Birthday Macarons, Pt. 1

"So mayest thou live, dear! many years, in all the bliss that life endears." - Thomas Hood

My wonderful mother's birthday is this month. To celebrate, we're branching out into French pastry baking with this cookbook devoted to Macarons.

No, these are not mounds of shredded coconut held together with egg whites. They are much more. SO much more.

image credit: The French Touch

A light, crunchy shell filled with a soft, chewy filling. In as many colors and delicious flavor combinations as you can desire, both sweet and savory. Oh yes, folks, we have a winner.

 So, for mom's birthday, we are making the following two flavors at her request, one sweet and one savory:

• Raspberry-White Chocolate Caramel filling inside Pistachio shells
• Goat Cheese-Rosemary filling inside Parsley shells

But, as may be expected, these delightful concoctions require specialized ingredients. We will need:

Almond Flour

Almond Flour is difficult to make at home - if not carefully done, it can become a paste instead. Unless you're feeling adventurous, I recommend ordering it from Nuts Online, where they also sell...

Pistachio Flour

...Pistachio Flour. We only need this to make the Pistachio shells - the Almond flour is used in all other types of shells that aren't nut flavored.

Dried Egg Whites

Dried egg whites can be found at the King Arthur Flour website.

Piping Bags

Piping bags are needed for piping the shells as well as the filling.

To be continued...