Weddingbee Blog

I LOVE macarons, the delicate, kinda chewy, totally fantasmic sandwich cookies that hail from France.

Yum. Yum. Yum! Source

So, when the big, bad blizzard of 2011 hit Chicago this week, I decided that I would try to make these babies myself. Why would I try this while the great city I live in was being devoured by snow? Well, I figured that I have just over 7 months to perfect this recipe before they need to make a debut at our sweet table! I was actually inspired by the ’Bee boards where I saw that lots of other brides had persevered and practiced the recipes over and over until they got them just right. With that inspiration, I bought some almonds and headed toward the kitchen.

My Goal, the Perfect Parisian Macaron Source

I stumbled on a great interpretation of a Martha Stewart recipe and tried my best to follow all the instructions. I even took some extra precautions to make sure that all the little cookies will be the same size, like tracing quarters on the underside of parchment to use as a template.

My quarter based template

But I did something I probably shouldn’t have as a newbie to macaron making: I ground my own almond flour to save some money. Without the fancy schmancy food processor that is sitting on my registry, I used a mini processor and my flour came out kinda lumpy with little chunks of almond. But, nonetheless I persevered and tried to continue the recipe. I over mixed a bit, so my batter came out runny instead of fluffy like it should be. Clearly, the template wasn’t much of a guide with my soupy batter, so I ended up with what looked like a Pepto bismol on a cookie sheet.

Ready to go in the oven!

Again, I figured I’d put this much effort into the process so I let them set for 45 minutes and stuck them in the oven. 10 minutes later, I pulled them out and to my surprise, I made some half decent macarons!! Sure, most of them look more like an amoeba than a baked good, but they tasted good and I know it’ll be better next time!

My Misshapen Mauve Macarons

Even though they were pretty ugly and most of them didn’t match up, I decided to sandwich them up with some raspberry jam we had on hand and they were pretty darn tasty! Not a bad way to spend a snow day, huh?

My practically imperfect in every way macaroon

Are you going to DIY any baked goods on your big day? How did they turn out on the first try?

*All personal photos unless sourced