Your Majesty, THE MACARON!

Leia em PORTUGUÊS

Hats off to Your Majesty! Very capricious, this French treat called Macaron is a sort of meringue-cookie-cake but none of them at the same time. It has unique flavor and texture, a delicate shell with soft insides, and melts in your mouth. The flavor of the chosen filling is absorbed by the shells after a 12 hour rest, when it reaches its best.

Well, making macarons life isn't a bed of roses.... it sounds like a fairly simple recipe, but you have to go through all the "capricious" details of this little treat. All the stages require some sort of  extra attention like, you have to "age" your egg whites, the egg whites must be beaten to the right consistency, the final batter can't be under or over mixed, they must dry after piped, and finally, you have to sit in front of the oven and pray that your macarons will have "feet". That is not all, your oven must be  capable of heating to a quite low baking temperature and they can't be under or over baked. In other words, you will need extra patience and perseverance to succeed. It is not a last minute dessert.

The macarons you can see above were not the result of my first experience. Before getting here, there were three unsuccessful tries, but somehow they helped me recognize the correct textures. 

I have wanted to try making macarons for a while, but I was even more excited after getting this lovely book from a giveaway at Soul Curry. Still, it took me quite a while to really jump into it, but I finally did it this week. I followed one of the recipes in the book, but I neglected one of its capricious details. I didn't age the egg whites because they were frozen and I assumed that they were aged already. The result was a footless macaron. I also blame it on not being totally convinced about the real need of these capricious details being my first time ever. I didn't want to take the risk again and started looking for another recipe, however, I still want to go back to this one some other time. Seems like a reliable one.

I researched a little more on the Internet and stumbled upon a blog that details the myths of making macarons. I was excited again and immediately went to the kitchen to try them out. But, unfortunately it didn't work for me. I tried it twice, but no feet at all. I have read about other people who tried her method and were successful though. Maybe it's not for a first-timer like me :o(

It was about time that I followed the "capricious" steps of making macarons at least once When I was about to give up I found Food Nouveau with a very detailed step by step tutorial following ALL the requirements of macaron making. The photos with the correct texture of the batter helped me a lot. That was when I was convinced that those steps are really necessary had a blast when I saw the feet of my macarons at the mark of 4 minutes baking :o)

Perfectly baked shells:

I made them very basic, no colors or flavors added.

Filled them with plain dark chocolate ganache.

One day I hope to come back here with macarons of all colors and flavors, and with a complete recipe and tutorial. For the time being, I'm an apprentice, but I'm happy :o)