A Leap Day Triumph

I decided to take this extra day of 2012 and use it to tackle one of my prior failures. My first attempt making French Macaroons was abysmal. The end result of my baking efforts was essentially Nilla wafers. Tasty yes, but not macaroons. The macaronage was runny and the pied (or foot) never formed. I blame some of my failure on inexperience and the rest on this cookbook, I don't recommend it. Undeterred, I decided I needed more guidance so I took the French Macaroon workshop offered by the Dessert Truck. It was a great experience and I really learned a lot though the process taught at the workshop was kind of tedious so I was not very confident that I could recreate my classroom success at home. 




That is until I discovered this blog - BraveTart. The author totally demystifies the entire macaroon making process and after I read her 10 Macaroon Myths and 10 Macaroon Commandments posts I was ready to tackle the Macaroon Recipe. The results are night and day from my first attempt.  I can't wait to try them again. I think I slightly over-mixed the batter because my macaroons could have risen a bit more but overall I'm really happy with the results. It helps when you have some guidance that doesn't make you feel like there is some vengeful macaroon god waiting to thwart you and leave you with cracked or deflated macaroons. 




How are you spending your extra day of 2012?