define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); macarons – Dessert Landscape http://www.dessertlandscape.com Explorations of a die-hard dessertatarian Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:33:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.30 French Délices Part 2: Macaron Madness http://www.dessertlandscape.com/2010/06/04/french-delices-part-2-macaron-madness/ http://www.dessertlandscape.com/2010/06/04/french-delices-part-2-macaron-madness/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:00:24 +0000 http://www.dessertlandscape.com/?p=810 Macarons are the little gemstones of the pastry world.  They come in every color and flavor, and are highly sought-after.  Some of them are even come covered in sparkles!  A stale one is so sad– you hold it delicately and take a tentative bite, then the cookie collapses into shards and dust, and you must console yourself with the tiny bit of filling that’s inside.  But a fresh one is a glorious contrast in textures, with meringue-almond cookies that are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.  Then there’s the delicious filling, sometimes a cream base, sometimes more a fruit jelly base.

My favorite place in NYC to find a good macaron is Almondine, with locations in D.U.M.B.O. and Park Slope.  I found that French pâtisseries offer so many more interesting flavors than just your average chocolate or strawberry.  I saw mandarin orange, lychee, zucchini-mint, salted caramel, white peach-saffron, grapefruit, Earl Grey tea, green lemon-ginger, cola, rum-raisin, and marshmallow, to name a few.  Perhaps French pastry chefs like to experiment as much with macarons as their American counterparts do with ice cream.

Here are a few samples from different places in Lyon:

I also learned about the existence of both savory macarons, like black olive, gorgonzola-sesame, and tomato-basil, and sweet and savory hybrids, like duck foie gras with apple-spice, pimento-pepper, and carrot-cumin.  Maybe they would have been nice to try for anthropological reasons, but I had valuable stomach space to preserve!

]]> http://www.dessertlandscape.com/2010/06/04/french-delices-part-2-macaron-madness/feed/ 1