Macaroon Challenge: How Easy Was it?
We were out for dinner the other night with friends and Dave said “I want macaroons for dessert”. There were no macaroons on the menu and this led to a conversation about what Macaroons are because Dave confessed even though he wanted them for dessert he had never tried one before!
I ended up saying I will make you some salted caramel macaroons. The next day I remembered my foolish promise and set about figuring out how to make them in order to come good on my promise to Dave.
I researched and researched how to make them and every recipe seemed as hard and time consuming as the rest. I then reached out on Facebook and was sent a link to a recipe from Belinda. It looked just as time consuming as the rest, but seemed a little easier to follow.
After walking the dogs on Saturday morning and picking up the few ingredients I didn’t have, I set about my quest to make macaroons. I regretted not making them the day before as my kitchen soon resembled a bomb site and my kitchen had just been cleaned the day before!
I had bowls and ingredients everywhere. Don’t let anyone tell you they are quick and easy to make. I started with my salted caramel filling and had that all finished in about an hour! Yes by the time you read, re read, start, read again and then continue it takes quite a long time to make.
I then had to embark on the quest of making the perfect macaroons. Having watched way too many cooking shows I knew they were easy to get wrong. I followed the recipe to the letter (something I never do). However I got distracted by a call from Vicki half way through dissolving my sugar and realised I wasn’t meant to stir it. I debated whether to start it again, but figured what could a little stirring do to ruin my macaroons. As it turns out, nothing!
Before piping my macaroons I noticed that nowhere in the recipe I had or any of the others I had googled, did it tell me what size to make my macaroons. I had a small cookie cutter ring in the kitchen drawer and decided to go with that for my marker. I drew all the circles on my baking paper and then turned it over. I used these circles as a guide while I was piping my macaroons.
I made 6 batches all up. The first 2 tins were perfect little rounds, probably slightly smaller than they were supposed to be. The second 2 tins were a little larger and I recon were the best of the bunch. The last 2 tins were not quite as good. I think the mixture had been overworked as one tin didn’t rise at all. All that said John said they all taste amazing!
Would I attempt making them again? To be honest I am not sure if I would. I enjoyed the challenge and am very proud of the end result, but they were very time consuming and will add about 2 kilos to my waistline. I would also say if you are not a reasonably good cook I wouldn’t undertake making them. Instead I would take the advice of Anne and Grant and go and buy some!!
If you want to give them a go the recipe for Salted Caramel Macaroons is now on our website. Also if you do give them a go and wonder what you can do with all the spare egg yolks you should make some of my mum’s Cheese Straws.
