Me and a Macaron

What do you get when you mix almond flour, four hours and an intense arm workout? I'll give you a hint: It's not the incredibly sculpted arms you are no doubt imagining. This was my afternoon/early part of the evening today as I took on the most challenging quest of any aspiring baker: French macarons. Let me be the first to tell you, these delicate almond cookies are much more difficult than what initially meets the eye.

It all started 3 summers ago when I studied abroad in Paris for a month. One day, my friends and I were walking around St. Germain des Pres and we came across this little shop called Laduree. Little did we know that this “little shop” was actually the mecca of French pastry. I saw these small little cookie sandwich things, and decided to try one. One bite into a salted caramel macaron, and I knew I had found my favorite dessert of all time. During my stay in Paris, I frequented the various Laduee shops (there are 3- One near the Place de Concorde, one in St. Germain des Pres and one on the Champs.)  Imagine my despair as I leanred that Laduree does not ship their famous macarons across the pond. So, once I returned to the States, I began a quest to find a macaron akin to Laduree’s.

Flash-forward 3 years later. Finally, after numerous visits to various macaron shops, I decided to quit waiting for fate to toss me a macaron and make my own instead. I just received a Laduree cookbook straight from Paris from a dear friend as a graduation/birthday gift, and I thought “Today is Monday. Monday begins with an “m.” Just like macaron. Macaron Monday.” Today was the day! I called up my two partners in crime; we came up with a plan of attack and then began the execution.

Which leads us to my kitchen this afternoon. After consulting the bible of all macarons (the Laduree cookbook, of course) I decided to start out “easy” with my first attempt and just go with the plain, basic macaron. I figured once I had the basics down pat, I could start getting wild with different flavors and colors, but for my first time, I wanted to keep it simple. I was initially going to make my own almond flour, but after reading that it required blanching the almonds, peeling back their skins, pulsing them, squeezing every last drop of water from them, pulsing them in a food processor, sifting them, and then finally starting the recipe, I just decided to speed over to Trader Joe’s for some almond meal. Best decision ever.

Essentially, a macaron is made of almond flour, egg whites and sugar. However, as I discovered from reading multiple sources, it is imperative that the almond flour and sugar be sifted thoroughly so there are no lumps in the batter whatsoever. And, two and a half hours later, there were absolutely no lumps in this almond flour sugar mixture. Yes, that would be two and a half hours of non-stop sifting and poking and prodding the almond flour and sugar through a very fine mesh sieve. Factor in being sliced by the food processor (while it was off) in an attempt to get all the remaining bits of almond flour, a few harsh words, some stressful tears and a hot, humid kitchen and it was just a party in that kitchen. At least we were getting a workout while we were baking! Not to mention having to beat six egg whites “until nice, frothy foam is formed with small bubbles on the surface.”

Finally, the egg whites were whipped to frothy perfection, all of the almond flour was perfectly sifted and the pastry bag was all ready to go. It was time for the transformation of glossy batter into delicious round disks of pure French goodness.  I spooned the batter into the pastry bag outfitted with a 1/2cm tip and piped away! Cookie sheets with parchment paper have never looked so good. I popped them in the oven and 20 minutes later, I pulled out 3 trays of French macarons.

What looked positively majestic going into the oven emerged as slightly gritty, sometimes cracked and a little on the heavier side than the normal macaron. But, they did have the macaron flavor to them. And, spoon a little Nutella between two of the shells and no one would even know these weren’t straight from Laduree. Alright, I may be am certainly exaggerating here, but I was proud of my little macarons! They vaguely tasted like macarons, they were the same shape, and, for a first go around, I was very proud of them!

Will I be making these again? Will I finally create the perfect salted caramel macaron for the States? Is Laduree going to make me their executive pastry chef? Dubious to all accounts. Blood, sweat and tears don’t exactly mix well with delicate almond cookies. Don’t get me wrong, I am so glad I made them, but next time I’m feeling like a French macaron, I think I’ll leave it to the pros. Besides, now that I’ve actually attempted to make them, I think it’s time for a pilgrimage to Laduree to see how the best of the best are made. All I can say is “Vive le macaron!”