My macarons

So, after all those classes, I was inspired to do a batch myself. As you know, in the past, I had various success, well, at least the ones I showed you anyway. So, in hope of not making too many failed ones, I divided up my egg whites into 2 batch and went to town.

My mom recently went to a lavender farm an hour or so outside of Houston. And she brought back culinary lavender for me. She thought I was supposed to crush them and blend it into the cookie shells. I thought it was a good decoration on top of the cookies.

Anyway, the cookies came out nicely. The color didn't get to the point I liked, I had put in a bunch of purple gel, but after baking it, not only was it burnt a tad, it looks like salmon color... too strange. Guess I needed more.

The other thing too is that I went away from the recipes from the 2 classes. I know, defeat the purpose of taking those classes, but it's not true. I learned the difference of using an all powdered sugar method and got new flavor recipes.

I used the Mad About Macaron recipe. The proportion between almond meal and powdered sugar is different and I think that worked out pretty well.
For the chocolate, I substituted 2/3rd of the almond meal w/ cocoa powder, and it taste and looks like it's supposed to. And as I learned from SLT, cocoa powder absorb some of the moisture, so while it does take a little longer to form a 'skin' on top, it does bake better than a plain almond meal based cookie.

Also, w/ the puree idea I got from WDCC, I went to the store hoping to find some pre-made puree. And instead, I was delighted to find Central Market has pre-made caramel and puree ready for purchase. You can find them at the pre-made cake section. I guess that's a nice garnish to have when you serve your cake.

So I mashed up chocolate w/ caramel (no salt), and I matched the lavender w/ Nutella, because I'm lazy to find another one. Although, I supposed I could've melted some white chocolate and put some raspberry puree w/ them. Next time!

Unfortunately, I think the next time would have to be Fall as Houston get more and more moisture and heat, which are enemies of macaronnage. I am going to play w/ the Italian style of making mac, we'll see how that goes. ;)