French Macaroons

While living in Yemen, we met my parents in Spain and France for a couple weeks at spring break.  We drove from Barcelona to Paris and back.  It was so beautiful.  In France, I decided that I needed to eat my way through the little bakeries (making sure to eat at least one croissant a day).  One of my favorite treats was the colorful macaroons that were stacked in the windows of the bakeries.

I have been wanting to makes these little sandwiches of sweet, crunchy and chewy at the same time, bits of heaven.  Some recipes intimidate me, but, since my mom was here for support, I decided to make these for Denali's Birthday Tea Party.  I had to attempt these cookies a second time, after the first ones just turned out ugly.  So, we researched a few more recipes and took instructions and steps and combined a couple recipes.  And they turned out just about perfect.  I colored my macaroons yellow and filled them with homemade lemon curd (that my mom made while she was here).  I served them in individual cupcake papers on my cupcake stand.   

This summer we spent a few days in Napa (I am in love).  It feels, looks and tastes so much like France.  We hunted out Thomas Keller's 3 restaurants in the little town of  Yountville, CA .  French Laundry is the restaurant I am saving up to eat at, I here it takes a year to get a table.  Ad Hoc interests me as well.  But, I did get a few treats for the road at Bouchon Bakery.  We got a couple macaroons that tasted just like the French ones.  I believe we ate a Hazelnut (my favorite) and a Espresso macaroon.  Their macaroons are huge, I chose to make mini sized ones for Denali's party.  I think I might be ready to attempt some other flavors.