This blog is undergoing some subtle changes. If you all haven't noticed, I've trimmed down the categories and have added a top navigation bar to access some popular categories directly like the Macaron Chronicles. Displays now include a thumbnail of the first picture which will help with post identification when looking for recipes or topics.

I'm also working on the Macaron FAQ (frequently asked questions) page as a distillation of what I've learned through all the chronicles and also what questions readers usually email me about.  Please be patient as this will be a work-in-progress for a couple of weeks.

Also, please check out the Culinary Obsessions category at the bottom of the sidebar. This is like my featured posts and will give readers an idea as to my blog's tagline.

I was also featured on Richmonddotcom's "Five questions with a Foodie", read the interview, here.

I think I’ve made it no secret which creation of Pierre Hermé happens to be my favorite. I think his Ispahan fetish remains to be his most popular too. He originally developed the recipe at Ladurée with just raspberries and a rose cream. I believe he added the lychees when he already had his own pastry boutique. Ispahan is the name of a rose also known as Rose d’Isfahan. Isfahan is a province in Iran although I am not sure there is any correlation except in the name alone.

Macarons are growing in popularity in the United States. I’ve seen a definite uptick in interest here in Richmond, Va. These French confections as wedding favors appear to be a hot item nowadays and who doesn’t like delicious edible parting goodies. Though still getting confused 95% of the time with the less glamourous homonymous macaroon, I think it is slowly creeping into the consciousness of the masses, okay maybe, in the trend-conscious crowd.

Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. I somehow want to keep its “exclusivity” but how are we going to make money at Petites Bouchées if we don’t spread the macaron love, right?

Anyway, with its surging popularity there have been several articles of how macarons are becoming the next cupcake. There’s also been several social media quips about how making macarons are easy or how macarons aren’t all that or some elitist lambasting 95% of the blogsphere for giving macarons a bad name by making them too popular.

When I first made macarons successfully, I remember them tasting a tad too sweet. I started with Stéphane Glacier recipe and then I also looked at Gerard Mulot’s. I wanted mine to taste less of a meringue, so I lessened the confectioner’s sugar and added more almonds. Most people who has had my macarons (and are not familiar with what they are made of) couldn’t believe that they have no flour in them. But because my macarons have more almonds , they get bumpy sometimes which annoys me but taste to me is more important and so I learned to live with it.

Being in business selling macarons can be very stressful. If your customer is a big fan of this petite sweet you are constantly being compared to the greatest patisseries of Paris. I’ve had great feedback of how my macarons taste better than Ladurée's or are comparable. But I’ve also had to deal with negative comments. It’s all part of the business, you can’t please everyone. Macarons are prone to being mishandled once they leave your hands. For example, leave them out in 90F weather in your car & your buttercream might morph into something else. But you never tell a customer they have not stored it right, just make sure that you give them proper information when they take their macarons home.

I'm the first to admit that my macarons can never be better or comparable to Pierre Hermé’s simply because the man is one-of-a-kind, effing brilliant. But even he has had problems with customer satisfaction. He said he was frustrated about customers complaining about the buttercream fillings because they eat them straight out of the refrigerator so he had slowly gotten away from buttercream and had been developing rich, luxurious ganaches that never crystallize too much when refrigerated. His macarons are built with a science of their own.
But the biggest reason why my macarons can never achieve the exalted stature of Herme’s is in the almonds. Valencia almonds to be exact. I have made them both with my regular blanched variety and with the Valencia almonds I brought back from France. Big difference. The shells are fuller and are so perfectly round with the latter. Valencia almonds can be ground very fine without being greasy. Phooey for me, right?

So instead of crying about it, it’s best to work with what you have and make your macaron your own. My standard chocolate macaron does not taste like a macaron at all because the shell never gets too crisp with cocoa powder. I have adjusted it so it’ll have the crisp shell but when I got a new batch of cocoa powder - same brand - it all changed again. How do I fight that? I don’t, I continue to make it and it may get a tip or get too thick but it still remains to be my second most popular flavor.

For me, it is better to get a tip from undermixing because you can flatten it with a wet finger but if you overmix it, there is no coming back from that and your batter will spread unevenly when piped and be very flat.

Macarons are finicky. Unless you work in a climate-controlled room and have control of all your ingredient sources, you can never predict how they’ll turn out. But the more you make them - the more you’ll understand them and you can make adjustments accordingly. Right now I am using the French Meringue method more than the Italian Meringue, but that may change eventually as I get busier and conservation becomes an issue.
 

