Macaron Madness.

Macarons are now the 'jelly' shoes of the 90s (remember those?!) They were everywhere and being a child in that era, you just had to have them in every colour. Raspberry, chocolate, lemon, vanilla, pistachio. These meringuey biscuits are now the 'in' thing to eat and bake.

My first experience of the Macaron or Macaroon, I still have no idea which it is, but my instinct goes with one o, was actually on holiday in India about 3 years ago. My cousin took me to a patisserie and asked me whether I had tried them. Tried them!? I had never seen them in my life! She bought some to take home and I was thus transformed. It was a caramel one (huge fan of caramel chocolate by the way), where one bite concocted an amalgam of textures and flavours in my mouth. The crispy, yet dewy softness of the shells, the almonds and the creamy caramel just blew my taste buds away. I became a huge fan. In fact, they were one of the best I had.

Going back home to England, I had to try make them right away. I googled the recipe and voila, these babies were born.

Filled with chocolate buttercream and fresh cream.

I shall try and find the recipe for these and share it with you all soon, so keep out for that post if you would like to try them too.

But let me tell you, I was literally third time lucky with my make. The first time I added the food colouring at the wrong time. The second time, the mixture was too runny from over mixing and the third time, they were just right! Also, I actually drew circles on the baking paper to get them the same size, which I wish I did earlier on! For the filling I used chocolate buttercream - that always goes down well and fresh cream, as I didn't have much in my cupboard then.

Third time lucky!

Now they're available in all sorts of shapes and sizes and the variety of flavours we have is incredibly vast. Personally, I think they're so pretty to simply look at, let alone devour!

Pierre Hermé and Laduree have become the popular French brands in England and rightly so, they are amazingly gooood. Unfortunately, I'm not a Londoner so I can't enjoy these as often as I would like.

Recently, I have tried Macarons from Macarons and More and Patisserie Valerie. For the reviews click here!
I think a verdict is necessary on these because for dainty little things, they're a bit...undaity on the price and it's good to get a good qualitys worth for the price you pay.

So why not have a go yourself? They're on top of my list for my next make. Oh and Annie Rigg's book is now a new addition to my shelf :)


The Dainty Cook x