Pink ShellsI have been wanting to do Macaroons eversince i tried a bag from Bakerzin. The smooth top, the crispy shell, the moist and and oh so heavenly almond centre... oooohhh.. indulgence to the max !
The other night .. late late night i was watching Joan Cusack's show on the TraveI and Living channel. This episode showed her touring France and visitng all the delighful culinary havens. Once such place was Laduree, the first house of gastronomy.And there was Chef Phillipe talking about making of all things MACAROONS.. and there were pistachio flavoured green ones, passionfruit favoured yellow ones and of course the chocolate flavoured brown ones !!! That was it .. i was making Macaroons ..
I had a recipe in one of my French recipe books My Vue. I also chanced upon another recipe from a friend that was in french. So it was time to seek the help of my trustful computer and soon i had deciphered the recipe.The french recipe called for 125g of icing sugar whilst the one in My Vue called for 225g. So naturally i went with the former.
I did the almond paste, and the italian meringue ( without a sugar thermometer i must add ) and voila there were sweet smelling strawberry flavoured pink macaroons neatly piped onto my baking tray simply because i had no other flavouring or colouring.
I watched them bake in the oven and i was really nervous. Because i was so afraid the shell would crinkle or collapse or just turn into something other than the smooth silky top that it was supposed to be. After ten minutes i peeked .. YEAH .. they were perfect ( well almost .. good enough for me ) smooth and shiny on the top and crinkly at the bottom edges.
I filled them with strawberry jam and oh ... well the plate says the rest....
The lone ranger
