Macaron

Food trending, seems to follow the same path as style trending. Things that I've seen popular in Europe, have made their way to NYC, and now to the West Coast. As I've mentioned before, French macarons ARE the new cupcake. I'm starting to see the cookies reminiscent of tiny burgers in a lot of bakeries. Sadly, most are not up to par with Parisian powerhouses such as Lauduree and Pierre Herme. I've come across some that are grainy, uneven, inconsistent, or some that don't even look appetizing.

One thing in common regardless of the quality or locale is their steep price. I haven't found a macaron that's less than $1. Considering the amount of work and ingredients that go into these cookies, its not surprising.

In theory, the cookies are pretty basic. The shell consists of egg white, almond meal, sugar, and any flavoring or coloring of choice. The innards are where all the excitement is. The filling is what really defines the macaron. Most of Pierre Herme's recipes use some variety of ganache.

Most recipes I've come across suggest making the filling/ganache a day in advance and allowing it to settle and firm up in the fridge. On one of my latest bouts of macaron baking, I made chocolate, lime basil, jasmine, salted butter caramel, and vanilla with a strawberry gelee.

I'm still having a tricky time converting sheet gelatin to powdered gelatin. As a sad result, my lime basil filling was overly thick. I processed it with some liquid to help make it more spreadable, but wasn't thrilled with the results.

The salted butter caramel is a cornerstone to any macaron recipe arsenal. The filling is a caramel buttercream, which involves making the caramel a day ahead and then whipping butter into until it is light and fluffy. I think I over-whipped my filling a bit, as it started to get a bit melty.

The most interesting macaron of this lot was the vanilla strawberry. The shells were made similarly to the other macarons, but the filling required two elements: vanilla ganache and a strawberry gelee. 

To make the gelee, I pureed and strained strawberries, then cooked them down with some sugar and gelatin. After it set, I cut the strawberry gelee into 1cm sized cubes.

This assortment of macarons took the better part of a day to bake, primarily due to the variety and also the size limitation of my bake area. One thing I've found particularly frustrating is that most of the almond meal I've been able to find has been far too coarse for my liking. However, it does explain those lumpy/grainy macarons I've spied in local bakeries! I've resorted to processing my own. More on that and recipes for PH's lemon and jasmine macarons to come!