Daughters of Promise November/December 2014 | Page 39

Luxurious and delicate, the French
macaron is one of Europe’s most famed
pastry delights. Its origin is ancient, yet
the delicate macaron continues to be
representative of fine French culture.
Shyly, but progressively embraced in
America, the macaron is truly an example
of culinary artistry.

My best friend Brittany

and I
love to cook, and we fancy ourselves culinary
extraordinaires. As regularly as possible, we get
together to experiment with random gourmet
dishes and to practice our stunning plating skills.
Anyone can throw a casserole together; we enjoy
challenging ourselves to new culinary heights, and
hope we can inspire you as well!
Our latest baking interest is the French macaron, a
stunning pastry composed of two fragile meringue
shells which sandwich a light, delicious filling.
Brittany and I got together several weeks ago to
try our hand at this delicate dessert, and wanted to
share the results with you - in the hopes that you too
will step a bit out of your comfort zone and give this
elegant pastry a try!
Our cooking tends to reflect our attitude - ever
notice that? Cooking done with precision and
care generally produces orderly, savory results.
Haphazard, rushed work often results in a sloppy
product. You will find both of these truths especially
true in the construction of macarons. Their
perfection (even edibility!)requires a precise series
of steps, executed with care and sensibility. Don’t
be intimidated by this, but simply take your time
and be willing to experiment in order to master the
perfect cookie!
Before we get to the fun stuff of recipes and helpful
tips, it is necessary to understand the basics of
macarons themselves. What, exactly, are they? And
why am I spelling the word with only one ‘o’?
You are probably most familiar with the traditional
“macaroon”, a hearty, flourless confectionry that can
be crafted relatively quickly. This egg-white-based
cookie is thought to have hailed from Scotland,
though the exact heritage is not entirely known. It’s

basic identity remains unchanged: the macaroon
consists of 3 basic ingredients: coconut, egg whites,
and sugar.
The macaron, on the other hand, is distinctly
different. Spelled with only one ‘o’, the word
‘macaron’ hails from the Italian word maccherone
(think macaroni), which means, “a pasta dish with
cheese”, and is pronounced “mah-kah-ROHN”.
French lore suggests that macarons made their
debut in the country a few centuries ago when the
Italian Catherine de’ Medici marrried Henry II and
brought her Italian chefs with her to France. They
introduced macarons: cookies made of almonds,
sugar, and egg whites. At that time, macarons
consistsed of only one flat cookie, rather than the
sandwich-type dessert popular today. In old France,
nuns were the driving force behind macarons, which
provided an important source of income for many
monastic orders. In the late 18th century, having
been forbidden to eat meat, the nuns of a particular
French convent began making macarons for their
nutritional value. When the convent closed during
the French Revolution, two of the sisters continued
baking macarons to make a living for themselves.
They became famous as the “les Soeurs Macarons”,
aka, “the macaron sisters”. Today, a street in Nancy,
France still bears this name in their honor.
Macarons as a cookie sandwich are a relatively new
invention. Not until the early 20th century did a
man named Pierre Desfontaines have the idea to
pipe a gonache filling on one shell and cap with
another. Today, this is the going standard for serving
the Parisian-style macaron, a sweet treat which
can be found as common bakery fare throughout
France and other European and Asian countries.
Progressively, but shyly, the macaron is making its
way into America, being available mainly in larger
metropolitan areas and still relatively expensive.

written and photographed by Rae Schrock,
in collaboration with Brittany Shult

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