My macaron posts are the most popular on this blog and I am working on a redesign to make it easier to navigate, which will include videos and different experiments. I’m also working on a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on macarons. I have received dozens of emails with macaron questions and most of them are the same problems with a little variation mostly to deal with humidity in other countries. Though most of the answers are scattered across different posts, I think it’s time to put them all in a comprehensive format which I can add to as more queries come in. It’s hard for me to go through all those emails again, but if you would leave a question for me in the comment section, please do so and I would use this to build my FAQ page. Also what part of the video would you want me to focus on, 90% of me thinks it’s macaronage. Thanks!

Also check out MACTWEETS, a wonderful monthly event hosted by Deeba of Passionate about Baking and Jamie of Life’s a Feast, there’s a spicy roundup of lovely macaron creations from around the globe.

Ispahan Entremet

by Pierre Herme

Tant pour tant (TPT)

300 grams Almond Powder
300 grams confectioner’s sugar

Combine together with a whisk or a food processor

Pink macaron biscuit

600 grams TPT
red food coloring
110 grams egg whites (fresh)

300 grams sugar
75 grams water
110 grams egg white (aged)

Mix the TPT with egg white and food coloring. Cook the sugar and water to 245 F. Whip the egg white to soft peaks at high speed, then lower to the 2nd speed. Once sugar syrup reaches 245F, pour it on the egg whites. Keep stirring until the meringue reaches 122F. Fold the meringue into the almond mixture until the right consistency is obtained.

Pipe 7 cm circles and dry the tops for 20 minutes. Bake in a convection oven 320F for 20 minutes.

Rose Petal Cream

Italian Meringue:

125 grams egg whites
15 grams sugar
250 grams sugar
75 grams water

Boil the sugar and water to 245F, after syrup reaches 220 F start whipping the egg whites and sugar to soft peaks. At 245F pour the sugar syrup on the meringue and let it cool on 2nd speed. Once cool, reduce speed to 1st speed until use.

English cream

180 grams Milk
140 grams egg yolk
180 grams sugar

Boil the milk. Pour half of the milk into the egg yolks and sugar mixture, stir and add this mixture back into the remaining milk. Heat while continually stirring until the mixture can coat the back of the spoon. Cool the mixture in a mixer at high speed until it becomes light and airy.

To complete the rose petal cream:

900 grams butter
8 grams rose essence
56 grams rose syrup
500 grams English cream
350 grams Italian Meringue

Cream the butter. Add the English cream and the rose essence and syrup. Mix well before folding in the Italian Meringue.

To Assemble:
Litchi, raspberries, rose macaron biscuit, rose petal cream.

Cut up the litchis into small chunks and drain for 2 days otherwise your macaron biscuit will become too soggy.
 

How to Assemble the Ispahan:

Fill with the rose petal cream

* Leave 1cm from the edge when you pipe the rose petal cream. I was appalled by the amount of buttercream and admittedly scraped some off. But in the succeeding ones, I changed my mind.

Arrange the raspberries

  * Push the raspberries against the buttercream. This will keep it in place.

Top with lychee pieces

* I would have put more lychees but I did not drain them enough since I was impatient. I probably would have chopped them a bit smaller too.

Pipe another dollop of buttercream

* After piping some buttercream on top of the lychees, affix the top shell and very gently press down on the Ispahan.

Cooking Notes:

I have a more instructive post here on how to fold your Italian Meringue into your TPT. I couldn’t really say how many of these macarons the batter makes because I tried different shapes on other trays with leftover batter. You could probably make around 18 of these. The rose petal cream makes a large quantity of buttercream, I suggest halving the recipe if you could. I couldn’t seem to fold the Italian Meringue enough into the English cream buttercream so I ended up using the mixer and it yielded a nice fluffy filling. I decided to forgo the rose and raspberry trademark of the Ispahan in the picture. I think it looks fantastic the way it is!
I ate three of these in two days. Fortunately, I was able to give the rest away because I didn’t drain the lychees enough (I was impatient and only did a day) and though the buttercream provided a barrier it soaked into the shell too much by day three. The Ispahan is a heavenly combination of rose, lychee and raspberries. By themselves they have their own unique taste but combined into a creation such as the Ispahan they present an affinity with each other and a taste so sublime.

