"It's not life and death. It's a macaroon"

Part of the reason why I wanted to study pastry at Le Cordon Bleu was to learn how to make macaroons. They are awesome little puffs of sweetness, and they're difficult to make.


So, after much whisking and piping and setting and baking and pooffing and depooffing, mine came out yummy but not quite right.


If anyone knows what a macaroon is supposed to look like, then they know that this isn't it:

my little macaroons

This is it:

chef's macaroon tower

chef's other macaroon tower

Do you see the difference? They're not supposed to have little peaks, like mine did. I needed to mix the macaroon batter more thoroughly in order for it to set smoothly (like chef's did). Mine did, however, poof enough to create little meringue "feet", unlike many people in the class who mixed their batter too much, and so theirs had no little "feet" and were rather flat. Macaroons are tough little suckers. That's why good patisseries charge so much (about one euro for an itty bitty little macaroon and up to five euros for the larger ones) - because they are really hard to get just right.


Even though my batter wasn't perfect, I loved my little puffs of macaroon heaven. They were filled with anise cream and raspberries. It's easy to get stressed out at Le Cordon Bleu if things that are supposed to poof or grow or expand or rise or fall or inflate or deflate don't. Next time, I'll try to get them just right, but hey, if they don't, as my friend Whitney says, "it's not life and death. It's a macaroon".