Macarons NYC

This was my first attempt at making macarons since moving to New York just over a year ago. For a long time I didn’t have the tools necessary to make these tiny almond flour meringue cookies filled with ganache. But when a friend of mine asked me to make him some for his girlfriend’s birthday, I took the challenge.

There are many things that can go wrong when making macarons, so I won’t even be attempting to write a recipe for this site. Without watching demonstrations and learning hands-on, getting them right on the first, or even by the fifth, attempt is rare. The sugar for the meringue must be cooked to the precise temperature before pouring it over whipping egg whites, and then that mixture must be folded into the dry ingredients, along with additional egg whites, and then slightly beaten down to the perfect consistency, or the cookies will crack, or be too thin and flat. The oven can complicate things even more. In short, these are incredibly finicky cookies.

But lucky for me, and my friend's girlfriend, I hadn’t forgotten all of the little tricks, like learning how to ride a bike, and I made two flavors of macarons: Dark Chocolate-Cherry, and Pistachio Macarons.