French Macarons!

Hello blog world! Do you remember me?! I know it's been way too long since I have posted on here. It's been a crazy few months balancing my internship, graduate school, and work. It's left me with no time to bake :( But in addition to my crazy life right now one of the most amazing things happened in November... My boyfriend of 9 years proposed! So I have been kind of wedding planning here and there (but school is most important and I'm trying to focus on that ;-) I'm excited to really get wedding planning when I graduate in May because now I can really gather ideas from all the wedding and event blogs I love to read! hehe...

The fall semester has come to an end and I have a little more time on my hands during my winter "break" (which is less than two weeks! boo).... so I am trying to take advantage of that time. Yesterday was my first day off from the semester so I decided to tackle French Macarons. As you may recall I took a macaron class back in September for my birthday. I finally had time to make them on my own yesterday. I was so nervous! I've heard so many horror stories about macaron making that I researched extensively on the blogs as well before I started my endeavor. I won't bore you with every detail of my macaron experience or with a tutorial (because you can find plenty of them on the blogs out there) but here are a few things I found useful...

1. Prepping is worth it! That includes aging the eggs and weighing ingredients. I did all this the day before.
2. Magic bullet. I love this thing! I do not yet have a good food processor but there is nothing I have done yet that the magic bullet has not been able to handle. I made the almond flour with this amazing kitchen tool. The only thing is you may have to sift the flour a few more additional times.

As for the recipe, I used the recipe they provided us from the class which uses an Italian meringue technique. I made the basic macaron shell recipe - I was too nervous to add extra ingredients for flavor or food coloring that may throw off the recipe so I decided to make the basic recipe for my first time. This way I was also able to make different fillings to try out. Here are the results:

Filling: Grand Mariner dark chocolate ganache

Decor: Painted with diluted gel food coloring


Filling: Mocha swiss meringue buttercream
Decor: Sprinkled cocoa powder before baking

Filling: Dulce de leche swiss meringue buttercream
Decor: sprkinkle Wilton gold stars before baking then brushed
with edible gold shimmer dust after

I can't believe my first time was a success!! I'm glad I took that class back in September... I could only imagine if I tried these before then lol. I'm excited to try all the fun flavor combinations. They are a bit time consuming but worth the meticulous effort. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season... if I don't post before then, have a happy new year too! ~Cara Lee

French Macaron Class in DC

French macarons. I know they are so trendy right now, but I have been wanting to learn how to make them forever. I'm usually good at reading a recipe and teaching myself, but these always have intimidated me. As I searched for a pastry class about French macarons, I came across the seasonal classes they offer at Adour in DC (located inside the St. Regis Hotel - so posh!). As one of my birthday presents to myself this year I decided to sign up for the class this weekend. Each class Chef Fabrice teaches you a different flavor macaron as well as an additional french pastry. This class we learned how to make macarons filled with a lemon chocolate ganache filling. I never new chocolate and lemon could work together, but it did!. We also learned how to make a basic french financier (for those of us who don't speak French like myself, it sounds like "fin-on-see-ay" ;-).

I learned how time consuming these suckers can be. Some important tips I learned for making French macarons:

-temper the eggs for at least 24 hrs
-it is best to weigh your ingredients (so I guess my next purchase will be a scale)

-the dry ingredients must sit out over night to "dry" more (becuase of the oils in the almond flour).
But in the end it is totally worth the wait for these little delicious French pastries. I am excited to try them for myself with all the endless flavor combinations you can create.

Here are the finished products...

Lemon Chocolate Ganache Macarons

Lemon Financiers

Details about the class if you are interested:
-Held at the Adour restaurant located at the St. Regis Hotel D.C.
-Cost was $75 for this class
-When you arrive there are pastries, coffee and tea to munch on
-You get to go home with a box of fresh made French Macaroons