My mum has come to stay with us for a month. She is cooking and cleaning and cuddling and today she gave me some time to play with the macaron set she brought me.
I've never been brave enough to make macarons before. I am terrified of piping and I was under the impression that they were a real faff to make. I'm not saying that every shell turned out perfectly, but for a first attempt I was really pleased with myself.
The kit my mum brought me is a silicone sheet that has little circles on it to help make the shells uniform. It also comes with a fancy schmancy silicone piping set and a recipe book. I had seen the set in some shops a while back and was skeptical, but I was actually really pleased with how everything worked out.
I made vanilla macarons with a dark chocolate ganache filling. It took a while...luckily the baby sat happily in her bouncy chair in the kitchen while I finished off filling the shells...and in the end I have been converted. Also, I had a pretty horrible macaron (made by a professional pastry chef) at an afternoon tea I went to last week so the fact that mine tasted and looked a billion times better has really boosted my confidence.
