So what's up with macarons?

[Jenise]

I swear, a year ago I had never seen one. Now, they're everywhere I look. What happened?

[Redwinger]

Yeah, they're kinda like cupcakes.

[Rahsaan]

I swear, a year ago I had never seen one. Now, they're everywhere I look. What happened?

Marketing.

In that sense they are like cupcakes.

But the one crucial difference is that it is MUCH more difficult to make a great macaron than a great cupcake. Even in France, it's only worth eating the top 1% of macarons, IMHO. The delicate textural interplay is key. Cupcakes and their soft gooeyness seem much more forgiving.

[Redwinger]

Marketing.

In that sense they are like cupcakes.

That's what I meant to say.

[Rahsaan]

For what it's worth, while marketing is obviously a big factor, in my opinion both cupcakes and macarons are worthy of some fuss.

Cupcakes may not be the most delicate snack, but they are a fun little canvas for all sorts of creativity. And all the cupcake experimentation we see going on today is surely a much better development for society than the Days of Hostess.

Macarons are on another level gastronomically, IMHO. So many layers of delicate texture and flavor. A very refined snack. Also, a much better development for society than the Days of Hostess.

[Robin Garr]

The delicate textural interplay is key.

Yes! This! That's exactly why macarons are not like cupcakes. Plus, any idiot can make a passable cupcake.

[Hoke]

I am so over macarons.

Couple of years ago I was at the Fete Malbec in Cahors at a gala tasting and one table was gaudily displaying macarons in the most brilliant of colors. I tasted one. After all, how can you resist?

It was a macaron filled with foie gras.

It was not a good thing. I was reminded of that hilarious moment in "Big" when Tom Hanks tastes his first caviar.

I figured at that moment macarons had "jumped the shark" for me.

[Frank Deis]

I have had Macarons that were boring. And Louise made macarons (with my help) that were very fine, you CAN do it at home if you are a very careful cook. We used the recipe from Keller's Bouchon cookbook.

But I never fully appreciated the potential of macarons until a very good friend gave me a box of Luxemburgerli from Sprüngli in Zürich, Switzerland. These were fresh off the plane from Switzerland and they were utterly exquisite. The intensity of flavor kind of gave one a double-take response. "Ah, cherry flavor!" "WOW, CHERRIES!!" And lots of fresh butter good enough to taste behind the flavorings. We were told we had to eat them all in about 24 hours or they wouldn't be as good.

If you find yourself in Zürich, I think these are a must.



http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/3/25/ ... f+Z%FCrich

[Bill Spohn]

Best are made in St. Emilion - just ask my wife!

[Rahsaan]

If you find yourself in Zürich, I think these are a must.

Nice. I see the chocolate one has a dusting on top. That is the brilliant extra level of precision that makes it all worthwhile but is so difficult to pull off. The King Pierre Herme in Paris has all sorts of additional textures and flavors on top and around the macarons. All so precise, delicate, yet intense, just as you say.

I'm a big fan.

[Jenise]

But who/what turned them into the fad they apparently are? Are they a recent invention, or did some famed restaurant or event suddenly make everyone almost-simultaneously go, "wow, let's do that". I pay so little attention to sweets that these could have been floating about Paris for decades and I wouldn't know that, but suddenly they're everywhere.

I'd skipped opportunities to taste them due to my fear of creamy fillings. But in Kansas City recently, after dinner the chef at The Rieger gave Bob and I and the couple we were sitting next to at the "kitchen counter" each a pair, matched it seemed for compatibility: Bob and I got lemon and raspberry, where the other couple got blood orange (I was jealous of that!) and chocolate. To be polite, though I dreaded it I had to at least take a bite. It was fantastic! Refrigerator cold, the filling was unexpectedly dense. That is much firmer than I'd expected, and rewardingly so, rather like a sherbet. The colors were vivid, and the flavors just as intense. Have no idea about typicity, but I would welcome an opportunity to taste more like that.

[Jeff Grossman/NYC]

The filling in a well-made macaron is more a paste than a cream.

[Rahsaan]

I pay so little attention to sweets that these could have been floating about Paris for decades...

Try centuries.

As always, there are debates about their origins, but they go back to at least the early 18th century and some claim to trace them to the 16th century. The modern version was popularized by Laduree, in Paris, in the early 20th century.

I can't speak to why they've suddenly become so popular in the US. Laduree recently arrived in the US, but I think Macaron Fever had been spreading before that. Perhaps restaurants and pastry chefs constantly looking for a new 'fad'.

[Jenise]

Does anyone suppose that the modern industrial sandwich cookie, of which the Oreo is one, evolved from the macaron?

[Jeff Grossman/NYC]

Does anyone suppose that the modern industrial sandwich cookie, of which the Oreo is one, evolved from the macaron?

On a quick Google around, I could find no one who asserted it, but there is much that is undocumented about the development of the Oreo. One thing that is clear is that the Oreo was a copycat of the Hydrox, which debuted as much as 4 years earlier!

Anyway, while sniffing around that topic I came across someone who claims that an Italian meringue method is more reliable than the French one for making macarons:
http://livelonger.hubpages.com/hub/Easy-Macaron-Recipe-French-Macaroon

I'm not much of a baker so I would love to hear an opinion about this technique from someone who is....

[Frank Deis]

If you find yourself in Zürich, I think these are a must.

Nice. I see the chocolate one has a dusting on top. That is the brilliant extra level of precision that makes it all worthwhile but is so difficult to pull off. The King Pierre Herme in Paris has all sorts of additional textures and flavors on top and around the macarons. All so precise, delicate, yet intense, just as you say.

I'm a big fan.

Rahsaan, it occurred to me that eating a BIG Luxemburgerli might just be too much intense flavor. Keeping them so small allows them to just blast your palate without tiring it.

FWIW we also bought macarons at Lhardy, on San Jeronimo in Madrid. Very good, not in the stratosphere like the ones from Zürich.

I think the ones from Keller's Bouchon Bakery are big and a little boring...