Macarons: Take One and then some

On my kitchen blackboard I have a 'to make' list. Last week I was able to check off one of the items: macarons. Sort of. The results are the cause of great humor here, so I will share my story to lighten up everyone's weekend.

First of all, I think this was my first conscious attempt at making macarons. I may have made them before and not realized it. I know I've made amaretti, which are similar. So, following a standard recipe, I beat the egg whites with the sugar, folded in the powdered almond/powdered sugar mixture, and then piped the little beggars onto parchment paper and let them dry. The end result was sort of ok. They all had the little feet and looked like macarons, but they weren't flat enough or really shiny on top. Guess I have to work on that.

I decided to use some leftover chocolate ganache (from the DB challenge) as the filling. The final cookies were funny-looking but tasted just fine, but clearly I can't check them off totally from my 'to make' list just yet.



Now, onto the second part of the story. I decided, in a fit of stupidity most likely, to enter these guys in the County Fair. I forgot that my name had to be attached to them.

So, last Monday, I took half a dozen macarons down to the fairgrounds and tried to fill out the form. This should have been easy, but no. There was no category for macarons. There was one for macaroons, but mine weren't the American-style cookies loaded with coconut. So everyone was puzzled. You could here the wave as the question was passed from person to person. and on and on and on. Finally, we put them in the Filled Cookie category. To be fair (ha ha), the Fair supervisor did say she had heard of macarons before and said she would make a category for them for next year. I also suggested that she add a holiday category, too, because the other cookie I entered, zimtsterne, had to go in the Foreign category, and you can't enter more than one item in the same category.

All week I wondered how those cookies faired at the Fair. Today we went. We had to look at the Photography exhibits first, so my patience was really strained for awhile. Finally, we made it to the Home Arts building and I searched for my cookies. The Foreign zimtsterne didn't win a thing, which is ok. But, the funny-looking macarons took an Honorable Mention. How hilarious is that? The ugly cookies with no home category actually got some recognition! Just goes to show.........

Once I recover from all this, I'll attempt round two.