I was in Paris at New Year. It was a long weekend of indulgence consisting of much vin rouge, fromage et croissant. This is the perfect way to spend a long weekend in any city I think. While we were in Paris I took my friend to Ladurèe for afternoon tea. The place was hooching with Parisians buying boxes of the world-famous Macaroons for New Year party presents. There is something child-like and innocent about a Macaroon. The playful colours, the cute perfectly rounded shape and the lightness of them is delightful! I can understand why they were a favourite of Marie Antoinette. We had a lovely selection of Macaroons (Raspberry, Chocolate, Pistachio and Vanille) as well as an amazing little Raspberry cake, not to mention the famous Marie Antoinette tea and Ladurèe hot chocolate.
It was an experience, one I would repeat any day of the week. Driven by this desire to enjoy macaroons regularly and given there is not one macaroon to be had in the Highlands I have tried to replicate the delicious treats. So far, with no joy. Macaroons are notoriously difficult to make. Even years of training with top patisserie chefs does not guarantee to perfect macaroon. It can be so difficult to perfect that entire batches of macaroons are thrown away if they are even remotely flawed. So far, my two attempts have been awful. So I took a step back and thought 'maybe, I need to perfect meringue first' so this is my plan. Practice Meringue until perfect then try the next step - Macaroons!
If you want to try the recipe I have so far failed to perfect then be my guest and if you manage to crack the technique please let me know!
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