Macaroons with orange zest
Jamie and Deeba have a fun little project going on over at Mactweets bringing together macaron lovers around the world. Anyone who can bake a mean batch of macaroons can participate. I learned the hard way that this is a very exclusive club as there are more pitfalls in making these finicky cookies than I ever thought possible.
Let’s see, my first attempt wasn’t a complete disaster until I bit into one. Apparently I had used powdered sugar that was stored near my baharat spice (Arabic spice mix) making all of my cookies taste like meatballs. My kids wouldn’t eat them.
I continued to marvel at the multicolored puffs of heaven and decided to buy a pastry bag and liquid food coloring especially for this project. A mistake. Instead of sunny yellow, the food coloring turned the batter grey. It looked disgusting so I added more, drop by drop until the batter had the consistency of a milk shake. It was impossible to pipe them and I ended up making a macaron sheet cake the color of a dead fish. My kids wouldn’t eat them.
I had it with macarons. But Deeba (she’s the baking Queen) told me she tried more than twenty times! Wow. With that little motivational pep talk I wasn’t about to give up.
The theme of this month’s Mactweets Mac Attack are autumn flavors. In Israel, November was unusually warm and there was nothing remotely autumn about it. Everyone is hoping for rain so I left my macarons white to represent the clouds we all desparately need. I also added orange zest to the white chocolate ganache filling since it is the beginning of citrus season . That was the plan but my oven was too hot and the cookies turned slightly yellow instead of fluffy white. Perhaps they look like clouds in an autumn sunset?
Anyway, it was almost impossible to photograph them with three boys hovering over the cookies waiting to snatch them.
I used Jamie’s basic recipe with a citrus twist in the white chocolate ganache (100 grams heavy cream, plus 100 grams white chocolate and a tablespoon of orange zest).
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
These are so cute! And the pictures…WOW!
Wow,you made macaroons! I love those things,and yours are so pretty pretty! I have been planning to make them for ages,but still have not….
Your macarons are gorgeous!! Lovely shots too!
שרה תכיני לי…אני כל כל כל כך אוהבת
the problem w/ macarons, they disappear too fast!
love it sarah you are such a gift to all of us~
Gorgeous … love how whimsical and light as clouds these are. Pretty pictures too. Thank you for joining us at MacTweets. It’s a pleasure to have you there!
I’m new to the whole mac-baking thing too (this is my first MacTweets month), and I’m loving all the different variations. It’s so interesting to see say, 5 people make the exact same recipe, and come out with 5 different outcomes! I’ve been pretty lucky in my own explorations (2 batches down, no major disasters yet – although I realized that my first batch was waaaaaaaay overbaked after making a much better second batch). I’m so glad you had success this month and look forward to seeing more of you later!
Oh Sarah, such beautiful pictures! They do look like little orange-flavored clouds! And practice makes perfect (for some! My first several were perfect and then I had several failures but never one that tasted like meatballs!). Thrilled you baked with us for Mactweets this month and hope you join us every month. I love the orange flavor for autumn.
Wow…macarons! I’ve failed in my two attempts…and just stopped there. I do hope you get your much needed rain!
rained just as I am reading your comment, finally, but for the carmel forest a bit too late