Macaron Successes, Failures and a Giveaway!

It was about 2.5 years ago (shortly after moving to the UK)  that I was flipping through a magazine when something caught my eye.  Something magnificent that I'd never seen before.  No, it wasn't a pair of designer shoes or a pretty dress.  It was a cookie!  But not just any cookie.  These cookies were colourful fancy little things with pretty ruffled edges.  I scoured the page to find out what they were called and where I could get them.  Macarons. I'd never heard of them before - except for the American coconut haystack kind (aka macaroons).  I immediately googled macarons to see how I could make them.  At that time only a few websites & blogs popped up that actually featured recipes for macarons, each of them explaining how finicky they were to make.  Age your egg whites, fold the batter until it flows like magma - (no more than 50 strokes), don't make them on a humid day, let the piped macarons rest on the counter for 45 mins,  leave the oven door propped open with a wooden spoon, and only listen to smooth jazz while making them - ok, that last one is a lie, but you get the picture.  It seemed as if the odds to make these pretty little cookies were stacked against me.  Never the less a few days later I decided to bake my very first batch of macarons.  I did all of those things I mentioned above (except for the jazz), and you know what?  My macarons actually turned out pretty darn good for my first try!  They had the frilly little feet and everything!  I was thrilled with them, and gloated to myself that they really weren't that hard to make!  Well, fast forward 2.5 years, and I've made dozens of batches of macarons, but sadly only about 50% of them have actually turned out well enough to even be called a macaron.  I didn't know what I was doing wrong.  My beginners luck had run out shortly after I made my first batch, and it seemed like each batch I made was completely hit or miss - even if I used the exact same recipe as the time before.  Macarons started getting increasingly popular on the blogging and baking scene, and I was constantly reading new blog posts and trying new recipes out.  I got pretty discouraged after a while, and to be honest I probably went a good year without baking another batch of macarons - until now.  Recently I came across a blog post by Brave Tart where she described her exact recipe and method of macaron making.  What made Brave Tart's recipe and method so different from all the others I'd come across what that none of those crazy "rules" that I mentioned above applied!  It didn't matter if the egg whites were aged, room temperature or cold, humid days were no problem at all.  And I believed her!  Why?  Because she confirmed my thoughts all along.  You see, Brave Tart is a restaurant pastry chef who makes batches upon batches of macarons each day, and if she had to adhere to all those crazy rules ALL the time, she may only be able to produce and sell her macarons 3 days a week!  So, this past weekend I gave Brave Tart's recipe a try.  Three trys to be exact.  Each time I managed to get at least one tray of perfect looking macarons.  Sometimes I aged the egg whites, and sometimes I used fresh cold ones. They worked each time.  I did however have a few issues, but I don't believe they're the fault of the recipe. 

My latest macaron baking sessions allowed me to come to the conclusion that my oven is - well basically a piece of crap.  Why?  Well, to be honest I've never really been a fan of my tiny UK oven - especially after discovering that some of my North American pans are too big to fit inside. But the size isn't what annoyed me this week.  It's the fact that my oven only has a top element - not a bottom and a top element like most of the ovens I'm used to.  This results in a lot of my baking browning on the top in order for it to become fully cooked throughout.  In fact, I'll often have to cover whatever I'm baking with a sheet of aluminum foil to prevent it from browning as it continues to cook.  This was reflected in the 3 batches of macarons I baked over the weekend, and led me to believe that my oven may likely be the main reason why my macarons have been so hit and miss over the past couple of years.  I tinted the first batch bright pink, and I was really pleased with the way they were looking in the oven until I noticed that they were starting to brown slightly around the edges, making the colour a little uneven.  The other thing I noticed when I took them out of the oven after the recommended baking time was that the bottoms weren't nice smooth (and lets face it - we all want nice smooth bottoms don't we!)  Instead my macarons had slightly moist and sticky bottoms - a result of there being no direct heat underneath my macarons.  I came to this conclusion after reading this article from Syrup and Tang that explains the differences between the 4 main types of ovens & their heating elements.  The article stated "If you have a crappy electric oven with an element just at the top (type D), abandon much hope of easy macaron making without a serious oven stone of some sort to store heat in the lower part of the oven."  That explains a lot!  As I mentioned before, my oven is fan assisted with the only heating element located at the top.  I've tested the temperature regulation of my oven before using a thermometer, and although it does reach the exact temperature I set the oven to, the temperature will vary by about 10ºC-15ºC throughout the duration of the baking time. Not good!  Basically thanks to the Syrup and Tang article I've come to the conclusion that I'll need to create a heat source at the bottom of my oven using my pizza stone.  I haven't had a chance to try that yet, but I definitely will sometime soon!

