Andie's Kitchen: Cookie Experiment with Mom

My mom found a recipe for Chocolate Macarons a few weeks ago after being inspired by her first trip to Amelie's French Bakery in NoDa. This recipe is not your everyday kitchen supply recipe. It required some specialty items.

After ordering a new cooking scale and purchasing almond meal, we picked a day to make the cookies. That day was today.

For those of you who know, my mom and myself are very experienced bakers. Not only am I experienced with practice, but I have learned all the food science about what is going on and how to make things turn out well. The point of telling you that we are experienced is to emphasize that we were not ready for what lied ahead.

Things we discovered today: almond flour does not equal almond meal... both can be used, just I believe almond flour is easier since it is finer - sifters definitely are important for any kitchen - and boiling sugar to a specific temperature is very difficult without a cooking thermometer. (I had to melt the sugar into solution three times before I could get it to stay in solution so I could add it to the egg whites.)

But, since we are PROS despite all difficulty and time consumption on these little cookies they tasted amazing! I am not fully convinced that they are worth that much time, in fact when my mom suggested it would be faster next time I commented that I didn't love them enough for there to be a next time. However, some time has passed (several hours) since I made that comment and I believe that I can master the art of the Chocolate Macaron eventually. Once the cookies were cooled and the ganache was set and it made that little bite of heaven I realized that they were indeed worth my time. Practice will make perfect.

Here's a picture of our first batch Chocolate Macarons. Next time expect even better!

That was Andie's Kitchen: Cookie Experiment with Mom. Stay tuned for more fun adventures in Andie's Kitchen!