It’s turning to be a very busy season for me so it might take me some time to get the redesign together. I do not want to rush this because I want it to be as comprehensive and useful as it can be. I’ll try to get 1 post up a week either sweet or savory, plus I’m going to Blogher Food in Atlanta this May! Hope to see some of you there!
 

Macaron gift boxes

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been cooking but it's mostly dishes that really have no recipes - you know the kind that you make up along as you go. . Anyway, just want to help the great folks here in Richmond put together their Christmas list.

         For a short-time period, I'll be offering macarons in half-dozen for $9.00, these make perfect (and yummy) gifts for co-workers. These will be available starting the first week of December.

        The usual dozen for $18.00 and 2-dozen for $35 is also available but now you will have a choice to have an assortment of 3 or more flavors.

        Please email veronica AT petitesbouchees DOT com if interested.

        And if you are wondering how to display a dozen macarons for a holiday table, a compote dish makes the perfect vessel.

Macarons in a cup

This weekend, October 30th will be the last weekend for the St. Stephen's Farmer's market. I will be having a few of this Halloween boxes made up for sale. It contains an assortment of 6 macarons and will sell for $9.00.

I will also be a member of several online stores with very convenient pickup locations in RVA - details soon.

With the holidays around the corner, I will have almost all my macaron flavors available for tasting at this weekend's farmer's market.

See you there!

delectable treats

Just finished making my macarons for this weekend's Farmer's market. While making my crunchy chocolate souffle flavor, I had some leftover macaron batter that wouldn't exactly fit on a full tray so I decided to experiment with bigger macarons.

The above macaron is about 7cm and made with the Italian Meringue. Normally, for this method, you just put the macarons straight into the oven without drying the tops, but for this size I dried it for about 20 minutes and baked it at 310F convection for about 20 minutes. I piped chocolate ganache in the middle, and I do wish now that I put some raspberries in the middle too, because that was a whole lot of ganache.

Now to answer some of your questions that I've received from emails and comments on my Macaron Chronicles.

When you live in a humid country like Singapore, Philippines or Malaysia

Macarons do have a difficult time drying in humid conditions. Air conditioning helps but most households do not have this. You can try using an electric fan but that is not always the solution. I tried making macarons in Baguio and had the weirdest experience with the macaron shells never really drying even if they were under a ceiling fan. And Baguio is hardly a humid city,but sometimes cold and wet is worse than hot and humid. When I notice too much moisture in my macaron batter I extend the cooking time by 1 minute. Sometimes it is also the eggs. If the chicken is free-range and eats grass there tend to be more moisture in its albumen.

Air-pockets

If overmixing is ruled out, this is usually undercooked macarons or sometimes the nut particles may not be fine enough. If you cannot grind your almonds finely you can probably increase your nuts. But really, even the best of us gets this sometimes and as long as they're not too big and your macaron doesn't look hollow, they should be fine.

Wrinkly tops

Nuts are too oily or the egg-whites are too wet. Not everyone has a commercial nut grinder. What you can do is break up the nuts part-way, add your confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) and continue grinding. I usually get the wrinkled top with my chocolate macarons that uses cocoa powder because of the oil content in the cocoa. Chocolate macarons made with cocoa powder taste more like a brownie than a macaron.

Baking multiple-trays in the oven

I bake a maximum of three trays in the oven without changing the temperature. I use convection. Remember the more trays you bake the more humid it gets in the oven.

Big Mac

Pocket Pies

Since I started baking professionally, I've stopped buying every kitchen gadget I see, however when I spotted a picture of a miniature pie on twitter made with this pie-cutter from William's Sonoma, I couldn't help myself.

Pocket Apple Pie

What do you all think?

I was dubious at first if I was even going to get enough filling in  it, but I did and it was the perfect size. In the future though, I don't think I'll use the lattice-cut for fruit pies. As pretty as it may look, it's hard keeping the juices in.

One note about the cutter. The lattice was hard to cut out directly. I used the regular cutter and then took the dough and pressed it on the lattice-cutter to get the pretty design out.

A Pumpkin Dessert

Made this yummy and healthy sweet dessert yesterday. My friend's Aunt brought an asian pumpkin, I think it's a kabocha squash.

Pumpkin and Coconut Milk

Wash the pumpkin, cut it into pieces and remove the hard knots that stick out from the skin. Lay it on a pot, pour a can of coconut milk {around 14 oz}, 130 grams of palm sugar, 2 tablespoons white sugar. Really you can just sugar to taste. Add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer undisturbed until soft, around 15 minutes. I prefer my pumpkin with a little bite and not too soft. You can substitute brown sugar for the palm sugar.