Anyways, lets get back to my macarons! Although all 3 batches of my macarons turned out, I was most pleased with the look of my final batch.  In order to avoid my macarons from noticeably discolouring I opted to leave them au-natural.  I made a plain vanilla flavoured macaron and filled them with Speculoos (a subtle gingerbread flavoured spread similar to peanut butter).  I also had a few extra Speculoos cookies laying around which I crumbled and sprinkled on top of the macaron shells before baking them.  These were so so good!  And thanks to Brave Tart's recipe they were also so so easy to bake!  For this particular batch I opted not to age my egg whites or bring them to room temperature.  I just used cold ones straight from the fridge.  Although I did get those pretty little feet around the edges of all my macarons, I do think that the best feet were achieved in my first batch (the ones that discoloured & that I ate before taking any real photos) when I used egg whites that were aged for 2 days at room temperature. 

Vanilla & Speculoos French Macarons

Slightly adapted from Brave Tart

4 ounces (115g) Almond flour, or whatever nut you like
8 ounces (230g) Powdered sugar
5 ounces (144g) Egg whites , temperature and age not important!

2 1/2 ounces (72g) Sugar
The scrapings of 1 vanilla bean or 2 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
1/2 tsp (2g) Salt

1 Belgian Speculoos cookie - crushed up

Belgian Speculoos Spread (Peanut butter or Nutella would also go well)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300° and have ready a large (18”) pastry bag, fitted with a plain circle tip, along with two sheet pans lined with parchment paper.

2.  Process the almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor for a minute or two in order to get rid of any little almond chunks.   Set aside.

3.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites, sugar, vanilla bean (not the extract), and salt and turn the mixer to medium (4 on a Kitchen Aid). Whip for 3 minutes. They will not seem especially foamy at that point.  

Increase the speed to medium-high (7 on a Kitchen Aid) and whip another 3 minutes, then crank the speed to 8 for go another 3 minutes.  

At that point, turn the mixer off and add in any extracts/flavor/color and whip for a final minute on the highest speed, just to show it who’s boss (and to evenly distribute the color/flavor).  At the end of this minute, you should have a very stiff, dry meringue.

When you remove the whisk attachment, there will be a big clump of meringue in the center, just knock the whisk against the bowl to free it. If the meringue has not become stiff enough to clump inside the whisk, continue beating for another minute, or until it does so.

4.  Now dump in the dry ingredients all at once and fold them in with a rubber spatula. Use both a folding motion (to incorporate the dry ingredients) and a pressing motion, to deflate the meringue against the side of the bowl.

First timers: the dry ingredients/meringue will look hopelessly incompatible. After about 25 turns (or folds or however you want to call “a single stroke of mixing”) the mixture will still have a quite lumpy and stiff texture. Another 15 strokes will see you to “just about right.” Keep in mind that macaronage is about deflating the whites, so don’t feel like you have to treat them oh-so-carefully. You want to knock the air out of them.

Undermixed macaron batter: quite stiff. If you spoon some out and drop it back into the mix, it will just sit there and never incorporate. Do this test before bagging your batter and save yourself the trouble of baking of undermixed macarons!

Overmixed macaron batter: has a runny, pancake batter-like texture. It will ooze continuously, making it impossible to pipe into pretty circles. Um, try not to reach that point.

You can evaluate your batter one stroke at a time, no rush.  Essentially, the macaron batter needs enough thickness that it will mound up on itself, but enough fluidity that after 20 seconds, it will melt back down. I’ve heard people describe this consistency as lava-like, or molten, and that’s pretty apt.

