Monday, January 31

Macarones: My First Taste

When I started playing with the idea of a cookie blog I talked with someone who mentioned her love of macarones.  Having never heard of them, and thus never tasted one, I was instantly intrigued.  I've spent an unhealthy number of hours gawking at pictures and reading tips and recipes.  I've watched video clips and visited websites of famous French Patisseries.  This weekend, I finally got to hold one in my hand and experience one for myself.  (And thus begins the mockery.)



I am probably going to eat my words later - which will be all that more amusing for you - and is why I'm willingly and openly sharing this now.  It's all about the readers, baby.

Simply, I was not impressed.  I will refrain from publicly naming the shop we attained our lovely little cookies from, but here are the pictures of the ones we purchased.

Rose
Chocolate Cinnamon















Pretty?  Of course.  They are very pleasing to the eye.  The textures and flavors of these cookies is something other than normal though (whatever THAT is!).  Examples of other flavors this shop creates include, Tawney Port, Coconut Curry, Salt, Pepper and Olive Oil (<-- that's one flavor), and the ever popular Maple Bacon.  <Shudder!>

I GET that these are French.  I GET that I'm an American.  I GET that sometimes the two don't jive very well.  So I offer a solution.  French method.... American Flavors!  (Need I say, Duh?)

You know, stuff like Rocky Road (which I'm personally not a fan of, but you can't get more American than that).  Have you ever made a marshmallow buttercream?  Neither have I, but I'm going to do it.  How about Chocolate Raspberry?  That's a good combo no matter what country you happen to be from.  

So, I didn't understand why people want to eat flower flavored foods.  Why?  Buy a bouquet and smell them all you like, but do we really need to create things that taste like them?  We don't have enough variety?

The texture of the cookies themselves were pretty cool.  Delicately crisp on the outside, chewy (my favorite!) on the inside.  The Chocolate Cinnamon macaron was interesting.  It was a slap in the face with a cinnamon stick, followed by the feeling that someone stuck a cracker with a mound of peanut butter to the roof of my mouth.  (Have you ever seen anyone do that to a dog?  It's mean, but funny as hell.)  But that's one of the reasons I prefer my chocolate cold.  I prefer to chew it.  You won't find me serving warm chocolate chip cookies to my kiddos.  We pop them in a sealed container and into the fridge.  Yummers.  But we were talking about macarones, yes?

I am now mentally prepared to attempt these.  I have to decide on a flavor.  Keeping things simple to start with.  Having read all of the warnings and acquired all the protective gear I'll possibly need in case a batch gets cranky, I'm a little cautious, but ready.  Now all I have to do is find the time.  Hoping for this coming weekend.



2 comments:

  1. Um not really interested in the macarones but I think your flavors sound much better. What did strike me was that your kids have never had warm chocolate chip cookies! What?!? What?!? this is blasphemy or torture or something, that is how chocolate chip cookies are best! Okay that's a personal opinion, but what if your kids share that opinion and don't discover it till they are adults then resent you because you never let them have cookies warm ... alright so it probably wont happen, but when I'm over I want a warm one.

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  2. In honesty, I probably exaggerated. I think the older kids have bugged me enough for a cookie fresh out of the oven as I was baking close to bedtime. But I doubt the youngers have ever had one. I'm not completely opposed to others in the household eating their cookies in this fashion, it simply seems to be the consensus to fridge them first. (Sometimes people can't quite wait that long though.)

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