Big City, Little Kitchen

One of the main reasons to go to Paris, in my opinion, is to eat your weight in macaroons (or macarons). These tiny prizes are about as far from the dense, coconut mounds that are American-style macaroons as Paris is from New York. They almost defy description: light, crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, sandwiching a variety of meringues, creams, and fruit fillings. My heart belongs to the salted caramel macaron at Laduree (although the chestnut flavor comes in a close second). They also have a delicious licorice flavor that turns your mouth black! Very charming when you’re strolling the city with your significant other.

Last week, craving a bit of Paris, I decided to make my own. They’re nowhere near as smooth or light or perfect, but they look really pretty, and have a nice chewiness. I decided to sandwich mine with my white chocolate buttercream. The cookie recipe is from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 1/2 cups ground almonds or almond meal
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder (such as Valrhona)
• 3 large egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 recipe white chocolate buttercream

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with silicone liners or parchment paper.

Sift confectioners’ sugar into bowl; whisk in ground almonds. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy; add salt. Continue beating whites, adding sugar a little at a time, until they reach medium-soft peaks. Add half of almond mixture to egg whites; quickly, and with a light touch, fold in. Fold in vanilla and rest of flour mix.

Fit pastry bag with 1/2″ tip; fill to 3/4 capacity with mixture (you may have to do two rounds, depending upon size of pastry bag). Pipe into 1 1/2″-diameter circles on cookie sheet. Bake 20-25 minutes, until cookies appear dry and can be easily lifted off cookie sheet. Let cool for 5 mins, and remove from sheet to cooling rack.

When completely cool, spread the flat side of one cookie with about 1 tb of frosting; sandwich with another. Repeat with remaining cookies.