Recipe Roundup: Mesmerizing Macarons

by Meeta Khurana from What’s For Lunch, Honey?

Macarons are those incredibly delicate, tantalizingly tender and wonderfully beautiful French delicacies that make everyone’s eyes light up at the sheer mention of them.

French macarons are somewhat of a legend and they should not be dishonored by being called a cookie. The macaron is a pastry, a delight of a dessert where two pastry shells, made of ground almonds, egg whites, icing sugar and sugar, enclose a delicate filling flavored in a symphony of different varieties.

Making macarons at home are often filled with highs and lows. While some manage to make great looking macarons from the beginning for others it might be their own personal foodie nemesis. However, giving up on them is often not an option we would like to consider – they are magical, they are challenging and they carry much adulation – and so patiently we regress and start over with the hope that success will be ours the next time round.

If you are tackling macarons for the first time there are several great blogs that offer a lot of helpful information. I made my first French macarons a few months ago and had a fair amount of success, collecting all that I learned and read. You’ll find all one needs to know about macarons in my comprehensive Macarons 101. Hope they help you make perfect macarons. For inspiration I have compiled a marvelous macarons roundup – some pretty, some elegant, some fun and some snazzy macarons to suit everyone’s palate!

Chocolate, Coffee & Caramel

Let me start with some tantalizing chocolate and fleur de sel macarons from the talented Hilda. These look decadent with a airy mousse-like chocolate filling. Venus of L’Atelier Vi makes macarons like they had my name written all over it. Chocolate shells encasing a mango buttercream make up her Macarons au Chocolat-Mangue - all I can say is délicieux! Jamie from the wonderfully written blog Life’s a Feast makes a classic coffee-chocolate combination in her espresso sea salt chocolate macarons. A elegant and grown up kind of sweet treat. Kaitlin from Whisk Kid finds her macaron mojo again with these lovely chocolate salted caramel macarons. I can’t believe she ever lost that mojo! My Madison Bistro makes another incredible chocolate combination with chocolate and salted peanut butter macarons. A creamy thick salty peanut butter filling is hugged tightly with rich chocolate shells.

Spice & Nice

Jess from Amateur Foodie tries her hand and creates sensational Jasmine tea macarons filled with jasmine-infused white/bittersweet chocolate ganache. Tea time will never be the same! Deeba of Passionate about Baking makes a colorful assortment but her delectable pumpkin spice macarons steals the show. May I say that my own saffron macarons with cardamom white chocolate ganache were outrageously good. Extravagant and luxurious with the subtle essence of saffron and the wonderful aromas of cardamom. Rachel of La Fuji Mama makes nutty almond macarons with dark chocolate ganache for her first attempt. One of my all time favorites has got to be Bea’s cardamom, wattle seeds macarons with orange filling. I saw them a few years back and was intrigued by the flavors of wattle seeds. If I could get them here I would have tried them already!

Fruity & Flowery

What the Fruitcake?! offers an awesome fruity cranberry raspberry with cranberry chunk buttercream macarons, using a cranberry raspberry and elderflower tea blend to flavor the shells delicately and a buttercream with chunks of cranberry. Natalie of The Bite Size makes an appealing and tangy orange blossom macarons & silk meringue buttercream, with refreshing aroma of orange blossom extract and and a silken smooth buttercream. What would a macaron roundup be without macarons from the superb Aran of Cannelle et Vanille? I fell in love with the fruity Fall flavors in her almond and pistachio macaron shells with the Asian pear tatin and mascarpone cream. Trissalicious makes the famous rose, lychee and raspberry flavoured macaron or of course the Ispahan Macaron from Pierre Herme - kudos! Zesty and nutty are my pistachio and lemon cream macarons - a perfect harmony of crunchy pistachio and the tangy lemony filling. These lovely Razzle-Dazzleberry Macarons will really make you dazzle! Vivid berry red shells are filled with a neoclassic vanilla buttercream.

Macarons – everyone’s darling? I presume yes, when it comes to indulging in them. But the pretentious aura making macarons at home has is somewhat overrated. There is no need to fear them and I hope that this roundup helps to demystify them a little more.

Looking for more? You can over three thousand mesmerizing macaron recipes on the FoodieView Recipe Search Engine.

Meeta is a passionate food writer, cook and photographer. She experiments in her kitchen and presents her flavor combinations in exciting new dishes. Her blog What’s For Lunch, Honey? was selected as one of the Top 50 Best Food Blogs by Times Online UK and offers over 500 recipes all peppered with a good dose of life.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.