Macarons: Commonly Confused with Macaroons

I've recently learned that Macarons are not Macaroons. It is not an uncommon misconception but that one little O makes all the difference! For anyone who is a true foodie, you're laughing right now. But I honestly didn't know there was a difference and I think that's true of many people. Whenever I bake I tend to go for the simple: the cake, the cupcake, the brownie... aka the straight forward or the traditional American dessert.

So when a friend came to me with the idea of Macarons, I automatically said "Macaroon" even though, in my head, I was thinking of a Macaron. And then we had the debate: What sweet did she actually mean to bake?

Macaron:

My flavor combinations!

• refers to a meringue based cookie
• often considered a candy
• made with almond flour (or hazlenut flour), egg whites, granulated sugar as well as powdered sugar
• two cookies are stacked and filled with buttercream or a fruit spread
• crunchy outside and soft, chewy interior
• multiple flavor combinations possible 
• e.g. earlier today we made green tea macarons with a honey buttercream and red velvet macarons with a nutella buttercream
• P.S. I wasn't entirely wrong. They are often called French Macaroons. Yes, with a double O. 

Macaroon:

• also refers to a merigue based cookie
•  but it almost always contains coconut. 
• composed of egg whites, sugar and dried coconut and is then piped with a star-shaped tip.
• then it is dipped in chocolate. 

In the end we decided that macarons were the way to go. I'm not the biggest fan of coconut and we wanted the wiggle room to play with flavors. 

The macarons won out even though they are considered to be some of the most difficult sweets to recreate. They require a lot of patience to make the meringue mixture perfectly and the heat of the oven has to be just right, otherwise the exteriors will crackle or the interior will loose it's soft gooiness.

It was a really fun process, especially since I made the cookies with two of my good friends.  But be forewarned, the cookies paired with fresh buttercream are super sweet. I think that's why they're considered "candy" in the pastry world. So next time, I think I'm going to try to find a different filling. 

Baking at just the right temperature... 

--Raspberry Truffle

P.S. at some point I will put up the recipes that we used, once I've perfected the buttercream