Macarons

Like many others I have also caught macaron fever!If you read the myriad of blog postings about making macaron, you know that they can be a little tricky. I have tried several different recipes, and both the french and italian methods, producing an "OK" product but not what I was aiming for. Since this book appeared on my doorstep, that is no more! I am producing beautiful, tasty little gems with a nice foot. Berengere makes it easier!At the very beginning of the book is a photo tutorial showing the steps of the process (Berengere uses the French method). This was a tremendous help to me, with clear instruction and great photos. After the tutorial, there are plenty of recipes for different macaron. What I found really great was that the recipes are in very small batches, making about 15 macaron (sandwiched). Using only about 1/4 cup of almond meal was nice because so many other recipes called for much more almond flour, and if you had a flop, it was expensive! Making the batches in this size is nice because you can make macaron every day if you keep egg whites at hand. It is also convenient because with this size, you can make the recipe with a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer.Each recipe includes the shell, most unflavored but some with flavoring, and a filling. All of his fillings are either ganaches or confitures, no buttercreams. So far, I have made fig and orange flower, caramel, chocolate, and lemon. Today will be apple spice. There are 28 recipes in all, and there is a beautiful photo to accompany each one. Each recipe I have tried has been a hit with family and friends. Since purchasing this book, I feel much more confident making macaron, and you can too!

My sister's new favorite book....I cannot wait for new treats....she stated that this book is actually quite helpful and she learned some new tricks. It is full of new recipes with exciting fillings. The book makes the mystique of macarons assessable to bakers ready to step into lush gorgeous sweets.

I haven't tried the recipes just yet, but just by flipping through, I really like this book. It has a lot of pictures to help on your baking venture. It also includes a wide variety of macaroon recipes that I have never seen before! Glad to have it in my baking collection.

I am just getting into making macaron's and this was the first book I read, however, the book is full of recipes without any explanations about making macarons so I had to do more research on them; the book's recipes seem very good but when I first tried to make the shells, had I not done more research, I would have failed even more than I already did. The fillings in the book are nice since I did not know anything bout making jams and it is a great book to have for viewing pictures of how your macarons should look, so all I can say is it is a great book for recipes but little info on making the shells.

Although I bake, I had never made macarons when we got this book. After years of hearing how 'tricky' they are, and that they will fail at first, I was always hesitant. We should have got this book first. Our first batch came out perfectly and the different recipes are wonderful.

Every recipe in this book follows the same basic macaron recipe. The only alteration is the addition of flavorings. Many of the flavor combinations are intriguing which is why I didn't just give this book 1 star.There seems to be fundamental issue with the basic recipe in this book. I tried this basic formula three times word-for-word and found the batter to be too runny every single time. Once I compared the recipe to other basic recipes, I found that the ratios of wet to dry ingredients was off. This one uses very little almond meal and powdered sugar with quite a bit of egg white.I then ordered another book from Amazon ( Mad About Macarons!: Make Macarons Like the French ) and found that the basic recipe was excellent - it worked perfectly on the very first try! Mad About Macarons also has a supplemental section containing recipes that make use of the otherwise wasted egg yolks. I would strongly recommend purchasing that book instead to save yourself from the frustration I experienced.

Hard bound book, pictures of macarons are perfect. Makes you want to eat macarons all the time!

It is easy, tasty and it worked perfect. My only suggestion is to provide temperatures for different countries and ingredients.

Beautiful cookbook! Gorgeous photography. Detailed technique instructions. Each recipe has measurements conveniently given in both American and European system. Just perfect. Exactly what I was hoping for.

Non il miglior libro sui macaron, inoltre è in inglese ed è molto approssimativo. COnsigliato solamente a chi si approccia per la prima volta in questo mondo. Inoltre non ho ancora provato la riuscita delle ricette...

Das ist eines von mehreren Rezeptbüchern, die ich mir gekauft habe um endlich einmal perfekte Macarons zu erzielen. Es sind viele hilfreiche Tips drinnen, auch welche die ich noch nicht kannteaber die Biester gelingen mal und mal nicht. Es liegt wahrscheinlich am Ofen.

Good book!

This little book has one basic macaron recipe at the beginning, well described and illustrated with photographs of every step. The rest of the book gives ideas for various flavourings, fillings and colourings and shows a photo of each type. The basic recipe works well and is easy to follow, although getting just the perfect light and fluffy yet chewy-in-the-middle texture of a true French macaron could take years of practice. There are undoubtedly more comprehensive (and more expensive) books on the subject, but it's not a bad introduction and bearing in mind the low price it gets 4 stars.