BAKING MACARON'S--OH MY!!

I talked my friend Sharon into taking a cookie baking class with me in Naples, FL. When I told her what class I wanted to take I referred to it as a Macaron class. (pronouncing it like Macaroon) Sharon had visions of Coconut Macaroons in her head.....which I didn't realize until we started mixing our ingredients! Poor Sharon....she is always such a good friend, she just went along with this crazy idea I had in my head. I really wanted to learn how to make these beautiful cookies because I had them in Paris! The taste is delicately light with such a little sweet taste---who could resist.

A macaron is a sweet meringue-based confection made with eggs, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring.The Macaron is filled with ganache or buttercream filling in between two of the cookies. The name comes from the Italian word macarone, the Italian meringue.

How ironic my friend is Italian!!

This is the banana buttercream before adding food coloring.

This is the pink meringue.

Our chocolate Macaron with raspberry brandy buttercream filling was perfect.........some of our others........well let's just say, they tasted great---but they sure weren't pretty. They say "practice makes perfect!"

I have somehow misplaced my Sur la Table actual recipe, however, this link is great too:

http://www.chow.com/recipes/28339-french-chocolate-macarons-with-chocolate-ganache

My advice would be to allow time when you will not be interrupted for a couple of hours.

  GOOD LUCK AND BE PATIENT!

Kathleen

   ****Thanks for stopping by The Lavender Bouquet. See you on Friday!