5.  Transfer about half the batter to a piping bag. (When your bag is too full, the pressure causes the batter to rush out in a way that’s difficult to control, making for sloppy macarons.)  Pipe the batter into the pre-traced circles on the baking sheet. Stop piping just shy of the borders of the circle, as the batter will continue to spread just a bit.  After piping your macarons, take hold of the sheet pan and it hard against your counter. Rotate the pan ninety degrees and rap two more times. This will dislodge any large air bubbles that might cause your macarons to crack.  Sprinkle the tops with the crushed Speculoos cookies.  

Bake for about 18 minutes, or until you can cleanly peel the parchment paper away from a macaron. If, when you try to pick up a macaron, the top comes off in your hand, it’s not done.  Once the macarons have baked, cool thoroughly on the pans, before peeling the cooled macarons from the parchment. Use a metal spatula if necessary.

6.  To fill your macarons take a large dollop of  Speculoos and carefully smooth it on the bottom of a macaron before sandwiching another macaron of similar size and shape on top to create the finished macaron.  

Macarons, against all pastry traditions, actually get better with age. The shells soften and become more chewy, mingling with the flavor of the buttercream too. So, while of course you can eat them right away, don’t hesitate to store them refrigerated for up to a week. If at all possible, set them out at room temperature for a few hours before consuming, because cold buttercream is kinda gross.

I'm so excited that I found this recipe, and Brave Tart herself has been wonderful about getting back to my tweets and emails full of questions!  I can't wait to make these again using different flavours, fillings and colours.  Next time I'll use the pizza stone as a bottom heat source and will let you know whether or not its successful.

And now onto something really exciting!  Everyone knows that the key to making a good macaron is a good kitchen scale, so I was delighted when lovely folks over at Salter UK provided me with a beautiful new MyScale kitchen scale to test out.  I decided that making these macarons would be the perfect opportunity for me to try it out.  The scale is definitely the prettiest kitchen scale I've ever seen, and it's also pretty cool because you can customise the pattern on it to whatever you like!

The Salter MyScale Personalised scale is customisable allowing you to change the display image to suit your tastes and kitchen decor.  It comes with 2 ready made designs - a pastel polka dot background and  a beautiful silvery grey damask pattern that I LOVE!  But if you don't like either of those patterns then the really cool thing is that you can upload and print out your own design using a picture of your choice by visiting the MyScale website.

 

The digital display is back-lite which makes it easy to read, and the buttons are really sensitive to the touch, so there's no need to push down hard on them in order to reset it or change the measuring units.  (I had to do this with my old scale and it was a pain!)  You can easily switch from grams to ounces and milliliters to fluid ounces at the touch of a button, so there's no need for measuring cups.  The scale turns off automatically after a few minutes, but instead of the digital display turning completely blank, it reverts to a clock!  The scale is also wall mountable so that you can use it as a pretty piece of art and a clock when you're done baking in order to save valuable counter top space!  See - told you it was pretty cool!

Now here's the best part!  Salter UK has kindly provided me with a 2nd MyScale to giveaway to one of my readers!   To enter all you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what design you would choose to use on your MyScale.  Additional entries can be earned by doing the following:

• Become a follower of Made With Pink using Google Friend Connect
• Become a fan of Made With Pink on Facebook 
• Follow Made With Pink on Twitter and tweet the following message:  I've just entered to win a customisable #Salter_MyScale from @Made_With_Pink and you can too! Visit http://tiny.cc/nehz9

Links to all of the above are in the right hand column.  Maximum of 4 entries per person.  The winning comment will be chosen at random. 

You can also follow Salter UK on Twitter here: @SalterUK and as well as on Facebook

Open to UK residents only.  Contest closes at 11:59pm Sunday May 29th.  Winner will be announced the week of May 30th.  

*** Just a reminder that you MUST leave a comment below in order to be entered into the prize draw, otherwise I have no way of keeping track of who tweeted, followed etc.  If you make a comment anonymously then please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win. You should leave a separate comment for each of the 3 things listed above if you want to be entered more than once.  I will be using random.org to choose a number from all of the comments listed below in order to determine the winner. *** 

Alternately if you can't wait to find out if you've won the MyScale you can purchase it via Amazon here:   

Visiting The 2011 London Real Food Festival

What do you get when you combine fabulous wine, organic olive oils, spicy chorizo, local cheeses, gluten free brownies and adorable little baby lambs all together all under one roof?  The 4th annual London Real Food Festival that's what!  Yesterday I attended day 3 of the 4 day event, and I had a fabulous time wandering around the festival exploring and chatting to the nearly 250 exhibitors who were showcasing their products.  It was great to see such a wide variety of food products on show, many of which were either organic or free range.

