Macaroons.

Sorry about the long absence. I was secretly preparing a few posts.
First of the series is about macaroons!!

I am not so much into macarons. I don't find the taste extraordinary, but I find them really beautiful and the flavors can be very creative.

I would think it deserved to be in the "Eat before 30" list and even better if you eat them in France. I will make it a "Cook before 30" priority. I've already tried, once, that was good but nothing unforgetable.

Look at these watercolor painting by Lucileskitchen. A macaron a day...

To be inspired I bought a few at M le Macaron in Bordeaux. They make nice colors and they always have crazy flavors. This time they had Cotton candy and Osseau-Iraty ones (even better if two of my Eat before 30 are coupled in one!).

Then I saw Fimo paste macarons. I am into that polymer clay creative mood these days, so I couldn't resist in trying to reproduce them (I'll soon blog on that new passion of mine). It took me a while to get an approximate shape.

And finally, after savoring every single one of that huge macaroon box, I got myself into baking these delicacies. Moka, Matcha, Mango and Tagada!

First the ingredients: you need egg whites, icing sugar and almond powder.

Then you need to sift the mix of icing sugar and almond powder. That's the longest part. And mix it with very stiff egg whites until it makes a silky, flexible dough. 

You can add edible dyes in your preparation, then with a pastry bag you make small domes that you allow to sit for 30 minutes so they make a crust. Then bake at 110°C for 12 minutes. If you're lucky (in my case only 20% of them) they'll make the perfect lace like collar (this puffy thing at the bottom).
During all the waiting times you can prepare the filling. In my case a mix of chocolate and coffee powder, plus a few Tagada strawberries to use as gelatin to thicken things up.

 A lot more people were supposed to try them, but I kept all the nice looking ones (only 10) for Julie (see next post) to thank her for her very instructive fimo lesson! and don't worry, the misshaped ones didn't last long ;)