People just pretend to actually love macaroons, right?
Sure, they can be crisp, flavored, and airy, but I'd rather eat a breadstick for that. What's the fascination with these 'twee little buggers?
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18 Comments:
For me, a macaroon should certainly be flavored and airy, but never crisp. I prefer them chewy and dipped in chocolate.
blog in my soup at 3:55PM on 10/25/07
I have to tell you that what I've eaten in the US, particularly when I was a kid, under the name "macaroon" had nothing whatsoever to do with what I ate in Paris several years ago at Laduree just as macaroons were beginning to get noticed. Don't turn them down until you've tried some lately. I had a lavender mini-mac sandwiched with lemon curd at ...uh...either Tru or Everest in Chicago in August and was thrilled.
lemons at 4:13PM on 10/25/07
Fair point, lemons. I'm referring to the Frenchy-French "macaron." By contrast, I love those heavy coconut macaroon clusters. I have no idea why the terms would be spelled virtually the same way.
Sandro at 4:24PM on 10/25/07
I have to admit I'm puzzled by the craze as well, so I'm glad to hear others are too! I think part of the problem is I've never had a macaroon in France. The ones I've had here in the US are very sweet. I personally don't enjoy sweets that don't have some substance, so I wasn't very fond of them... guess I need to try them in Paris ; )
KitchenKore at 5:13PM on 10/25/07
It seems the light, crispy French version is a deviation, while the dense American version is more in line with the original. See below, and note the words dumpling and cake:
From the The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Copyright © 2006:
mac·a·roon (māk'ə-rōōn')
n. A chewy cookie made with sugar, egg whites, and almond paste or coconut.
[French macaron, from Italian dialectal maccarone, dumpling, macaroni.]
From the Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper:
macaroon
1611, "small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almonds," from Fr. macaron (16c.), from It. dial. maccarone (see macaroni). Fr. meaning said to have been invented 1552 by Rabelais. The -oon ending was conventional in 15c.-17c. Eng. to add emphasis to borrowings of Fr. nouns ending in stressed -on.
So. I wonder what led to the deviation to the light crispy ones. Which, back on topic, I actually quite enjoy after a heavy meal -- they're not overwhelming. But I don't actually seek them out like I do a good dense, chewy coconut macaroon!
LoCo at 5:20PM on 10/25/07
The current shaping (or "invention") of what is today called a macaron is described a bit here in a wiki entry on Laduree.
Ladurée's rise to fame came in 1930 when his grandson, Pierre Desfontaines, had the original idea of the double-decker, sticking two macaron shells together with a creamy ganache as filling.
[2] Queen Catherine de' Medici had brought the macaron to France from Italy in the 16th century, and the recipe for the biscuit had hardly varied over the years, but the amounts of the ingredients used and the appearance of the end product were up to the individual bakers.
Pierre Herme expanded the concept further as described in this article which gives a good overview of the history of this thing which is not so easy to say unless you can summon up a French accent (always a worthwhile thing heh heh) but which is always most excellent to eat and eat and eat.
Karen Resta at 5:59PM on 10/25/07
Are you talking about macarons or macaroons? Because there is a distinct difference as Robyn Lee discusses in her great article but if you're talking about macaroons...the chewy nasty pointless kind...I'd have to agree!!
My family buys them every Passover due to a lack of better things to eat, and I never touch them.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 7:41PM on 10/25/07
I love both. What's not to like about buttery, slightly crispy mounds of coconut, occasionally dipped in dark chocolate? Or two airy (but moist and kinda fluffy) almond meringue cookies sandwiching a creamy, intense filling?
Srsly. They're both delicious!!
Christina at 11:37PM on 10/25/07
I love macarons -- love the intense flavor and the multiple textures. Don't much like macaroons, but then, I don't really like cookies.
maggiesara at 11:48PM on 10/25/07
Sandro why did I know you would start the anti macaron revolt.
In all things cookie inspire me. I always made amaretti which are in fact macarons.
Wikipedia moment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroon
Anything piped with an egg white base is a macaron which is orginally an italian thing. Italian meringue is a wonderful thing and many cookies are created with it. The ever popular pignoli cookie is a macaron.
It is not a french macaron, sandwiched and filled.
I love the art that is baking and macarons are an art. As Americans we worship cookies and we spend oddles of time making them, buying them, eating them.
