"Aim for the Moon. So that if you miss you're still in outer space, rather than burning up in the atmosphere. That would hurt"
~ Medved
When planning a dessert for Thanksgiving, I wanted to try to flex my culinary muscle. And what better way to do so, than a recipe known for having few ingredients and relying heavily on technique. Yeah, I went for macarons. The French ones. Actually, fun fact: their similar names are not a coincidence: both macaroons and macarons are from Italian - maccherone (fine paste). Bon Appetit and Adam Ragusea both have good explanations. I actually really recommend Adam's YouTube channel - he has a lot of great videos explaining the science, etymology, and history behind foods and ingredients. And as an ex-professor and ex-radio host his explanations are really engaging and great to listen to. Can't recommend him enough.
On the macarons - I went for a raspberry version, taking inspiration from the recipe published by Taste of Home, but riffing on it to make it raspberry. The end result was a tasty meringue sandwich cookie, but I cannot consider it a true macaron. Failed at getting the shell's texture and glossiness, and didn't get the "foot" (little rough rim at the base) traditionally associated with them. I'll need to play around with it more, but in the mean time, I'll provide the meringue sandwich cookie recipe:
Ingredients:
- 4/3 cups almond meal
- 1.75 cups powdered sugar
- .5 cups freeze dried berries
- 3 egg whites
- Raspberry jam
Recipe:
- Blend almond meal with freeze-dried fruit
- Whip egg whites until frothy
- Slowly add powdered sugar to egg whites while whipping
- Keep whipping until stiff peaks
- Fold in almond meal mixture
- Pipe into (preferably uniform) circles
- Air dry for 30 minutes
- Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes
- Leave to cool completely
- Apply dab of jam to one meringue, compress with second one
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