The Art of Macaron-ing

Though it’s been awhile (thanks to my ultra-busy schedule), I love to bake. There’s nothing more satisfying than taking a fresh tray of perfectly crafted cookies out of the oven, or slicing into that first piece of confetti cake with bright pink frosting. Of all the things I’ve made over the years, I was able to master vegan baking, gluten free cookie sandwiches, infusing recipes with tea, and more. But never did I ever dare try making my own macarons.

There’s a reason those delightfully colourful little french pastries cost so much: they’re expensive to make, time consuming, and so very difficult to execute properly. Everything from humidity to quality of egg whites has to be taken into consideration, and the chances you’ll have to dump everything you’ve done halfway through the recipe and start again are extremely high. My fear of wasting $50 worth of almond flour and collapsing in a pile of tears and sugar always kept me away from trying my hand at making macarons, but when Le Dolci invited me to try out their workshop, I figured it was time to rise to the occasion.

I’m going to lay it down straight for you guys: making these little mouthfuls of fluffy happiness is even harder than I had originally anticipated. Even with a super talented chef and an entire team of classmates behind me, I spent the whole class nervously taking photos and panicking that I would be the person to destroy our baby pink batch. The dye changes colour in the oven, you have to be able to blow bubbles with the syrup to know it’s ready, and there’s even a special stirring technique called “macaron-ing” that helps to deflate the extra air in the meringue (but you can’t deflate too much!)

Though the humidity was working against us, we ended up with a few trays of totally edible, really really delicious macarons, and though they were a bit lopsided and completely inconsistent size-wise, I think we were all pretty proud when we filled our little boxes with treats to take home. It was an unforgettable experience, and though I’m still a little nervous to try all of the techniques I learned on my own in the RAOP kitchen, I think that sweet afternoon was just the kick I needed to get back to my love of baking!

Interested in taking a class yourself? You can sign up here!