The sweet taste of success - Coffee Macarons

You know that saying, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again," or maybe "third time's the charm".  There must be some truth to it because I finally did it!  My third attempt at making macarons worked!  They all came out with "feet" and peeled off the baking sheets beautifully.  I nearly jumped for joy.  So I present you with my six-year old son's favorite macaron flavor: coffee.  I topped some with a sprinkling of cocoa nibs and filled them with chocolate ganache.  Being the proud chocoholic that I am, I've decided to stick with ganache filling as opposed to buttercream.

At first, I intended to try chocolate macarons one more time to try and finally get it right.  My very first attempt was delicious but a delicious disaster.   The second try came out a lot better but was inconsistent and the macarons still stubbornly stuck to the baking sheet.  I really wanted to get it right and make the chocolate ones (my personal favorites next to hazelnut/praline and maybe pistachio) one more time before moving on to other flavors.  But I thought to myself: "why be so rigid?"  I should try something different.  My son loves the coffee ones and has asked me to make them so I decided to give those a whirl instead.  And it finally happened.  We have authentic macarons in the house!

The first, and major, advantage I had this time around was a properly working oven.  I didn't realize the first time I made macarons that there was something off with my oven.  The second time around, I started to have an inkling.  Turns out, the lighter in the oven needed replacing, and now it quickly fires up nice and hot.  I also learned from books I've read and websites I've visited.  All the information confused me but also helped.  Specifically, the tips in Alice Medrich's book were very helpful and I took her advice about giving the macarons a head start (to "lift off") by heating the oven at a high 400 degree before turning it down to 300 when the cookies went in.  I also baked them longer this time.  It worked.

And miraculously, the macarons came off both the parchment paper and silpat with ease.  Despite how good they looked out of the oven, I was dreading the removal because I'm used to them sticking stubbornly to the parchment paper.  But in this case, the overwhelming majority of these practically peeled right off.  No need to pour warm water under the parchment paper or other tricks.  The backs are so smooth and undamaged, they almost look like the tops.

I really adore macarons.  Not only do they look lovely but I love the taste of the ground nuts in the macarons and its texture.  The outside is crisp and shatters under your bite into that chewiness that surprises you even though you expect it.

So I'm happy to report my successful macaron story today.  I know I still have a lot to learn and who knows how the next endeavor will turn out, but that's alright.  I thoroughly enjoyed the appreciative "mmm..." sound that came out of my little guy's mouth when he tasted these.  We definitely share a love for pastry and confections.