When someone says macaron or macaroon around here, most of us think of those most delectable coconut balls of utter deliciousness. I have a dear friend who makes them and they just sort of melt into your mouth effortlessly. But in France, the macaron (spelled with only one "o") is quite a different treat. These are typically sandwiched light as air cookies filled with some type of delicious filling. And they are deceiving little cookies because they look as if they would taste entirely different than they do. They appear as though they will be hard or crunchy, but in reality, they have a minimal crunch around the edges, or the "feet" of the cookie, but are soft and melty on top. The filling provides a stable base in the middle that ties the whole thing together.
A couple months ago, I landed on a blog called Pastry Pal, and she had a free downloadable book on how to make and perfect the French macaron, complete with step-by-step pictures, a troubleshooting guide, and several different types of flavor additions and fillings. I downloaded it immediately and have just been waiting for the opportunity to try my hand at these! Saturday evening I made my first batch. I chose coffee flavored macarons filled with Nutella, because what could be bad filled with Nutella? The 50 or so cookies I made disappeared among eight adults in a matter of minutes. Tonight I made chocolate macarons filled with dark chocolate ganache. Richly decadent yumminess.
Rather than post the recipe here, I'm going to provide you a link to Pastry Pal's site, because her guide is the ultimate and is absolutely beautiful!!! Try these little dreamy cookies out - they will become a favorite!!! **You can download your free guide on the right hand side of her site.**
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