French macaron: Are you ready for this cookie challenge?

By Santa Ynez Valley Star Staff · Tue Mar 17 2020

By Vida Gustafson

Contributing Writer

If you like a challenge and you have lots of patience, this cookie is for you! 

I’m only half kidding. Lately, I love locking myself away in the kitchen and really concentrating on making something special (not to mention adorably edible) like this. I’m also not adverse to “oohs and ahs” from my kids. This is why I decided to tackle this notoriously finicky traditional French pastry. This is a basic vanilla recipe, you can zhuzh it up any way you please with extracts in the cookies and/or fillings. I even made a root-beer flavored one with some unsweetened drink powder (no idea why I had that in the first place). Most macaron recipes are by weight because precision is really important in baking, I’ve found that I get pretty consistent results with the following volume measurements and it’s not such a big bother. The best things about these is that even the “flops” taste pretty darn good, so grab a bag of superfine almond flour and get baking! 

Ingredients