Experimenting with Chocolate Macarons

I haven't been keen on trying out macarons for a long long time, despite requests to do so. Yes, they are very French. And they look so daintily pretty and dainty looking desserts are not something I am good at. I do not also like to use food colouring. I am averse to eating food that looks too artificially coloured, and sometimes go to the extreme of pinching away that little red dot that marks a char siew bun.

Finally, my deeply frozen egg whites were calling out to me to use them, and I bravely decided to attempt making macarons all on my own. I faithfully stuck to the recipe and instructions by David Lebovitz, an American pastry chef in Paris, whose blog I've enjoyed reading since discovering it.

It was tedious and messy to pipe out the paste without a proper pastry bag and tip, especially without my chief food licker to help clean up the remaining batter stuck to bowls and spoons. As seen from the photo, my attempt wasn't too successful either. All of them cracked when they should not be, and they didn't have the 'foot'. As each oven has its own quirks and temperament, I may have overbaked one minute too long or 10 degrees too hot. So my macarons weren't crispy outside and soft inside, as I think it should have been (but I can't really remember how it should be, this is going to be on my list of things to eat for my upcoming trip to France). For the filling, I used this delicious honey and hazelnut spread bought during our South Island trip.

I also discovered that the most original macarons come from Nancy region, made by nuns. Camille's cookbook has a recipe, and I'm still contemplating whether to make it today with my remaining 2 egg whites.