimes my baking classes are nearly catastrophic.

For those of you who are brand spanking new to this blog, last week I tried and failed to make an edible and beautiful macaroon.  It was edible, but it looked awful.  You know those macaroni projects your kids bring home that look like a train wreck, but you post them on the fridge anyway because you want your kids to feel like something they invested time and energy in is worthwhile??  Yeah, that's how I felt about these macaroons.  I was happy I had tried, but man I couldn't wait to throw them away.

So take two was today. And I have to admit, I was bound and determined to make this recipe correctly this time.  Sometimes, when I'm impatient, or think I know everything, I'll tend to edit recipes to my liking.  For example, the recipe I was trying said "sift the powdered sugar, cocoa, and almonds together once to properly mix ingredients before stirring", but, thinking this was a dump step, I skipped it last time.  I'm not saying it was the deal breaker for my Round 1 Macaroons, but you better believe I was going to follow every darn step perfectly this time.  To a T.

About an hour later (after my food processor had had enough), I pulled my first batch from the oven:

Perfection!  Finally, it seemed I had mastered the tricky art of macaroon baking.

Here's what I love about recipes like this: once you understand how the base recipe works (i.e. how a macaroon becomes a macaroon) the creativity you have is absolutely endless!  I made chocolate because, well, I have a weakness for the flavor, but I was already dreaming up flavor combinations and designs I would love to try out.  Definitely a mint chocolate recipe.  What about a lemon cookie with a raspberry glaze icing between?  An apple cinnamon combination, or even something more daring like rose and almond?  This is why I love baking!!  It's almost like a complex science experiment, and once you understand what needs to be done you can have as much fun as you'd like with it.

Any other suggestions for some delicious macaroon flavors and fillings?  What about a PB&J macaroon?  Would you eat that?  Let me know if you have any other fabulous ideas for macaroon flavorings!  This could become my new favorite thing to make!!

Lis

Macaroon Mishaps

Look at that photo. Just feast your eyes on the beauty of it...

A chocolate macaroon.  A perfect cookie, paired with another perfect cookie, sandwiching together some beautiful cream icing for the ultimate sweet treat.  Does life get better than a macaroon sandwich?

On Sunday I decided to spend a football-free day off trying to perfect my macaroon recipe.  If you've never made these before, they're easy enough, when it comes to ingredients.  Almonds, powdered sugar, cocoa, egg whites, and a hint of sugar.  But these are ridiculously time consuming to make, and will dirty every dish in your kitchen.  For most of you non-bakers, you also probably don't have some of the supplies required for the perfect macaroon.

I had all the supplies, though, and all of the ingredients, minus the almonds (and holy cow, the evil galactic empire that is Giant Eagle ACTUALLY HAD ALMONDS ON SALE!!!!!!  But I digress).  A quick trip to the store fixed that.  I thought, hey, this is a good recipe to learn in the process of opening a bakery, I'm going to spend the day and learn how to make macaroons.

These were my macaroons.  Hmmm....a little different from those little drops of heaven above.  Well, to be fair, these taste delicious.  They melt in your mouth like meringues  have this sweet nutty taste from the almonds, and the chocolate creme icing in the middle is to die for.  As for the appearance, well...that could use some work.

I think a lot of people would be utterly frustrated if this was their end result.  Maybe I should be a little too.  Maybe I was a little when I saw the volcano of chocolate-covered dishes that were sitting in my sink waiting for me.  But let's be honest, this is a learning experience for me.  You have no idea how many cookies, cakes, cupcakes, icings, and fillings I've messed up in the past year.  Lots.  They talk about us "Going Green"  constantly on television commercials: obviously they do not see my dumpster full of baking catastrophe garbage bags.  It's a learning process, especially for someone who is a self-taught baker.

I'll learn, though, and next time make an even better macaroon.  Soon I'll be making perfect macaroons, worthy of photographs from professionals, and their own blog post.  I was going to make some more tonight, but I'll let you in on a little secret: I still have a few dishes from yesterday to finish.  You'll learn very quickly that I hate dishes with an absolute passion.

So remember this post when I'm richer than Betty Crocker ;-)  There was a moment in time when I could not create macaroons any better than the next Holly Housewife!

Hope the rest of your week is great!!  If you need a sweet pick-me-up, let me know how I can help.

Lis