Daring Bakers Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This was not my first attempt at making macarons. In September Twitter was all abuzz about the finicky like pastry and I joined with others around the globe in a Mac Attack. Who knew that one little cookie could be so temperamental and difficult to master. My first attempts at macarons yielded a delicious but less than perfect macaron with tutus instead of feet.

In hopes of finally conquering the challenge of creating a perfect macaron, I read and reread all the tips and suggests for this month’s challenge. I aged my egg whites on the counter.  I weighed my ingredients. I sifted my almond meal. I whipped my whites until stiff peaks formed and the peak did not fall over. I used stacked cookie sheets. Although short of the perfection I was hoping for, my macarons have definitely come a long way baby.

For my first batch I used vanilla sugar and made Audax’s two egg version of the Daring Bakers recipe, but I doubled the granulated sugar. They were a bit undercooked and sticky, even after trying to dry them in a warm oven, but still delicious! Both macarons are filled with dulce de leche.

The second batch was David Lebovitz chocolate macarons. The chocolate macarons were a bit too ruffly, but tasted divine! Sort of like a chocolate caramel brownie.

Visit the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll to see macarons in lots of wonderful flavors and all the colors of the rainbow.