Macaron

A macaron is a traditional French pastry from Nancy, a commune of the Meurthe et Moselle "département", in northeastern FranceFact|date=March 2007. Dating back to the 18th century, the macaron is made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts' baker's oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base.

Macarons are not to be confused with macaroons. Macarons are sandwich-like pastries made with two thin cookies and a cream or ganache between the cookies. Macaroons are dense cookies made with coconut.

History

In the early 1930 the tearoom and pastry-shop Ladurée in Paris started selling the new creation of Pierre Desfontaines, grandson of Louis Ernest Ladurée: two traditional dome halves sandwiched with a sweet filling between: the ganache. This resulted in giving the "new macaron" [http://shewhoeats.blogspot.com/2005/01/macaron-tour-in-tokyo-2005-winter.html] a larger size, the possibility of flavored garnishes, and a newfound moistness that came from the garnish. Whereas the traditional macaron was sweet and dry and crunchy, the new macaron had the added attraction of being delicately crunchy on the outside, while moist, chewy, and flavourful on the inside.

Today

Many cookbooks provide macaron recipes, but the authentic Parisian macarons, with the multifarious flavors and colors, have continued to be in short supply, due to the difficulty in making them well.

Flavors available vary with the seasons and may include:
* almond
* apricot
* blackcurrant
* caramel
* chocolate
* cinnamon
* coconut
* coffee
* hazelnut praline
* fig
* lemon
* licorice
* orange
* pistachio
* raspberry
* rose
* truffle
* vanilla
* violet
* walnut

Today, there are but a few cities in which top quality macarons can be found. These include London (Paul, Maison Blanc, Yauatcha, Ladurée), Melbourne (Laurent Bakery), Sydney (Lindt Concept Store and Cafe), Paris (Pierre Hermé, Ladurée, L'Atelier Joël Robuchon, Fauchon, Gérard Mulot, Jean-Paul Hévin, La Maison du Chocolat, Carette, Sadaharu Aoki), Saint-Jean-de-Luz ( [http://www.macarons-adam.com/ Maison Adam] ) Madrid (Delipanific, Moulin Chocolat), Tokyo (Dalloyau, L'Atelier Joël Robuchon, Pierre Hermé, Sadaharu Aoki, Sébastien Bouillet), Hong Kong ( [http://www.legouter.com/ Le Goûter Bernardaud] ), Manila ( [http://www.bizupatisserie.com/ Bizu Patisserie] ), New York (Fauchon, Payard, La Maison Du Chocolat), Waterloo near Brussels (Ducobu), Baltimore (Pâtisserie Poupon), San Francisco (Pâtisserie Phillipe), Dallas, Texas (Rush Pâtisserie), New Orleans, Louisiana ( [http://www.shopsucre.com/ Shop Sucre] ), Tempe, Arizona ( [http://www.essencebakery.com/ Essence Bakery Cafe] ), Rio de Janeiro ( [http://www.aquimgastronomia.com.br/ AQUIM Boutique] ), Santa Cruz, CA ( [http://www.kellysfrenchbakery.com/ Kelly's French Bakery] ), and Boston, MA ( [http://www.burdickchocolate.com/ L.A. Burdick] ).

Variations

A variation of macaron called "makoron", which substitutes peanut powder for almond powder and flavored in wagashi style, is widely available in Sendai, Japan.

Confiserie Sprüngli in Switzerland sells Luxemburgerli, similar but smaller and airier.

In popular culture

* Brightly-colored macarons by Ladurée were heavily featured in Sofia Coppola's 2006 film "Marie Antoinette".

* They are benefiting from a very strong revival in popularity as pastries and are featured on many fashion items such as t-shirts but most notably made into macaron-shaped pendants, earrings and rings that are popular in some French and Japanese cities.

External links

* [http://www.pierreherme.com/ Pierre Hermé]
* [http://english.macaron-de-nancy.com/ The original Macaron of Nancy]