French Macarons-The Good, the Just Okay, and the Ugly

So I did a thing today: I made French macarons – kinda. I blame my in-laws for giving me a fantastic book called The Fearless Baker by Erin Jeanne McDowell for Christmas which inspired me to go beyond my novice baking skills into the realm of The Great British Baking Show.

The book is fantastic and has great tips for how to improve your baking, different skill level recipes and has detailed steps. I, of course, ignored all the easy/medium recipes because I wanted delicious, beautiful, difficult macarons. I had visions of taking perfect pink macarons to work on Valentines Day so all my coworkers would comment on what a great baker I am. Too bad I made the ugliest cookies I have ever seen.

First, they’re supposed to be pink. I can’t decide if I didn’t add enough red or if I should have added less for a lighter pink, but somehow they came out a dusty rose color. Reminds me of my parents living room walls in the 80’s. Second, I’m pretty sure I beat the egg whites to within an inch of their lives making the batter so stiff that the cookies grew lopsided when baked. On the up side, the chocolate macarons don’t look completely horrible.

And yes I picked the prettiest one to be front and center in the photo. Both the chocolate and pink vanilla have a strawberry buttercream in the center, which turned out to be delicious so at least they’re edible.

So while I wouldn’t call this a complete success and I wouldn’t call it a complete failure either. I’m still taking these bad boys to work because despite looks they taste pretty good. I hope my coworkers aren’t dieting because I’ve got a whole book of recipes in the wings and practice makes perfect.