There is an elegance to the lovely macaron which I think (oh she is going there) men don't necessarily get. Point; when Robyn went to macaron chat this week and Ed went to chocolate chip cookie chat, I saw gender lines drawn.
The choc chip cookie a truely manly device, compact, fully loaded.
As I have said before I bake a lot of cookies (for christmas I bake over 30 kinds) I love to see macarons on a nice white cake dish they are so pretty and yes they have an appeal. I also love macaroons, which are heavier.
We are blessed with Robyn and Ed having cookie fetishes. I love cookie people they have a warmth to them.
We are not talking about bread now Sandro, whats your favorite cookie???
Inquiring minds are dying to know!!!
JerzeeTomato at 12:16AM on 10/26/07
I can't be bothered to pretend. French macarons are something I've never liked, but then, I don't care for meringue of any kind, and even the flavoring cannot redeem them for me. I had to make them for class, and while I tried one of the ones the chef claimed were the best, I did not enjoy them.
Every once in a while, though, I like a coconut haystack, if it's not too sweet, and chocolate-dipped.
thepictsie at 3:25AM on 10/26/07
JerzeeTomato, you've got me on that one. I will admit that I love amaretti cookies, and that those are basically craggly meringues. The macarons I'm railing against are the delicate French variety - I mean, I'd eat a few, but I'd rather eat some of those Danish butter cookies with the crunchy sugar crystals in the blue tin - that just tastes better to me.
My first instinct is to say my mother-in-law's chocolate chip cookies, so I'll stick with that. She makes them low and crispy, the only breaks in the flatness being the chip mounds. She also uses a goodly amount of butter, so sometimes the edges get those hyper-crisp, lattice-like holes of varying sizes in them. God, they're good.
I also love great shortbread cookies, the dense kind.
Sandro at 12:43PM on 10/26/07
I tried a french-style macaron in the States once and thought, 'What's the big deal?' But we were recently in Paris and I was able to sample a few from Laduree, and those were amazing. The cookie was little more than a vehicle for the fantastic fruit spreads inside. I'm usually not a fan of super-sweet desserts and I found these suited me quite well.
I'd be afraid to try baking them on my own, though! So delicate!
ricestein at 2:05PM on 10/26/07
I've been reading Nabokov's Pale Fire for class today and came upon this line that made me laugh aloud. It involves a character who must get rid of a paper with secret info on it: "No, the slip was not for keeps. He could keep it only while memorizing t. This brand of paper (used by macaroon makers) was not only digestible but delicious."
platecleaner at 2:18PM on 10/26/07
I've made the Barefoot Contessa's macaroons and used to make them for a bakery in Colorado. They were chewy and browned with lots of flavor, texture and a nice coating of chocolate on the bottom of the mac. I used a 4 oz. scoop to form them and they always smelled so good baking.
chiff0nade at 2:40PM on 10/26/07
platecleaner, what a wonderful line to find! I wonder if the paper on those macaroons was the same sort used as lining for torrone or botan candy as mentioned in this recipe. It is delicious.
Quote: This nougat, called "torrone" in Italian, needs to be lined with edible rice paper so that it doesn't stick to every surface it contacts.
Karen Resta at 3:47PM on 10/26/07
wafer or rice paper. I never knew people used it for macaroons.
I also love to match the filling to the macaron and I suspect that the macarons Sandro and some have had were not "off the chain". I too agree that if the filling is not amazingly flavorful then it falls flat and the thrill is gone. When I make them, I spend a great deal of thought and time on the filling match and the flavor of it.
One that was on my table last year and was a crowd pleaser was the coconut macaron (coconut made into dust in the food processor) paired with lemon curd. This was for those with nut allgergies who wanted a non nut macaron by request. You use a standard macaron recipe and just add 3 or 4 ounces (per 20 filled cookies) of the coconut of your choice after you buzz it in the food processor till its dust. I admit these are not for everyone. I myself only care for a few of them and then I have had enough.
JerzeeTomato at 4:22PM on 10/26/07
Hilary: The Passover Macaroons that one buys are awful but if you try Martha Stewarts ultra-simple homemade version, with chocolate-chips, you may be a convert. I know I am!
izzy's mama at 8:07PM on 10/26/07