Thursday, August 14, 2008

Maca-what??




Never have I ever in all my experiences in the kitchen come across the most STUBBORN and fickle minded dessert... the Macaron. Yet, I am all the more determined to make it work. I need to have that perfect batch and I need it to be that perfect bite.. the one that makes every morsel of these tiny 'creatures' deserved. ~Sigh~

Before i get too much in detail, I must first explain what a macaron is. After all, I can’t be assuming that everyone knows what I am talking about! ;) The first time I came across the image of a macaron was when I googled 'macaroon'. I was searching for a simple recipe and a visual of the dessert when I came across pretty vivid colored sandwich like cookies. Curious to know more, I clicked on it and realized that there is SO much of difference in the two despite one having an extra 'o'. Macaroon is a coconut-ish chewy dessert while a macarOn is a burger like cookie that is made from confectioners’ sugar, almond flour and egg whites. This lil' fellars are so finicky that although it requires the tiniest amount of ingredients, they actually require a lot more focus and precision when actually producing it. Too much folds and it will end up with cracks, too little folds, and it may end up with little domes, worse still, NO feet! Feet, are the cute little frilly edges that surround it.


So what is so unique about these 'cookies'? That’s exactly where I’m heading to. The line that caught my eye was 'Macaron - is in the top ten list of things to experience when you go to PARIS.' I am thinking to myself at this point, what??? This tiny lil' .. pretty lil'... yummy-looking lil fellar is in the top ten list!? They have to be something to be in that list and so I read up more.. And more and more and that’s when I knew, I had to make these! I have to try baking it. Either that, or I have to FLY to PARIS and get to LADUREE and have a teeny bite (or A HUGE MOUTHFUL since I already spent hours and money just getting to the destination!). Well, okay, reality check, I’ll just need to stick to the baking option for now.

So is there a phrase to summarize these little delicacies? Hmmmm…

Let me try to summarize a macaron... (At least try my best summarizing it), "If pastries had a world of their own, Macarons would be the celebrities in it." So classy, so unique, and so Glam'. So Macaron.
*Pictures were taken of the web. Top visual is a pistachio macaron taken from www.colourlovers.com and the picture on the right is a chocolate macaron taken from bp1.blogger.com

3 comments:

Kaveena said...

I bite then you know

Kaveena said...

oit! ms. sweet tooth! Brush you teeth laa, not afraid of cavities ah?

SweeT^TootH said...

Shanee, it is 'sweet' of you to drop by... NOT. My facebook is free for all the comments you want! lol.
pssst -- (dei! my business blog la dei! dun be talking bout my cavities all here! haha)