Macaron Mania!!

I ordered some books not last week, but the week before, from Amazon. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Amazon??

If I haven't, here it is now: I LOVE AMAZON!! How is it, that I can order 6 books from the USA, and end up paying only $20 per book including postage to Australia, when one of those books retails for between $45 - $55 here in Aus?? I don't know what the answer is, but then again I don't really care - CHEAP BOOKS!!

And the even better thing was, Amazon said to me that I would definitely not receive my bounty before Christmas. And they even indicated a delivery date of 25th of January. I hate waiting for packages, but at such a good price I couldn't really complain.

Imagine my surprise when I turned up at mum's on Christmas Day and my lovely little treasure trove of books were sitting there waiting for me :D thanks Amazon, surprise Christmas present!!

ANYWAY I am getting off track majorly here. Amongst my treasure was the book I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita. I've got to admit, the only reason I bought it is because the cover caught my eye, and Amazon suggested that I may like it. Once again, thanks for having my back Amazon - you're a true friend!!

I decided that today was the day I would tackle the ever intimidating Macaron. I probably should have chosen a day when I didn't need to be anywhere at any given time (i.e mum's house for a roast dinner) but I think that sometimes you work better under pressure....right? RIGHT?!

Right. They turned out amazingly!! I'm so surprised that it worked. Well......it was a bit of a learning curve. By the 4th tray I was piping lovely little domes of merangue mixture rather than swirls......and I may have forgotten to wrap foil around 2 of the 4 trays thus rendering those one's inedible rest their souls......but I did end up with about 15 edible Macarons in the end - frilly feet and all!! SUCCESS!!














Hmmm swirly Macarons??





















Ooooh look, pretty, pink, shiny, brand new KitchenAid!! Courtesy of my lovely boyfriend. Thanks Aaren!!

Check out those frilly feet!! And, I'm sure you've noticed that I realised how to make them without the swirl effect :)

Overall, these weren't as bad to make as I thought they would be. Especially since the recipe told me to grind the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor to make it finer - and since I don't have one, I just decided to go ahead and sift it instead.........hooray!!