This is absolutely delicious and healthy too!

(please click on the pictures to activate the lightbox for more vivid display!)

I’ve hinted on a project that I have been working on for a few weeks now. Well, now it can be revealed. Petites Bouchees has ventured into the stylized dessert table business!
This idea has been percolating in my brain since last year, but it was only this year that I had the guts to go through with it.
Wedding professional consultant, Meghan Ely of OFDconsulting has been instrumental in connecting me with great vendors in the area, with whom I am so thrilled to be now working with on current and future projects.

Wedding Cake - Sweetest Thing Bakery

It’s so easy to get carried away with a first project, but I wanted to pay tribute to the lovely wallpaper I first laid eyes on in an adorable pastry shop in San Francisco called Miette. I couldn’t not include a candy station for which Miette is also known for and their macarons were the first ones I tried that got me hooked on these little Parisian confections.

Wallpaper Shortbread cookies

I was lucky that they made the wallpaper cookies that matched the backdrop (yes, I’m going to use the “wallpapered” structure somewhere in my house after this project) - whimsical hydrangeas and starburst floral patterns - so I mailordered them to make an appearance on my very first dessert table.

Peadee Pops by Flour and Iced

I won’t deny that this has been a learning experience - I think I’ve spent enough time at Michael’s and on the internet sourcing paper and crafting ideas to bring into the dessert table. Many times, I thought my head would burst thinking of all the little details that need to be done. Sometimes they just fall into place and sometimes you just have to accept that the tarts and buttermilk panna cottas have no room on your little (or big)scheme of things. It’s picking and choosing and always remembering that there is always that next dessert table.

A little candy station- I just adore the lollipops

Dainty cupcakes

And of course, how can we forget the macarons?

Rose Litchi Macarons

More macs

Thanks to:
Jenny West of the Sweetest Thing Bakery for the beautiful wedding cake
Krissy Salmon-White of Flour and Iced for the gorgeous peadee pops (aka cake pops)
Paper and Pigtails for the adorable labels
Roshan and Dale of Quarterman Photography for the cool pictures
 

Peadee Pop!

Now for the giveaway. I love Crate and Barrel (CB)! They always have such sensible and cool vessels that lend themselves to showcase your baked goodies perfectly. To celebrate the launch of my dessert tables, I am giving away two CB- $50.00 gift cards, just leave a comment between now and July 19, 2010 stating what you would like to see on a dessert table besides cupcakes and cake pops. I will pick 2 winners using the trusty random number generator. The winners will be announced on July 20th and email notifications will be sent to the winners and they should respond within a week or a new winner will be chosen. The winners will be required to provide a mailing address for the gift-card to be sent.This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

I have a couple of events coming up that will showcase my dessert tables. The first one coming up is called "An Engagement" which is a Bridal seminar and showcase to be held at the Downtown Hilton on July 25. See you future brides there!

Hubby had his camera phone, luckily they allowed him to take pictures inside the studio

A little over three weeks ago their producer sent me an email asking me if I would like to make macarons on their program, “Virginia this Morning”. There was a bit of hesitation on my part because I had this project that I’ve been focusing on and I had the New York Fancy Food show coming up.

But hey, live tv? Baking macarons? Why not? Right?

So I emailed her back and said yes. She said it was a 5-minute segment and I mentally calculated how long it would take me to whip the egg whites. Hmmn...that doesn’t leave me much time to pipe and fill macarons.

Anyway, it was the weekend before my appearance that I finally timed myself. It would take 1 and 1/2 minute to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. I don’t think we would want to hear a mixer whirring that long for my allotted 5 minutes.

Then I had an idea. How about I whip the egg whites just before my part?
 

Looking serious as I whip the egg whites

The other pressing question that occurred to me was what to wear. I wanted to be comfortable and since television adds 5 pounds visually, I decided on an embellished grey shirt. I also wanted to put my hair up in a French twist, but you know what, that was wishful thinking anyway because the morning of the show...we (hubby and I) appeared to be running late.

So I barely had time to even dry my hair and put any make-up on. Oh well!

When we arrived at the studio, it was freezing inside (the temperature that day was predicted to hit over 100F). The facilitator asked me how long I needed to set up and I told her; including my plan of whipping the egg whites before my segment.

I also plated my macarons for what they call “the bump” which I think is like a teaser.