Almost every stall was giving away free samples of their food, so of course I had to take full advantage of them!  The first thing I stopped to try were some delicious handmade chocolates by Sciolti.  Their award winning chocolates use natural and locally sourced ingredients such as fruit, flowers and cream.  I tried their Kir Royal chocolate and it was delicious!  The filling was so smooth, and full of black current flavour.  I wish I would have remembered to go back and buy a selection of them to take home.  If you do get the chance to sample their chocolates I highly recommend them!

Next I stopped by My Sweet Tooth Factory and sampled some of their Oreo cheesecake squares which were really tasty.  They were also selling a variety of cupcakes and a really really nice and moist looking Red Velvet Cake - which I didn't try, but really wish I did.  I wasn't familiar with My Sweet Tooth Factory before today, but I was told they sell their cakes on Sundays at the Brick Lane Market.  

One of the things I was pleasantly surprised with was the Chocolate Fudge from The Old Chapel Fudge Company (their website is currently under construction).  Back home in Canada I used to love fudge, but since moving to the UK I haven't been able to find fudge like we had back home.  Most of the fudge I've tried over here has been extremely sweet and rather dry and crumbly - and I'll admit I usually end up throwing it out after a bite or two.  But not this time.  The Chocolate Fudge I tried had a rich and dense consistency, and was probably the closest thing to North American fudge I've tasted since living in the UK.  If you're not a fan of chocolate fudge, don't worry because The Old Chapel Fudge Company had a wide variety of flavours to choose from.

There were so many delicious foods on offer at the Real Food Fest, so I was really thankful for all the samples that were being given out - there was no way I could eat more than 1 or 2 full sized portions.  After wandering around and stopping off to eat one of the best hamburgers I've had in a long time (sorry - can't remember the name of the place!) it was time to explore more of the baking stalls.  

One of the first things that caught my eye after lunch was the most amazing looking Rich Chocolate Tart from The Pudding Stop.  This thing was seriously good!  It had the richest smoothest chocolate filling, but still somehow managed to taste light as air and not heavy at all.  If you manage to make it down to the last day of the Real Food Festival tomorrow I'd definitely recommend trying this one!  

Another thing that got my attention was the fabulous looking cupcake display from Sweet Things.  And after reading rave reviews about their cupcakes yesterday by I Heart Cupcakes, I decided that this would be the only cupcake I would try at the festival as I absolutely hate wasting money on bad cupcakes!  Sweet things sell loads of other yummy treats beside cupcakes, and they also have a large selection of wheat free cakes.  I bought one of the last regular vanilla cupcakes they had left.  It was very nice, and had a really yummy icing on top that I'm pretty sure was  swiss meringue.  

Finally I stopped by to see Caroline who owns and operates the fabulous Sugar Grain which specialise in gluten free and wheat free products.  I'd met Caroline once before at a food blogging event, and she was so lovely I haven't been able to stop thinking about her and her products since!  Sugar Grain have a stall at Borough Market, and I've been wanting to stop by and sample some of her products for ages but just never got the chance until today.  I had a hard time choosing what to try, but I opted for the award winning Raspberry and White Chocolate Chunk Brownie and I'm so glad I did.  That thing was seriously good!  And I'm not just saying that to be nice!  The brownie was so nice and moist, and had a rich chocolate flavour bursting with fresh raspberries.  If I hadn't have waited until I left the Real Food Festival to try it I would have gone back and bought a second one.  

There was no way I could stop and sample everything without physically exploding (or going totally broke), but there were a few other things that caught my eye, although I don't remember the the names of companies who were selling them.

Giant meringues 

Savoury macarons accompanied by your choice of cheese

And of course there were sweet macarons too!

