French Treats

I've read on other folks' blogs about the adventure of making french macaron cookies.

It sounded like a lot of work, and yet made me curious about how they might taste, and what the texture would be.

I found a cookbook on making macaron cookies, and I studied it for several days, wondering if I could make it work.

Yesterday, after stocking up on eggs, gel food coloring, butter and almond meal, I decided to give it a try.

If you're like me, once you've heated up the oven and gotten out the mixing stand, you figure you may as well make a bunch of stuff before you put everything away again.

I made a batch of plain, peach colored macaron with cherry filling.

And a batch of lemon flavored, mint colored macaron with lemon buttercream filling.

Not to mention two dozen mini-cupcakes, but that's another post.

I was experimenting, learning how to make them in my oven and my kitchen. I found that the heavier weight baking sheets worked better than my thin, air-filled ones. But they had to be watched on the heavier baking sheets, so they didn't overcook.

French style macaron are supposed to be light and airy, with a smooth round top and little feet on the flat bottom of the cookie where it rises when it's baked.

My first batch of peach-colored macaron didn't have feet. I may not have let them sit long enough after I piped them out of the frosting bag, they are supposed to sit for 30 minutes. And since they were the first batch, I slightly over cooked them.

But if you look at the mint colored ones, they have the pretty little feet and smooth tops. and the bottoms are flat, without sticking to the parchment paper or cracking.

But I promise that, no matter if they have no feet, are cracked or don't have flat bottoms, they are ALL YUMMY when you eat them.

They have a crisp outside, a melty-meringue interior, flavored with the filling.

And .... they're pretty, too.

If you've never made them, try them, they're not really that hard to do. Here's a website with some links, if you want to learn more, and a very PERKY video tutorial.