Foodie Friday: French Macarons

Baking is something I feel I do pretty well -most of the time.  There are instances when I try a new recipe and it goes horribly wrong, but more often than not I am pretty successful and most people love the things I bake.  There is one baked item that I have the most difficulty with:  French Macarons!

Now don't confuse French Macarons for coconut macaroons -they are two totally different things!  French Macarons are a meringue-like cookie made with ground almonds or almond flour.  The ingredients are simple:  egg whites, sugar, almond flour, confectioners sugar and any flavoring or food coloring you want to add. 

Pretty simple, right?

Sure the ingredient list may seem simple, but making French Macarons is, I would say, 30% ability to bake, and 70% luck!  In my opinion conditions need to be good -humidity will only prolong the process, and I have found that adding certain extra ingredients (cocoa for example or too much food coloring) will only hurt them.  French Macarons are delicate -the way you fold together the ingredients has to be done delicately, piping them onto a sheet takes patience and a tender touch, tapping the sheet to get the bubbles out is slight, and waiting for them to set before baking will sometimes test your patience, but don't bake them too early.  Macarons have to rest for about 20 minutes or so and develop a kind of shiny, slightly hard surface -when they do then you can bake them.  If you bake too early they will not develop feet -and you want feet on your French Macarons. 

My journey with French Macarons began in the Spring of 2011.  While I had seen them at the Culinary Institute at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe, I had never eaten one, but for some reason I wanted to try to bake them.  I will tell you my first attempt was horrible.  They were shiny, flat, and had no feet. After that first try I realized the key is to pipe them out and let them rest.  Here is a photo "timeline" of sorts through my French Macaron adventures, and you can see how bad the first ones were...

After that first try, and a little more knowledge, I attempted to make them again and was slightly more successful.  But considering that I often lack patience I gave it a break for a while.  Eight or nine months went by actually before I tried again, and if you look at the second photo (top right) those are probably the best ones I've ever made.  Pink ones with fresh strawberry buttercream -sooooo good!.   When I was home in NY that summer my mother wanted me to make some, however the NY humidity in July did not agree with them so they were not really the same.  They weren't awful, just not the best.  A few months ago while scouring Pinterest one evening, I found a recipe for Fruity Pebbles French Macarons!  Since I developed a love of Fruity Pebbles through my Menchie's addiction, I had to try and make them.  If you notice they didn't come out half bad either.  

This of course leads me to my most recent encounter/train wreck with French Macarons -Chocolate French Macarons to be exact.  I don't quite know why they didn't come out correctly, but they were an absolute mess!  No feet, at all! They stuck to the parchment paper, and were just not good.  It was a little frustrating considering how much time goes into making them, but I will persevere and try again once the Florida heat breaks!