I am thankful to the hosts Greg McQuade And Cheryl Miller for putting me right at ease for my segment and the producer, Torri Strickland, for giving me the opportunity of making these adorable confections on live tv.
 

Piping filling

Anyway, enough of my babble. Here’s the video. Sorry, I don’t know how to embed code, my browser or blogging software doesn’t seem to allow me to.
My favorite part, was when Greg McQuade mentioned “Julia Child, going to Paris” when I told them that I took a two-day macaron stage in Paris. Julia Child was always an inspiration to me, not because she went to school in Paris but because she dared to start a new career when she was almost 40 years old and she has left a lasting legacy in our hearts and mind.

It’s funny how my macaron obsession has taken a life of its own. Little did I know that when I started my Macaron Chronicles, I would still be adding to this saga three years later.

Let me refresh your memory. Remember my flat-assed macarons - my first attempt making these little confections?

Then after a trip to San Francisco where I loved the taste of Miette’s macarons, I baked my first successful batch.

My real obsession took hold when I did different tests with Macaron Chronicles II. (This post, by the way, remains to be the most popular on this blog.)

Even when I had my bad days when the macaron Gods mocked me - like when I tried the Italian Meringue the first time and ended up with wrinkled marshmallows - I did not waver in my quest.

After I had met pastry God, Pierre Hermé, I continued to strive to understand his way of making macarons - Italian Meringue - with Macaron Chronicle V.

It wasn’t until I attended his class in Paris that I began to see the complex structure of the Italian meringue, almond and confectioner’s sugar - pretty much the same way Neo saw the Matrix and so this rematch ,which turned out really good.

Chocolate macaron with Bitter Chocolate Ganache

I immediately hailed the success of this macaron recipe by tweeting that the shell tasted like a “crunchy chocolate souffle”. YUM!

I couldn’t count how many shells I had eaten even before filling the macarons. They were that good and infinitely addictive.

Without much further ado, I now present you, Pierre Hermé’s Macaron au chocolat Amer from his book: Macaron.
 

Chocolate Macarons

1)
300 grams ground almond
300 grams confectioner’s sugar
110 grams egg whites
120 grams unsweetened chocolate (cacao pate, cocoa mass)
4.5 grams carmine red food coloring ( I left this out)
Sugar syrup

2)
300 grams caster sugar
75 grams water
110 grams egg whites

Chop the pure cocoa mass, and melt in microwave. Combine all ingredients listed in 1). Cook the water and caster sugar to 118C-245F. When the syrup reaches 108C-226F, start whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Pour slowly the cooked syrup in a trickle over the meringue. Leave to cool down to 50C-122F and pour the melted pure cocoa mass in; Fold the meringue into the first mixture.

Pipe the macarons onto trays lined with parchment paper, around 1.5 inch, 3.25 cm circles. Bake in a convection oven, vent opened at 160C- 320F for about 14/15 minutes. (I baked mine at 290F for 15 minutes)

Bitter Chocolate Ganache
400 grams heavy cream
360 grams 70% chocolate
40 grams unsweetened chocolate (cacao pate, cocoa mass)
40 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

Chop the chocolate and cut the butter in cubes and leave at room temperature. Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate gradually, stirring at the center and going wider to incorporate liquid little by little. When the ganache reaches 40C-104F, incorporate the butter.

Assembly of macarons
With a piping bag, fill half of the macaron with a nice dollop of bitter chocolate ganache. Top with another macaron, making sure to assemble 2 shells of the same size.
 

Cooking Notes:

I have to say this was one of the best tasting macarons I have ever made. Do not be fooled by the mocha- colored shells, PH adds red food coloring to make it darker but I skipped this step. I may be bias because I love chocolate, but the strong but balanced chocolate flavor was undeniable. When I first tasted Pierre Hermé’s chocolate macaron from his Paris shop (which I got for free because I told the guy at the counter I was attending his class) it blew me away with how good it was. This was the same feeling I had as I tasted this one - and that it was made by my own hands - I was so elated. I will not deny that to make Italian Meringue macarons properly you need a strong arm, see my tips and pictures here. The base of my thumb was hurting from holding the bowl scraper by the time I was done.

