French Macaroon Sandwich Cookies

Week 20

This week's host was Betsy she choose French Macaroon Sandwich Cookies. Recipe on page 192-193 of our book. She also choose Butter Cream Frosting. Recipe on page 510 of our book.

I have never had a Macaroon before, let alone a French Macaroon sandwich. In this case there were no expectations. The recipe called for almond flour which really intrigued me. The flour is almonds grounded up. It's expensive! Speaking of expensive. . . 

I started the baking and mixed the almond flour and sugar together, then started to beat the egg mixture. When reviewing the recipe I noticed the sugar I had mixed with the flour was granulated sugar. It is supposed to be confectioner's sugar.  Err!!! Back to the store to by a 16 oz bag of almond flour for about $12.00. This is turning out to be a really pricey cookie.

Not a professional at using a pastry bag as you can see. It was a big mess!

This Pampered Chef tool worked better, was less messy, and easier to use. Why do professionals try to make things more difficult then they have to be?

Seeing that this tool did a better job then the pastry bag, I scraped the dough off and started over. Now I am crossing my fingers that all this "dough handling" won't reunion the cookies.

 

They look like I used the pastry bag, right?

I really like the tip in the book that explained about using your finger dipped in cold water and then rubbing it around the cookie to prevent cracking when backed. It worked!

See, no CRACKING.

Here is the finished product! Took me a good part of the day from start to finish. . . so I was really excited to taste them.

The Butter Cream filling had different flavors to choose from. I choose the chocolate version, of course. It was pretty simple to make, just follow the recipe, which I did, and there were no hiccups. Straight forward.

The French Macaroon was not a very impressive cookie according to the husbands' and my taste. The cookie was a bit to hard. That could of been from all my mistakes while I was baking or maybe I over baked them. I imagine a Macaroon to be light a fluffy with a little crunch. So who knows. I might never know because this recipe is not going in the "make again" pile. The butter cream tasted exactly like the name. Glad to say I was brave enough to try the unknown but sad it wasn't a hit.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Remembering tips in each recipe might be helpful in your basic baking.
2. What is a French Macaroon supposed to tasted like?