Pictures of Macaroons have been taunting me for a long time. Saying, “Make me, You know you want to. But, bare in mind - I'm a bastard to get right.”
They look so good. So perfect.
Being a perfectionist, I thought that meant I'd be able do it. Easy.
This weekend I finally made the effort and followed a recipe from Life's a feast blog, for the simple reason that it was on the first page of my Google Reader. In hindsight, perhaps I should have tried my usual trick of prefixing the search with "World's best" (there I go, trying to blame the recipe...)
I've got to be honest with you, the first batch didn't work - but I'm too proud to put up pictures of my failings. What happened was, I didn't whisk the egg whites for long enough, so when it came to piping them out - the mixture just ran out and spread into a liquidy mess.
I cooked them anyway, and although looking like little brown poo's on a plate, they actually tasted better than batch that worked.
A before & after of the good batch
Amongst the myriad of fiddly problems along the way, was the center mixture. It's made by combining melted chocolate with double cream - no mean feat. This also took two attempts, after the first one curdled.
Reality check
This was an expensive day, and I thought I was better than I actually am at cooking. Macaroons are off the cards for long while now. At least I have one decent photograph as proof that I can do it :)