How would you know if your Italian Meringue macaron was done properly? The shell should be thin and it should not be too sweet.Your tant-pour-tant should be spread evenly into your meringue, when you do not do this you will have a lot of meringue concentrated by itself and when it bakes you get thick shells, your almond mixture gets heavy and sinks to the bottom. It also helps that you add the meringue when it is warm so it dissolves your confectioner’s sugar. When you do proper macaronage, your tant-pour-tant and meringue blends to form a strong matrix, so when it bakes, the meringue is strong enough to hold bits of your tant-pour-tant and you get this cross-section.

Macaron "innards"

The macaron above was cold and straight out of the refrigerator  which made it look chalky, but see how full the shell is.

I made two ganaches. The bitter chocolate ganache above was made with Valrhona Chocolate, 70% Guanaja.

Valhorna Chocolate

I also have vivid memories of Pierre Hermé’s Chuao macaron which had black currant in it. I tracked down the chocolate he used - Amedei. This is a work in progress. I think I’ve almost nailed the recipe for the ganache, I just need to find some black currants to add to it.

Amedei- an Italian chocolate

I was amazed at how shiny the ganache made with this chocolate was but was not sure if this was because of the black currant syrup.

Chocolate on left made w/ Amedei chocolate

I'm also wondering if melted chocolate will work with French Meringue? You know what this means: back to the lab ...er my kitchen.

First of all, thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth: Jason aka Rvafoodie, wife Karen & son Jasper, Sketchy & Jennifer and their two little ones, Eugenio of Eating Video games, Messy chef - hope you introduce yourself next time but if anonymity is a rule that's okay , twitter friends, Brandon, Jason and the Olio folks, new friends and customers, and especially my blog readers - tickled you guys braved this scorching heat to sample my little bites. Also, thanks to Jenny of the Sweetest Thing Bakery dropping off some delicious treats for me to take home and try. 

So why lessons learned? I did not get to eat a lot. And it was all my fault by letting the heat get to me. What I should have done was printed out a list of dishes that restaurants were serving to get my appetite rolling. Because of this, I missed out on University of Richmond's crab, lobster and corn gazpacho, duck confit Bruschetta from Avenue 805...etc.

I guess you could also say that going into Broad appetit I had fixated on one dish: Thai grilled pork belly from Six Burner. And you know what, I devoured that plate - heat or no heat. How I wish I could have had six servings of that.

Regarding the macarons, they sold really well despite the hot and humid weather. In fact, much to my surprise the rose-litchi and matcha green tea sold out. I did make less of that flavor combination so I seriously underestimated the adventurous spirit of Richmonders.

Another disappointment was I was not able to join the dessert contest. I did not know I had to sign up for it and thought the judges would come by the booth. I even packaged some macarons specifically for that event. Oh well, maybe next year.

The day before the festival I had been experimenting with how to keep the products cold. I left a carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a package of macarons on top of a bucket of ice out in the heat for 45 minutes. The cream cheese frosting softened, the macarons were okay. An idea started festering in my head when I felt how cold the bottom of the ice bucket was.

Cold air descends and heat rises.

So I took out the ice from the bucket and put it on top of a baking sheet and laid the baking sheet on top of the bucket. Stuck a thermometer inside the bucket. Voila!  The cream cheese frosting hardened, the temperature inside the bucket was 55F. My one mistake, I didn't try this outdoors like I did the first experiment but decided to see what happens at Broad Appetit.

It worked!

The one caveat, some people thought we were out of products or were selling ice.

But I consider this a breakthrough even though I'm sure other people have thought about this idea before.

If I find a way to keep my macarons cold even in 95F humid weather, I can certainly do Farmer's Markets again.

And to everyone who have asked, I am trying to get my macarons into local gourmet shops, I'm just trying to find the right ones. If you know of a shop that would be a great fit, send me an email at info At petitesbouchees dot com, or you're welcome to leave a comment!

Those of you following my tweets know that I have been covered in confectioner’s sugar and almond flour for 2.5 days as I furiously baked macaron after macaron batch for some orders and Broad Appetit. At last count, I baked more or less 950 macarons – that’s 1,900 piped shells!

I loved every minute of it. There is something so gratifying as you fill them and join the shells together and watching the filling squooshing to the edge. Yep- love.

I’ve been thinking about making another video, something more planned unlike the impromptu one I did on youtube last year.

The "Hungry" Hubby has also improved his video-editing skills so transitions should be better.

In the mean time, I’ll try to get a macaron recipe up. I’ve been wanting to make a chocolate macaron version using the Italian Meringue. This is a bit advance since it uses cacao pate but it should be similar to Pierre Herme’s chocoalate macarons that he sells in his shops.

Stay tuned!