If you're looking for something to do today - Sunday May 8th, then I'd definitely suggest visiting the Real Food Festival.  There are loads of different foods and products available, and don't worry they're not all sweet!  Like I mentioned before, there was a wide variety of meats, cheeses, fish, olive oils, spices, cereals, breads, fresh vegetables etc.  You name it, they have it!  And bring your kids too because they had the most adorable little baby lambs on display courtesy of the Real Farm Lambing School in Scotland. 

Cute!

This was my first visit the Real Food Festival and I had a great time exploring and trying all of the different products that were available. I will definitely be back again next year!  If you do manage to stop by today, and if I would recommend one thing for you to try it would be Sugar Grain's award winning Raspberry and White Chocolate Chunk Brownie.  Simply divine!

Golden Pages & Designer Macarons

In the world of recipe books, there's  some that just belong on the shelf.  C'mon - I'm sure we all have a few.  Then there's some that belong in the kitchen.  You know, the ones that get used ALL the time.  And then there are the ones that belong centre stage on the coffee table for all eyes to see. They're the kind of books that you could sit with for hours and just read every single recipe and imagine exactly what each of them tastes like.  The kind of book where you just lose yourself in page after page of gorgeous pictures, and fantasize that one day when you make that recipe it will turn out EXACTLY as it looked on the pages of the book. 

These books don't come around very often, but when Laduree finally released their famous recipe book Sucre in English I'll admit I got SUPER excited! Sucre got glowing reviews on the Amazon France site, and if French women thought it was good (because we all know French women are able to whip up a perfect pastry at a moments notice!) I knew it was going to be amazing.

I purchased my copy from Amazon and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived at my office nearly 5 days ahead of schedule.  When I opened up the package I was greeted with a familiar looking box - or so it seemed!  Laduree's Sucre comes packaged in a replica of their famous macaron box, and it looked so similar that I actually had people stop by my desk thinking I had a rather large box of macarons!

Sucre The Recipes can be purchased in English via Amazon US here and Amazon UK here.  Unfortunately it's not available in English yet on Amazon Canada.

Laduree has done a fabulous job transferring the opulence of their tea salons into this recipe book.  With it's mouth watering pastry pictures, velvety pistachio green cover and gold gilded pages, this book is a little work of art.  There are oodles of recipes in it.  Everything from Vanilla Eclairs and Strawberry Napoleons to Raspberry and Rose Sundae's and of course - their famous macarons!

Strawberry Marscapone Tart

I can't wait to start making delicious pastries from this book, although I will warn you that some of the ingredients are rather hard to find.  Things like chestnut puree, almond & pistachio pastes or rose syrup.  But, there are definitely lots of recipes that can be made with ingredients are can be found at your local grocery store.

 
Harmonie

 

A sampling of some recipes that caught my eye:

Chestnut Barquettes
Rose Cream Puffs
Pistachio Salambos
Roasted Pineapple Tart
All Chocolate Tart
Upside Down Apple Tarts
Chocolate Mousse
Pistachio Sour Cherry Verrines
Lemon Cake
Cherry Calfoutis

The list goes on and on!!

There are even several recipes included for their infamous macarons, but my past history of macaron making has been a bit hit and miss.  Sometimes they turn out beautifully, and sometimes they don't.  I have no idea why.  So for now, I'll try my hand at making a few other Paris pastries from the book and stick to buying my macarons from Laduree.  Speaking of which - each year Laduree partners with one (sometimes more) famous fashion brands to design and release a limited edition macaron box.  This year Laduree has partnered up with famed fashion designer John Galliano, and I must say the box is absolutely gorgeous.  Last week I popped into the Harrods branch of Laduree and picked one up.  I couldn't help but rush down there the day after they were released so I could get a hold of one.  In case you don't know - I'm a bit obsessed with collecting Laduree Macaron boxes.  The limited edition John Galliano box is available in Laduree stores now.

My selection of macarons below:  Coconut, Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Pistachio, Black Current & Violet (amazing btw) and Praline.

Golden Pages! 

Keep checking back to see what I make from this amazing book!

