Today I made my first ever macarons and having literally no expectations they turned out brilliantly! The first batch were a little “informal” but that’s because I put way too much mixture on the tray. I managed to create a hidden Mickey when 3 spread in to one big one, picture to follow. *Disnerd alert. Disney World hides Mickey Mouse shapes everywhere for you to spot called Hidden Mickeys. Hubs got really good at finding them, then I caught him cribbing up from the Hidden Mickey book in the gift shop the big Cheaty McCheaterson…. I digress.
I have 2 Laduree recipe books. The first devoted to all things cakey and bakey I bought from the kitchen shop at Hampton Court Palace. It’s a fabulous place by the way. The second, all about Macarons, was a bargain I found in Homesense for a fiver. They are the least practical recipe books known to man. They have velvet covers, gilded pages and come in little tissue lined boxes. I feel like I need to get the white gloves on to even touch them. My Nigella books are splattered with everything from ragu to chocolate, but not these babies, they are pristine. There’s a reason for this. The only time I attempted to make something from the first book, I bought all the ingredients to make raspberry marshmallows, then actually properly read the recipe. It took 2 days to make them! With setting time, chilling time and the time it then took to go to Asda to buy some Mr Kiplings I absolutely binned it off. So the simplicity of the recipe for these really surprised me, although, have you ever tried to put ground almonds through a sieve?? I tried, then muttering sod it to myself lobbed the mixture in lumps and all! Only 3 ingredients, egg whites, sugar and ground almonds plus flavouring of choice, a bit of piping and 15 minutes in the oven and boom!
I did the happy dance when they came out, they actually looked and more importantly tasted like macarons, crispy and chewy and fabulous! That’s me all over though, can make meringues, choux pastry, bread, no trouble, yet still can’t make a bastarding Yorkshire Pudding!
Rosbif 