A few months ago I wanted to be a little bit more adventurous and so I decided to try out French macarons. Around the same time, The English Rose Bakery was opening up in the Selfridges department store in my city and they retail French macarons (and other wonderful baked goods).
What exactly are French macarons? According to Wikipedia.com;
A macaron is a sweet meringue-based confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food colouring. The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies.
I've seen macarons in TV shows such as Gossip Girl and it is popular in many other countries besides France.
In other cities within the UK, such as London, macarons are available at Ladurée in Harrods, Covent Garden and a number of other locations.
I purchased mine at The English Rose Bakery (there is no Ladurée in my city).
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| A perfect little box |
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| Opened box with six macarons lined up looking all beautiful |
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| All six macarons on a little plate |
The flavours I purchased were;
- Raspberry
- Chocolate
- Hazel Nut
- Salted Caramel
- Lemon
- Vanilla
More flavours are available and can be seen here.
Verdict
I did not eat all of my macarons in one sitting, they're too sweet for that (at least for me)! I had some and stored the rest for the next two days in the fridge and to my surprise they were still as good as when I first bought them. My favourite flavours have to be the salted caramel and vanilla. Chocolate was perhaps my least favourite because the flavour was just too chocolatey for me (how can someone say that about chocolate?). I like chocolate, but there is such a thing as too much chocolate for me (in my opinion). The outer layer of the macarons have a soft shell which give a little bit of crunch and the centre layer is really soft, chewy and gooey.
I was captured by the colours of the macarons and that is what initially drew me to them. I felt like I had to put a taste to the picture. They're wonderful with a hot drink such as tea and they also provide a good alternative to cakes and other confectionary.
They can also serve as really cute gifts for birthdays, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.
I believe they're worth trying if you haven't already and I would definitely buy them again. I will explore other flavours and attempt other variations including the ones with butter or jam filling. I'd also like to go to Ladurée myself at some point and experience the French tea room setting while happily snacking on French macarons.
