Macaroons, jumping on the bandwagon.

Thats right, yet another macaroon recipe.. I’m jumping on the Macaroon (Macaron) bandwagon!

But, I promise this isn’t my choice I swear. For our family seder, a very unconventional Sunday lunch, I was penciled in to bring a salad, and something sweet to have with coffee.

‘Just buy some Macaroons’, my Grandmother said ‘they’re kosher for Passover’. Buy? I’m not down with that.

A lifetime ago, macaroons were the petit-four du jour. This meant that I got to eat many of the rejects, leftovers, and offcuts, but not working in the pastry section, I was never able to master the fine macaroon art. There seems to have been a macaroon resurgence of late. Beautiful posts detailing perfectly formed edible delights in such wonderful complex and subtle flavours – they are so prevalent that I won’t bother to list them all here.

Local food press even featured a macaroon image this week, in short, macaroons might be kosher for passover, but they’re also delicious and trendy.

Now I won’t bother to talk about my macaroon failures (too strong cardamom, soft and sqidgy morsels) and there were many, I also won’t include the recipes because these were edible, but not perfect. Instead I want to talk about flavours.

Traditional coconut is not to be frowned upon, the nutty sweet aroma when they hit the bowl was divine. The wonderful thing about this recipe I used (2 egg whites whipped til stiff peaks with 70g sugar, then fold in flavourings) is that anything can be added, chocolate, nuts, dried fruit (quince paste too), spices and fruit rind. I made almond, chocolate and orange, pistachio and quince, and roasted almond.

After these chunky practical macaroons, I am now yearning for the smooth, refined perfect kind, filled with rich splashes of creamy flavour. Or maybe I should just go and eat another coconut morsel.