Happy Feet

You see that little beauty up there...well, that was a long time coming. Granted that was my second try at making macarons (don't ask about what happened to the first batch), but I felt like a proud mama holding one up for its close up.

In truth, I was a bit anxious before taking the first bite. While macarons are generally simple in concept with only a handful of ingredients (aged egg whites, powdered sugar, and almonds), one needs to master an exact technique to achieve success. For example, I learned the hard way of the importance of whipping your egg whites to a stiff peak stage before introducing the dry ingredients to the batter. And afterwards, you have the macaron batter to contend with.

Overmix the egg whites and almond/sugar mixture, and you will have a runny mess when piping out the confections on your baking sheet. Undermix it and air bubbles will form, causing holes on top of your macarons. But of course, macarons aren't infamous for being notoriously fussy pastries for nothing. I knew that I wouldn't know whether I had succeeded until at least 5 minutes into the baking time.

Sure, the batter came out perfectly and I got those tempermental little "feet" to form that macarons are noted for. But would the taste come anywhere near to those confections I had come to love in Paris?

Since I just wanted to get my feet wet before experimenting with flavor combinations, I decided to keep it simple with the macarons this time around. I didn't add any flavorings into the batter, which allowed the taste of the almonds to shine (not to mention that it makes the batter much easier to deal with). With smooth, flat tops and nice little feet around the bottom, these macarons definitely looked like what they were supposed to.

And the texture was also spot-on--a thin, crackly shell and soft, slightly chewy interior (think a meringue, but infinitely more delicate). With a slathering of nutella sandwiched between the two fragile macaron shells, it really did feel like I had brought along with me a little bit of Paris. While Pierre Herme's fanciful creations are still my undisputed favorite, these homemade versions will definitely do for the time being.

Now that one of my top baking goals have been completed...well, there is that salted caramel macaron recipe or a dark mint chocolate one that I've been eyeing for awhile. Guess that's up next.