November 2, 2017
Whether macarons are French or Italian is up for intense debate, but when I think of macarons, I think of France. I’d heard they are a difficult confection to make and very temperamental.
Macarons are totally different than macaroons. Macaroons are made of coconut, sugar, flour, egg whites and vanilla. Macarons are meringue-based made with egg whites, icing sugar, sugar, and almond powder, then filled with any number of delightful things like jam, chocolate or buttercream.
Macarons come in all colors and flavors; they should be crunchy on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. I tell you all this because today, I learned how to make macarons.
I made my way on the metro back to La Cuisine Paris to meet up with our chef for the day, V (short for something, but she said “just call me V”), and the other seven people in my class ~ a mother and daughter from Dallas, two best friends from Northern California, a woman from Australia, a young lady from Boston who is teaching English in Lyon, and my partner for the day, a young lady from Belarus. It was an interesting mix of people.
Placed in teams of two, we all set to make the fillings for the macarons. My team was in charge of making coffee-flavored buttercream, but not “American buttercream,” which is too sweet. It involved making a simple syrup, mixing an egg and a yolk, combining them in a stand mixer, and then adding the room temperature (everything has to be room temperature with macarons) butter (it’s France, you have to use butter). The coffee flavoring went in at the end ~ I deferred to others as to how much flavor to use since I’m not a fan of coffee (yes, it’s true).
Team mother and daughter was in charge of making the salted caramel. The daughter was extremely nervous cooking the sugar as she didn’t want it to burn. However, they did a good job with the sugar, adding in the lukewarm cream and salted butter to make a really nice creamy caramel. We did have them add in a bit more salt for flavor.
Team Australia and Lyon made the raspberry jam using sugar, raspberries, and sheets of gelatin. Finally, Team Best Friends made the chocolate ganache, which turned out to be very shiny and very dark. I would have gone with milk chocolate, but no one asked my opinion.
Fillings completed and chilling, it was time to learn to make one of two meringue bases – the Italian meringue. The difference between the two is that the Italian meringue is hot and the French meringue is not. Both use ground almonds, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, and egg whites. They’re just added in different orders. The Italian meringue uses simple syrup, while the French meringue does not.
I’d go through all the steps, but there are too many. Just know that the difficult step is the mixing – if you mix too much, the cookies will be flat and won’t get “feet” when cooked. If you don’t mix it enough, then the shells will crack and look ugly. No one wants an ugly macaron. Additionally, air bubbles are not your friend when trying to get shiny, smooth macaron shells.
Once the Italian meringue was mixed and the food coloring added (never use liquid food coloring, only paste and preferably powdered food coloring – has something to do with diluting the meringue), it was time to pipe the cookies. This was tricky because we had to use piping bags and hold them upright at a 90-degree angle to the parchment paper while trying to pipe equal rounds of meringue with no peaks. We were fairly successful in the whole 90-degree angle thing, but equal rounds of meringue were not in our future. Among the group, there were big ones, little ones, medium-sized ones, and several lopsided rounds of meringue.
Once piped, we slammed the baking pans on the counter several times to get any remaining air bubbles to escape. This would be an excellent thing to do to release tension and aggression.
And then it was baking time. With the Italian meringues in the oven, we started all over again with French meringue. Very time consuming, but fun.
The first batch came out of the oven and darned if they didn’t look pretty good. Same with the second batch (although the second set seemed a little weirder because my teammate wanted to mix colors for a two-toned effect).
I was very impressed with what we made. We matched up cookies of equal sizes to make the sandwich for the filling and then piped different fillings in the middle of the cookies. Voila, we had completed macarons. Unfortunately, I don’t know how they taste because we have to let them sit for a day in a refrigerator ~ that’s not fair. So, currently, mine macarons are sitting in my hotel’s employee refrigerator until tomorrow – I hope they don’t go missing.
After dropping my delicacies off at the hotel, I decided to get back on the metro and take myself to the Rodin museum. The museum is situated in a villa, which was once Rodin’s home and studio. The villa is filled with Rodin’s finished and unfinished sculptures including The Kiss, paintings and drawings, and several pieces of artwork he received or purchased from other artists (he had a Monet and a few Van Goghs).
In addition to the art in the villa, there are three hectares of gardens surrounding the villa displaying several of Rodin’s more substantial and most famous sculptures. They include The Thinker, the monument to Victor Hugo, Balzac, and the Gates of Hell. I spent about 2 1/2 hours walking through the gardens and the villa pondering Rodin’s brilliance. Although I’m not keen on and don’t understand some of his work, I appreciate his talent and vision.
Outside the museum, it was starting to head toward twilight. I didn’t know quite what I wanted to do, only that I didn’t want to head back to the hotel yet. So, I walked and took photos. I walked around Invalides and the army museum. I walked across the Seine and by the Petite and Grand Palaces. I turned and walked up to the Champs Elysees.
All in all, I walked about 2 1/2 miles, just strolling, watching people, and taking photographs. It was relaxing and exhilarating at the same time.
For dinner, I stopped at a corner boulangerie for a piece of pizza (where else but France do you get Brie on a four cheese pizza). Then, I took myself to Ladurée for a pot of tea and a dessert. They were all out of Tart Tatin (apple tart), so I had to settle for a chocolate mousse and caramel creation that was as good as it was beautiful. It was a tad expensive for dessert, but who better to treat me than me.
Out on the Champs Elysees, I walked until I found the next metro stop, checked the map, and figured out how to get back to the hotel. It took two transfers, but I made it back safe and sound.
One more day in Paris and then it’s back home. I’m excited to go home and see Steven, but I will miss my time in Paris. I think I’m a little in love with the City of Lights, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
