Macarons: A Culinary Experiment

I've been seeing a lot about macarons lately and had to see what the fuss was all about. I knew the top the cookie parts were something    meringue-like and I've had meringue before at a bake sale and it tasted like chalk - yuck. 


Yet, I could not get these pretty little snacks of my mind so despite the warnings of how difficult they are to make I had to give it a try. The recipe I used was from:
http://domesticcharm.blogspot.com/2011/10/french-macarons.html 


Only five basic ingredients. Doesn't sound too bad. The macarons themselves weren't the problem for me it was finding the ingredients that was the challenge. 


Confectioner's sugar - got it. Egg whites - no problem. Almond flour - never heard of it and can't find it in the store. Superfine sugar - also not found at Wal*Mart Supercenter. Cream of tartar - thought we had it, turns out we didn't, bought some, found the one we already had, only needed a pinch.


Macarons take one:
     Made almond flour in the blender by pulsing blanched almonds until they formed a powder. Not really as easy it sounds using an artifact of a blender that we have. and then sifted it a lot to get the big pieces out.
     Attempted to make superfine sugar by putting sugar in the food processor. Think i went a little too long because it turned out as powdered sugar. (Although that technique might come in handy someday.)
     As for the cream of tartar I didn't realize I didn't have any till right when I needed it so I Googled cream of tartar substitutes and found vinegar tried this as an egg white thickener - did not work.
      All I ended up with was a big mess so batch one was discarded. 


But all was not lost as the superfine sugar and cream of tartar was later acquired


Macarons take two: 
Things I learned:

1. homemade almond flour does work
2. cream of tartar makes a huge difference - even if its only a pinch
3. vinegar does not work

I was able to make an edible macaron although I will not pretend I know what I'm doing by posting a recipe because this was more of an experiment and there are other people who have these things down to a science. 

The result was tasty and good looking

Vanilla cookie with Nutella filling 

  

Lemon cookie with lemon curd filling 

A few days later I had my first professional macaron from 

Poppleton Pasteries in Corning NY just to compare

It was Raspberry and quite beautiful.