In recent years, there is one sweet patisserie treat that is not only as beautiful to look at as it is to savor, and is also endlessly suitable to personalization. It synonymous with the luxurious life and real culinary credentials, simultaneously attaining an almost iconic image as well as a modern gustatory revolution. The French Macaron is just such a creation, with a deep rooted history, and a modern enthusiastic following at the same time. As early as 2010, they started popping up in my Toronto area bakeshops as something you could pick up on any given shop day.
This is no easy feat, particularly for what is, when you come right down to it, a sandwich biscuit. I somehow can't imagine an Oreo cookie starting such a revolution on the European Continent as the Macaron has in the United States and Canada both, as of late.
There is just something so fragile and special about a Macaron that
cannot be mass produced. It is this fragility, the candy like colours,
and the endless combinations that make up the lure of the Macaron.
Movies like Sophia Coppola's
Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten
Dunst have given a new spotlight to the over-the-top decadence and girly
prettiness of this petite confection.
If you look at a well made French Macaron, not to be confused with what North Americans call a Macaroon [a moist coconut based drop cookie], you will see the subtle beauty of the treat. Put together from two smoothly topped baked round wafers, with a crumbled edge called the foot, these pieces share many of the characteristics of a meringue. Powdered sugar, egg whites, and ground almonds make up the basic recipe, but endless flavor concentrates and colorings make them absolutely breathtaking to see.
The exterior wafers of the Macaron have a natural opalescent shimmer over the surface, almost evoking images of fairy wings, and they are soft and moist and melt in the mouth in the most delicate of ways. I rather predict that the cup-cake craze, while not over, will give way to the pleasures of the Macaron very soon. Similar to cupcakes, the filling, or 'icing' between the two wafers can take many forms. It can be a delicious butter-cream, jam or preserves, or ganache filling.
While traditional flavors are vanilla, chocolate, and raspberry combinations, cutting edge pastry chefs are busy inventing brilliant alternative flavors from the familiarity of lemons to the sublime Matcha green tea flavorings. Whether flavoring the wafers or the filling, they are served in a sandwich mode, with two rounded smooth 'caps' with the foot facing the filling, and a thin but ample layer of filling piped or spread in between.
The popularity of the French Macaron in North America is blossoming, and confectionery shops have windows full of towers of these jewel like biscuits and special long narrow boxes with ribbons, ready for Valentine's day sales. French Macaron are a much sexier and cleaner on the fingers 'eat' than an icing covered giant cupcake, with just 88 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, and 11 grams of carbohydrate for each delicate and sweet sandwich. The average small specialty cupcake has 178 calories, 5.3 grams of fat, and a whopping 32.5 grams of carbohydrate in all that over-sweet sticky goodness.
Macarons have reached epic popularity in France, being offered on the menu at McDonald's restaurants in that country. This new status of the french treat is making waves in the fashion world, as well as art, sculpture, and crafting. Pastel colours are all over the runways, and the garments seem to look as delicious and light as the cookie itself. There are heaps of photographs of French Macarons, in wild and enticing colours, as well as 'fake' props for your home, soaps, toys, and accessories.
So much of what we eat, and crave, has to do with what it looks like. Seeing the sheer volume of jewelry, trinkets, dollhouse sized treats, and non-edibles inspired by the lovely French Macaron, you can see that people have fallen in love with this iconic 'cookie', and though they may be a bit complicated for the baking novice to master, they are actually not impossible to make right at home. It takes a bit of practice with the piping bag to get the exterior meringues to shape up perfectly and match in size, but then you have the fun of eating all your 'mistakes', which may be the best part.
So grab a great recipe for a French Macaron from a cookbook or the internet, flavor it any way you like, be it pomegranate and orange, or espresso and match tea, and whip up a batch of sweet French Kisses for your loved ones this Valentine's Day. Now if I can just sort out a vegan version of this amazing treat. That would be truly fabulous my darlings!