J'adore Paris

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been on holiday without any access to my computer.  The past few weeks have been a bit crazy, Paris one weekend, then back to the UK for a few days before heading off to Vancouver, Seattle and Victoria.  4 countries in a less than week sounds glamorous, but it can be rather tiring!  Luckily I managed to find time to  visit with all my family and friends, AND fit in some shopping for loads of fun baking supplies that aren't available here in the UK.  Thank goodness for my extra luggage allowance!! 

To start off my vacay, I celebrated my birthday weekend with my husband in my favourite place in the world - Paris!!!  I absolutely LOVE Paris.  I would totally move there, except for the fact that I can't speak French - and the French don't take kindly to foreigners who don't integrate into their society well.  So until I can speak fluent French (which is likely never, considering I'm not even taking lessons) I'll have settle for the 2 hour journey on the Eurostar.  It's amazing that a country only an hour's flight away can be so incredibly different from London and the rest of the UK.  The architecture in Paris is simply stunning.  Paris wasn't bombed during the war, so it's still got all of their beautiful buildings and landmarks in tact.  Living in London has allowed my obsession with Paris to develop at a much faster rate than if I lived back in Canada.  I've only lived here for 2 years, but I've been to Paris 3 times, and am already planning my next trip.  I'm always hearing about new and fabulous places to visit while in Paris, so I had to tick a few off my continuously expanding list.  On the menu for the weekend (and I do mean menu!) was a Paris Pastry tour. C'est magnifique! 

You'll never guess where these macarons are from!

First up was actually somewhere that I really had absolutely NO intention of going to.  Normally when I go to Paris and other foreign countries I prefer to try food from local restaurants, but when we walked past a McCafe on the Champs-Elysées, I suddenly remembered watching some online interviews with Parisians doing a taste comparison between Pierre Herme's macarons, and the newly launched McDonald's version.  Yes - you read that correctly.  The McDonald's restaurants in Paris sell macarons.  Actually, they sell a lot more than macarons (above).  They've actually got a whole pastry counter, and I must admit it looks like something you'd see in a posh pastry shop!  The McDonald's macarons come in 6 flavours (vanilla, pistachio, chocolate, lemon, chocolate and salted caramel).  I picked up a box (€4.50) for us so we could do our own taste comparison.  Verdict: The McDonald's macarons are alright.  I suppose if you haven't tried many macarons before, then you may really enjoy these.  The flavor is there - they did taste good, but the consistency of the "cookie" bit was totally wrong.  They were much denser than the macarons from Laduree or Pierre Herme. These ones had some what of a cakey consistency, which I'm assuming would probably result in them being far less fragile than their more expensive counterparts, which means you might even be able to bring them home with you for family and friends back home. Chances are, they're not going to know the difference! 

McDonald's macarons and pastry case - French fast food!

Next on the tour was Angelina. Famous for their hot chocolate and Mont Blanc pastries, this place should be on everyone's "To Do" list when they come to Paris. Seriously, the hot chocolate is sooo good, but it's sooo rich.  My husband and I each got a pastry - he got a type of vanilla slice that was made up of layers of flaky pastry and vanilla cream, while I got the famous Mont Blanc which is made up of vanilla chantilly cream on top of a thin flat meringue and covered in thin strands of chestnut paste. I'd been warned at rich the hot chocolate was, so we opted to share one.  Seriously, when they say the hot chocolate at Angelina is rich, they're not joking!  This isn't your milky Nestle variety.  Angelina's hot chocolate is pretty much just melted chocolate.  It's so luxurious and thick, and so absolutely delicious.  Le Chocolat chaud l'African is served in a small jug, alongside an accompanying bowl of whipped cream.  If you've read my blog more than once, you'll know I've got a passion for anything sweet, but the combination of the sweet Mont-Blanc and the thick hot chocolate kicked my ass. My husband and I couldn't finish either of them.  I'd definitely recommend going to Angelina's, but would advise you to share the hot chocolate! 

Angelina's famous hot chocolate, Mont Blanc and vanilla slice (in the back).

