Macarons, macaroons, macaroni, whatever - fun!

I'm all jazzed about going to France with the Pearces next month. In preparation for said trip, I am wandering the internet. (surprised?) I found French macarons, which are not like coconut macaroons, and nothing like macaroni at all. But I got Ingrid and Latifa to agree to come over today and make some, based on an Internet recipe and a YouTube video. Ingrid brought her French colleague, Claire, so the heat was on!

My beeootiful almond flour

After failing to find almond flour at multiple grocery stores, I made it myself. First, blanch the almonds so you can peel off the skin. THAT is why almond flour costs so much or is totally not available! Then, pulse them in the blender for 10 seconds or so at a time until it looks like meal. Shake it through a strainer and put the lumps back in for another spin, with a new handful of almonds. Several iterations later, I was just so impressed with my almond flour.

When Latifa came over, we started in on whipping the egg whites. Then folding in the mixture of almond flour and powdered sugar.

Ingrid arrived to become our photographer

Using my new pastry tube to make bitty cookies

We had a good time making perfect 3/4" circles onto baking paper. I want to thank the inventor of baking paper, wherever s/he is, for this awesome invention. After patting each cookie's pointed little head, we set them aside to dry for what ended up being about an hour. Bergen's humidity did not help here.

No problem with boredom, though. We checked in on YouTube and decided a great idea would be Lemon Curd filling. We heated the lemon juice (from a bottle) and butter until almost boiling, then whipped up eggs and sugar, and (new word alert) tempered the two together. Tempering - adding together two things of very different temperature little by little, so the egg doesn't cook in this case.

The lemon curd has to cool and set up some more, in theory. We put the bowl in the refrigerator, then we put the mixture in a big glass in the refrigerator, then into the freezer, but it never set up. But it was deliciously tart. Claire said she loved lemon curd, and now I'm an addict, too. (It makes a great ice cream topping in its liquid state.)

While the lemon curd was not setting up, the cookies finally got dried enough to put in the oven for puffing up and browning. We all crouched in front of the little window in the oven, going "Ooh, aah!" Out they came and after a couple minutes of cooling, they peeled right off the baking paper, onto a paper-lined svinneribbe rack, for complete cooling (and waiting for the filling.)

Ingrid doesn't have a TV, so watching cookies bake is a thrill.

So uniform! The pink is food coloring, in case you're wondering.

Put a little blueberry jam or lemon curd on one, top it with the other, and sample!

Winner!