The Macaron Class

The Macaron. Pronounced: mah-kah,rhon, and if you can manage the French nasally sound at the end, more power to you. Not to be confused with a Macaroon, go ahead and say it like an American and really add emphasis the rooooon. The little French Macaron is ever so popular these days. People swoon over these little almond flavored sandwich cookies. Confession: I'm not really one of them. They are cute, but I'm not sure their cuteness can make up for 1) their lack of deliciousness, and 2) the labor intensive process of making them, and 3) they cost about $4 a pop. Wha???

For my birthday Brook took me to a Macaron class hosted by her cooking group. Kathryn Gordon, New York pastry chef and author of the book Les Petits Macarons was there for an instructional demonstration on making macarons. It was totally awesome to see her at work. But I came away from the night even more intimidated about those little French Confections than ever before. Because as a professional pastry chef, who has literally written the book on macarons, even Kathryn Gordan was able to mess them up right in front of us. She was still trying to tweak her recipes enough for high altitude variations. Golly, for only containing 4 ingredients, there is about 4 thousand ways to royally screw up a macaron. And every pastry chef in the world has an opinion on the right and wrong way to make a macaron. The history is pretty fascinating actually.

Still, it was awesome to meet her and get my book signed. Someday I'm going to attempt them at home. Someday! Thanks Brookie Cookie!