My Battle with D Mac....

OK. This post I'm not giving out any recipes but rather share with my readers on my battle with the Mac. Not McDonald but rather the Macarons....

A 'macaron'  is a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. Its name is derived from an Italian word "maccarone" or "maccherone". This word is itself derived from ammaccare, meaning crush or beat, used here in reference to the almond paste which is the principal ingredient. It is meringue-based: made from a mixture of egg whites, almond flour.

The confectionery is characterized by its smooth, domed top, ruffled circumference (referred to as the "foot"), and flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth.

Then again, do not be confused by 'macaroons'. A macaroon  is a type of light, baked confection, described as either small cakes or meringue-like cookies depending on their consistency. The original macaroon was a "small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almond similar to Italian or Moroccan amaretti.
 
I think anybody who has attempted to bake macarons must have tried few times before succeed (except for few lucky ones who managed in 1 attempt.) For me, I think nobody has my record of more than 15 attempts. Some were edible and some went into the bin. I did manage to take some shots of the first few tries and after that I gave up.
 
It wasnt until my friend, Cynthia of http://mumto4angels.blogspot.com/ started to bake them that my interest to try this cute & colourful french 'cookie' once again. With help and some troubleshooting from my bro, Moses who came home for a short break from US that I managed to bake the macaron. With daily practice, I managed to master the art of baking macarons!!! Yay!!!!
 
Here's some pix of my first few disasters..(Pls dont laugh...:-((

                                                                       This one was more like a meringue.....               


Perhaps the temperature was too hot, it cracked...





Tried to add some 'sprinkles' to make it more attractive...

Thought this mac was going to have the 'feet' but....it didnt happen...:-((

And now....my successful macarons...(^.^)...



                                              This one is with Green Tea Buttercream Filling

                            I added some ground hazelnut to make 'Hazelnut Chocolate Macaron'

                                                Assorted Macarons packed into a box as gift

                                                     Or make it into Macaron Lolipop...

And I can only say that the battle has been won!!!! Will post some more pix and my recipe for the macarons...