French Parisian Macaroons (a first!)

Since there's not much I can do as far as painting when pregnant, I thought I'd try my hand (finally!) at Martha Stewart's French Parisian Macaroon recipe. I always thought these things were so daunting to try and have been warned by many a blogger. But I just LOVE these things - especially after the bakery tour Jenn took me on a while back. I can't get enough of these things and so I have been wanting to make these for a while. It only took me until I was preggers and swelling in the feet to be inspired, but oh well! Whatever works!

I think when any recipe calls for a piping bag, that's when a lot of people call it quits. But...since I had gotten into a cake frenzy last year, I already had the tools and so I was happy to bust them out again. I'm just glad they got some use after being totally abandoned after I got tired of cake making...

After mixing the batter and getting my piping bag filled and ready to go, I was piping away like crazy. These got done in no time! (I drew 1" lines on the parchment to guide me. I know there's a better way to do it, but I was too lazy to look it up. so much for my cake training)


Now the directions to say leave piped cookies out until the shine dulls a bit and a crust starts to form. I didn't see much dulling after 15 minutes and then gave up after 30 minutes. I wanted these babies in the oven already!

After 15 minutes with a turn of the pan 1/2 way through cooking and door left ajar, they were done!

Nice dull finish with those signature feet I just love!

It was time to pick tops and bottoms...

Now for the filling. Well, I skipped the directions for Martha's fillings for a much quicker solution...NUTELLA! Yum-e hazlenutty chocolaty goodness! I didn't have a #4 piping tip so I just used my #5 instead. Worked perfectly fine.



Time to add the tops...

All done! I can't believe it! The elusive French Parisian Macaroon...sitting in my kitchen just waiting to be eaten. I had so much fun making these and I'm so glad I tried these. I'm sure I'll be making these again. Maybe when I'm pregnant with baby#2? If I don't make these before baby #1 comes along it might take that long till I have this kind of time again!


**Update:
I tried these again having high hopes that I'd be just as successful as my very first try...WRONG! They were flat, filled with bubbles and bumpy and had absolutely NO FEET. :( So sad! Guess the warnings were correct! Things I did differently, I was NOT precise on the amount of egg whites that I used, losely measured the powdered sugar and baked at night instead of during the day. There's just too many things that could have made this recipe go wrong - so "follow the recipe" kids and cross your fingers that it all comes out right.