Rach and I have been talking about macaroons on our walks – among other things. She is craving to try to make the real, classic French, actually Parisian, macaroons – silky little pillows in lots of flavors, with fillings. David Lebovitz has a lengthy post and recipe about the difference between Parisian macaroons and other macaroons, that links to more writing about macaroons by Dorie Greenspan – and they’re both Americans who have lived in France a lot.
Parisian macaroons (macarons) at Laduree, where they are sold by the 10s of thousands per day.
Evidently I have always made rustic (or maybe Italian) macaroons – crustier, with crackly tops, anathema to the little pillows. Dorie talks about the macaroons from Saint-Emilion, and they look not terribly different from mine.
Pine nut macaroons
We talked about whether to make the macaroons with ground nuts or paste – I usually start with almond paste, based on the the Odense Marzipan recipe, but I whip the egg whites. I grind up the almond paste in the food processor with the sugar, and then fiold it into the beaten whites, and then use a small scoop to potion ithe dough out onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Rach was reading all this stuff about aging the whites – you really just need to let them sit at room temp for a few hours. I often am using whites from the freezer so they are sort of “pre-aged”. I think the aging idea is that the whites & yolks are easier to separate when they’re cold, but the whites whip better when they’re warmed up – or been frozen and thawed, and have a thinner consistency.
I had a can of pistachio paste, so I thought I’d try pistachio macaroons. I planned to make chocolate pudding to use up the yolks. I had the eggs ready to whip, and the food processor opened up to dump in the can of pistachio paste and sugar – but when I took the lid off the can there was an inch of pistachio oil floating on the top. Didn’t want to dump that in the processor. So I decided to try beating up the sugar and the paste, and then added UNwhipped whites. Which resulted in a pretty easy to work with batter, and I happily made little greenish mounds with my scoop. When I checked them after the few 5 mins of baking they looked like they’d be perfect, but alas, after the next 5 mins, they flattened out into more rustic style disks. Too much sugar and egg, not enough ground nuts to keep them puffy.
I made the pudding, and sandwiched the flat patties with Nutella. Definitely edible, just not what I expected.
Sandwiched pistachio macaroons
Closer look at sandwiched pistachio macaroons
Somehow the very last tray was not quite as flat
