Macaron 101

I (heart) Macaron! That's actually the title of a book by Hisako Ogita, and that's exactly how I feel about them. Those rainbow-coloured moist almond biscuits sandwiched with assorted flavours always makes my heart beat a little faster. What's not to get excited about them?

I've been paying very dearly for them from Canele in Singapore. Either I get a box myself whenever I'm there or through friends who are kind enough to bring them back across the Causeway for me.

Obviously, Singapore is more advanced where macarons are concerned. I remember making inquiries about about them at home after the first time I ate them in Singapore. Everyone I asked gave me funny looks that said "What the hell is she talking about?". Some said "Oh,  you're talking about macarOOns!" Oh no, I wasn't.

Well, guess what? The macarOn has finally come to our shores - LATE in true Malaysian fashion - in a big, expensive way. 

I had the pleasure of joining a macaron-making class recently to see how it's done by BigBoysOven. There was a demonstration and then all four of us in the class got to try making it ourselves. It was fun, informative, quick and surprisingly easy.

I can't even remember why I was frightened of making them before, despite getting it somewhat right the third time. Still it required me to free-up a whole day to prep the ingredients, mix the batter carefully, pipe it out, dry the shells, sit in front of the oven during the entire baking time and scream "Got feet, got feet." to no one in general when the frilly feet appeared at long last. (I used the recipe and method from Hisako Ogita's book. It's a lovely little book to own if you are into macarons. It even has pictures of every step it takes to make them.)

I'm not spending RM70 in Canele or anywhere else anymore after this class. Okay, okay so I lie. I probably WILL still buy them but at least I'd be able to use the bought ones as a benchmark against my own and make them myself whenever I want to.

I had Sunny hovering while I mixed the batter during the class, so I'll have to first make them on my own without any supervision before I can say I'm truly successful. However, since even the best can get it wrong at times, I'm rather proud of this small classroom achievement.

Here are some pictures from the class. I'll be updating it later to show you how I fared on my own.

Meanwhile, go for a class if you'd like to know how to make these babies. The Boys - Sunny and Sidney - are very good teachers and you can ask them all the questions you want about macarons.

Whipping the whites

Drying

This was my favourite colour - like  ang ku

Filling the chocolate macarons 

Class effort

White Sesame - Mine!