Macaroon's are something I've wanted to try baking for a long time but via numerous different outlets I'd consistently got the message that they were "tough" and temperamental to make. This put me off some what.
However, after mentioning on twitter that I was on the macaroon make someone sent me a link to a couple of really helpful articles/blogs to read first. I am so glad I took the time to go over this information as it not only calmed my nerves but helped me just get on with it instead of stressing over the nuances of macaroon making.
I think that part of the problem with macaroons is that there is so much information out there and differing opinions (Should you age your egg whites and if so for how long? Do you leave them to acquire a "skin" before putting in the oven or not?) that if you are a bit nervous of a first time recipe anyway it just adds extra doubt into your mind. Like anything, the more you worry the more likely you are to make a mistake or you end up being so uber-cautious it just takes the fun out of it.
If anyone out there is contemplating making macaroons (they do seem to be the "in" thing at the moment) then I definitely recommend immediately heading over to the Brave Tart's site and reading all her posts about macaroons especially the myth buster post which was honestly invaluable for a novice like me.
I just used a standard macaroon recipe, it was basically a mix of a few different ones I'd read but the one I had out whilst making for accurate measurements etc was from the new Stacie Stewart's Stacie Bakes recipe book (which I love). For flavouring I made a vanilla macaroon with a strawberry filling.
I was really pleased with how they turned out. Believe me, they were not perfect and there were a few funny shapes among them. Plus I've definitely pin pointed where the hot points in my oven are! Overall though, for a first attempt I was very pleased. They tasted great and had the prefect trade off in crunchiness/chewiness.
The best compliment: a colleague at work telling me that they were better than the ones she had tried on a recent trip to Paris.
