Friday, February 20, 2009

Heaven Comes in Small Packages

Rather, small edible packages. I cooked macarons- no, NOT macaroons, macarons. Macarons are a cookie from france made from egg whites, almond flour with a filling. They come in many different flavors and hues. I've been baking chocolate ones and they are pure bliss.

I made this batch over at Jon's sister's last week. One nice thing about macarons is that they are completly gluten-free. Faith has a gluten intolerence and these cookies are utterly delicious and friendly to those who can't consume gluten. The picture above is the cookie part post-oven. The bottom part of the cookie that looks like it's has oozed or something is called the 'foot'. Don't ask me, I just read it and bake it.
Keenai, their Rhodesian Ridgeback, LOVES chocolate. She's an addict and will stalk you once she gets a whif of that cocoa bean based goodness. I indulged her because I'm a sucker and I adore her, but, at the same time I felt the need to get a restraining order.

Can you get a restraining order for an animal? Hmmm questions to ask lawyer boyfriend. Anywho, this is a ganache I made by scratch that serves as the filling. Once this yummy amazingness cools you just slather it on one cookie and put another on top. And ViolĂ ! you have macarons.

Here's the final product... kinda looks like a mini-hamburger doesn't it? I actually forgot to photograph all the cookies once I put them together, luckily there were a few leftover so I got a shot before Jon and I headed out. We ate them too soon though, which is why I wasn't completly satisfied with this batch. For whatever reason these babies need to sit for awhile as they have a much better texture after several hours of 'gelling'. We ate ours an hour after they were put together- still yummy, just not quite right. I also needed to sift the almond flour after I mixed to take away a bit of the mealy texture. Ah well, there were no complaints and there will be more macrons to perfect in the near future.

[Oh if you are really curious, here's the recipe I used for the cookie from David Lebovitz's awesome all things French site: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/09/making_french_macarons.html (click on his chocolate recipe)

I don't use his ganache/filling, I found another recipe and while it makes more than what I need it is perfect as it isn't too sweet and compliments the cookie VERY well imho:http://www.epicurean.com/featured/french-chocolate-macaroons-recipe.html]

1 comment:

S. said...

LOL Keenai is pathetic, but those cookies DO look good.