Sweet dots

1. Drying before baking

December is definitely the month of the year where pastries are highly fashionable! I have made a few more batches of cupcakes and Christmas cookies.

Now everyone seems to get crazy about New Year's Eve. I never understood the big fuss around that night. I will have a fairly quiet one and I am happy to do so. However I could give myself a little treat... a sweet treat :o)

2. Gently rising in the oven

One pastry I absolutely love in France are macarons! They are so fluffy, soft but crunchy at the same time! I asked my mum if she had done any before, but she said she never dared too since many women told her that they'd failed, that it is incredibly difficult to make them. That's maybe the reason why they are always so ridiculously expensive.

3. Cooling down

Anyway I was in town yesterday and I had to have a stop in the cooking book section in the bookstore. I had a look on the macarons books. There are not many of them. Actually only two. The one by a French chef, José Maréchal, got my attention. I started to have a look into it and realised that indeed you need first to study before baking. I had time so I got the book and a thermometer for cooking which seems vital for macarons. I studied till late last night how to make your sugary sirup, how to beat the eggs, which quantity was necessary etc...

4. Putting the ganache on the cookies

And today was the big day: the day of baking macarons!

If took me a couple of hours, especially the sirup was tricky since I needed to get a certain temperature. But I have to say making macarons is not that difficult it is just a very exact way of preparing those little round dots. And really do not mess around with the quantities!

5. Ready to serve!

I made vanilla macarons to keep it simple since they are just plain ones with a bit of vanilla pod. I first wanted to see how this works. Next time I will definitely try to experiment on the colours and flavours!

6. Yummi!

They are very tasty, very sweet (maybe a bit too much for my taste), and the texture is pretty good too. I am sure that I can optimise this over time but I am fairly satisfied with my first macarons batch!


Happy New Year 2012 to you!