These sweet little things ...

For me, one of the happy places to be in is in the kitchen doing one of the exciting things to do - trying out a recipe.

I have, for the longest time, wished to learn to make French macarons. For one, they're one of my favourite photo subjects.  And, not only are they pretty, they're quite delicious too. They may not be for everyone's liking but for someone with sweet tooth, they're to die for. Okay, I'm exaggerating. You get the picture - I have one big crush for these little sweet things hahaha. The problem is, where we are, there is no bakeshop that sells them. Or if there is, I don't know.

So, what does a desperate woman like me do? Scour the internet for the recipe. And take the time to read the comments and reviews of the recipe if there are available.
 
There are quite a number of French macaron recipes (with accompanying tips and tricks) out there. The most common tips I found are:

• Measure the ingredients as accurately as possible. The recipe I picked uses weight (in grams) as measurement (instead of the usual volume in cups and tsps) so I had to buy a small digital weighing scale.
• Make sure that your utensils are clean and oil-free especially the bowl you'll use to prepare your meringue.
• Over beating or under beating of the egg whites will yield undesirable result. This can be a tad tricky for someone who hasn't worked with meringues. But just remember, YouTube university is just a click away ;) .

Okay, so without further ado, up close, here's the result of my first attempt -

My first attempt with French macarons. They're crunchy outside, chewy inside.

Not the perfect macarons as they are way too sweet but I guess they will do for now. I had the most encouraging sidekick a.k.a. MDH who has the greatest trust that I can do it.

For this batch, I used strawberry jam. Even if they're from the same batch, I ended up having two colours. That's because I experimented on the baking time. Some of them are now stored in the fridge as they need to "mature" for best flavour. Apparently, macarons are best when they're not so fresh. I didn't know that.

So in the next few days, during my free time, I will tweak the recipe I used to come up with something less sweet and maintain the same texture. Lots of experimentation (didn't they say 'baking is chemistry'? )  in my favourite lab, our kitchen, in the coming days . Hopefully, I will 'discover' the 'perfect concoction' before the official Christmas baking begins. Yup, I'm planning to include macarons in our Christmas goodies this year.