French Food: Macarons

Hey guys, in anticipation of our trip I thought it might be nice to introduce some French foods that we might encounter! So I'll be putting up some features on certain French foods for your viewing pleasure. For our inaugural article our topic will be lovely 

macarons! 

a column of prettily presented macarons

These are not to be confused with coconut macaroons, which are completely different - unfortunately, the two originally had the same spelling so to make things less (or more) confusing, people often spell the French version as macarons to distinguish. But anyways~

Although you might not have heard of it, the macaron parisien has recently become really popular in the US so it's become more common to see them in pastry shops. They're being referrred to as the new cupcake, just so you can get an idea of their popularity. Macarons are basically two meringue-based almond cookies with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched in between them, but there's quite a lot that goes into making a "perfect macaron".

from seriouseats.com

So, the perfect meringue has "pied" or feet, on each cookie (they're the little ruffly edges on the bottom of each cookie). The cookie itself should have a fragile crust, and the inside of the cookie should have a nice soft texture. A good macaron should melt in your mouth, YUM!

One of the most famous bakeries in Paris, Laduree, has laid claims to creating the macaron as we know it today, when Pierre Desfontaines created this double-decker cookie. Laduree has several shops in Paris, but I'm really interested in visiting their Champ Elysees location, since I figure we'll be walking around there.

from laduree website

So there we have it! A sweet taste of Paris awaits us!

from bittykate @deviantart.com