This week, as well as feeling dainty, I must have felt like a challenge because a desire to bake macarons (or macaroons) came over me. There is something about the almondy meringue that is always a treat.This has only happened twice before with mixed success and it hasn't exactly been a relaxing exercise.
The first attempt which were supposed to be pale lilac in colour came out like splodgey grey disks with not even a faint resemblance to the beautiful discs I had bought in Paris several years ago in L'aduree - the home of the macaron.
A second attempt fared much better after following the great step-by-step instructions of Jose Marechal in his book "Irresistible Macaroons". This follows the Italian meringue base so requires a sugar thermometer and he also recommends sieving your ground almonds. I plumped for a lemon curd filling and this time, with a bit of patience, I produced something pretty close to my aim.
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My latest attempt probably falls between the two. I had seen a recipe for raspberry cheesecake macarons on the website of The Extraordinary Art of Cake when trawling the internet for inspiration. This is the lovely website of a Brighton based baker who specialises in cupcakes but sometimes does something a bit different. You can find the recipe at http://www.theextraordinaryartofcake.com/2012/03/amazing-raspberry-cheesecake-macarons.html
They are made of a traditional macaron shell but filled with a cream cheese filling and small dollop of raspberry jam. My shells were the part that made this attempt a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them came out pretty perfect, others had erupted slightly and the shells were cracked. This doesn't affect the taste at all but isn't really the polished finish I hoped for.
Thankfully, there were enough unblemished shells to make it worthwhile and although I think I still need some practice, these were still good looking enough to get a few "ooh"s when unveiled at a family gathering. They tasted pretty fine too and I would use the filling recipe again in other recipes.
I like to pipe the filling as it gives a bit more control as to how much goes in and if you pipe in dots around the edge of one shell and then fill the middle of the ring of dots, you get a fluted edge to the filling which I like. Overall, my self assessment would be "could do better" but not so bad as to out me off trying again.
