Food Porn

photo credits to Finely Made 


This weekend has been a whirlwind trial and error of firsts.


I found this lovely recipe via the grand and glorious Pinterest. I have honesty never become so obsessed with a recipe. To be blunt... This photo is literal food porn for me. I have never had macarons, I have never made macarons. But when I see or think of macarons I am transported to a quaint cafe, sitting at a dainty table with the Eiffel tower glinting in the distance. Who can say no to France?
So I included the seemingly simple recipe ingredients in my grocery shopping list.


To start the adventure, little did I know that a very vital ingredient, Almond Meal runs about $10 for a 1lb bag. Ouch. I immediately threw out the idea of making these beauties.  
But the above photo haunted me. I found myself repeatedly returning to the Finely Made blog to only longingly gaze at the photo of such rich decadence.


So I made a second trip to the grocery store and bought the horrendous $10, 1lb Almond Meal.


I learned a valuable lesson this weekend. Do your research first, rather than later. Advice that I needed more than once this weekend.


From the Finely Made blog, the recipe seemed simple, and feeling comfortable in the kitchen, I had little worry of failure. But as the baking carried on, I felt less and less confident of a successful outcome. Despite following the directions to a "T", my "macarons" came out flat as pancakes, burned to crisps, smoking out of the oven and were all thrown in the garbage. A waste of 1/2 a cup of Almond Meal.


But I'm not ready to give up. I have never been so driven to perfect a recipe. As from the countless blog posts I have been reading, I have found that macarons are hardly as easy to make as the recipe I was using lead me to believe. So this week I will be trying my hand again, and hopefully more successfully.


What I have found?


- Age eggs at least 1 hour.


- Beat the egg whites till glossy and stiff. "9-10 minutes." "If you hold the bowl above your head and nothing moves, it's ready!"


- The Almond Meal and sugar should be one. Sift, sift twice. 


- Fold, don't mix, carefully and no more than 50 times. 


- Rotate pan half way through baking time.




Have you ever made macarons? Any tips?


Something else I not quite successfully worked on this weekend....




Another adventure to share another day.... 


Happy Weekend 

1 comment

  1. Wow, I'm so glad that you are such a chef genius because things like that I would never think of. I LOVE Macarons. They have this amazing dessert restaurant called Papa Haydn's here that has decadent Macarons. MMMMMM. Let me know when you find the perfect recipe!

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