I love making macarons - they are so much fun to make, because they are truly challenging. I made 10 unsuccessful batches before I finally got my recipe to where I had success every time. All the "unsuccessful" batches were very delicious - they just had cracks, or didn't develop the little ruffled "feet" at the bottoms, or weren't perfectly round, etc. In any case, basic macarons only have 5 ingredients: almond flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and butter. That includes both the cookie and the meringue buttercream filling! Only the French could take 5 tiny ingredients and invent something so diabolical with them!
Macarons are a huge trend in Paris and New York right now, but they're pretty hard to find anywhere else. There are a couple of bakeries here in Utah which sell them, but I have visited them and found out that the macarons they sell are not made at their bakeries - they import them from France or New York. One baker said she tried to make them, and it was too hard, and she didn't have the time to invest in figuring out how to do it. She also stopped importing them, because it was too expensive. Of the macarons I've tried here in Utah, and also in Las Vegas, the Utah ones are sad indeed. You can tell that they are not fresh. The Las Vegas ones were much better, but still not as fresh tasting as the ones I make, which are, in fact, fresh!
In any case, when the trend finally makes it to Utah in, oh, 10 years... I'll be ready!
grt
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