Angelina sells their famous hot chocolate, but it's practically solid when it's at room temperature! Below are a few other drool worthy shots of the pastries at Angelina

The final stop on our Paris Pastry tour was the infamous Laduree.  As I've mentioned before, the best macarons and pastries in Paris can be found at Laduree.  We had originally stopped by Laduree for afternoon tea one and of their delicious pastries - specifically the Religieuse - a puffed choux pastry filled with a rich chocolate cream, topped off with chocolate fondant. Unfortunately we (as well as several others) were turned away because they were "only serving lunch", tea would only start to be served at 3:30.  I'm not sure if I believe that or not, but we opted to wait in line and ordered our pastries and macarons over the counter to take away.  I ended up eating my Religieuse pastry on my way back to London on the Eurostar - a far less glamours place than inside the golden gilded walls of Laduree. 

A slightly blury picture of the chocolate religieuse

More pastries from Laduree

If you've read my previous post about the macarons from Laduree, you'll know that I'm totally obsessed with them, as well as their beautiful boxes.  Several times a year Laduree releases specially designed limited edition macaron boxes, and I just happened to be in Paris while their Summer 2010 boxes were being sold. This years box was covered in pretty white daisies, and had a cute little butterfly attached to the top.  I just had to have it!

Mmmacaons!!! 

While in Paris, we stayed in an amazing little hotel directly opposite the Arc de Triomphe called the Hotel Splendid Etoile.  This hotel was so charming, I'd recommend it to anyone! Both the room itself and the view were amazing, and the breakfast was delicious!  Lots of yummy breakfast pastries!

Our hotel room, and the view from the balcony at night.

 

Ooh La La

On Tuesday I took the Eurostar to Paris with 5 of my work colleagues for a team building day.  Yes, we went to Paris for the day.  The day!  How cool is that!?!  We stopped off for an amazing lunch at Le Cafe de la Paix which is located in Le Grand Hotel before heading down the Rue Royale to one of the best pastry and tea salons in Paris - Laduree.  Laduree is probably most well known for their amazing selection of French macarons and pastries.  I can't remember how I first found out about Laduree, but I've been a bit obsessed with it ever since.  Probably for about 3 years now.  The pastry case in Laduree could easily be considered one of the most beautiful sites in Paris.  I ended up having the most amazingly rich and decadent little chocolate dessert called the Carré Chocolat, which consisted of a dark chocolate macaroon biscuit, thin black chocolate crispy leaves, smooth black chocolate cream, smooth black chocolate biscuit and chocolate zabaglione mousse.  It even had a few flecks of gold leaf on top.  But what I really went there for were the macarons.  Oh the macarons.  They are heaven.  

The Carré Chocolat dessert I got is on the far right. Mmm!

I'm sure most of you have heard of a macaron by now, after all they are being touted as the "new cupcake" and North American bakeries are only just now jumping on the macaron band wagon.   I'd been dying to get my hands on one of Laduree's beautiful macaron boxes ever since I saw them there last summer.  You see, Laduree has a huge array of macaron boxes, many of which are limited edition.  But because we were in Paris the macaron names and price lists were obviously in French.  And because I quit French class after grade 8 to take Spanish, I found myself starring at the case like an idiot really wishing I'd stuck with the French lessons because I couldn't figure out what the heck I was supposed to order.  I ended up choosing a selection of 8 macarons, but left Laduree a little disappointed because my macarons were in a thinner (but still pretty) light green cardboard box, and not the higher quality gift box I'd wanted.  I figured I'd probably just have to wait until my next trip to Paris in August before I got another chance at acquiring a coveted Laduree macaron gift box.   

 Laduree also has the most beautiful window displays.  Check out their signature macaron tower!

 Well, fast forward 4 days and what did I happened to spot while wandering around at the annual Taste of London Food Festival in Regent's Park, but a Laduree macaron stand!  Laduree actually has 2 locations in London, but I don't really get a chance to visit them much.  Besides, I seem much more oblivious to the fact that I'm spending £25 ($38 US) on 14 little "cookies" when I'm on holiday.  I decided to seize my opportunity to order in English, and finally purchased 2 beautiful boxes of Laduree Macarons!  Apologies in advance for the picture overload! I couldn't help myself.

Look at all the pretty boxes!

More pretty boxes

My purchases!

Above from left to right: Mimosa, Vanilla, Coffee, Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Coconut, Pistachio, Raspberry.  Sooo delicious!