A new beginning

It has been about a year since I last blogged. I didn't have a blogging tragedy that scarred me from posting stories and recipes online. I didn't stop baking (never)... I just have the boring, old excuses of getting busy and not making time for my blog. So... let's try this again. Tonight will be the first of many regular posts about food and baking. I hope to instill in you the same joy I get out of creating treats and that you also get to experience the delights of someone else really enjoying your food.

So what recipe do I (re)start with... I think it should be something pretty momentous! And I know just the thing.

For years I have not been trying to perfect this recipe, just not make a completely crap version. I have tried various recipes and techniques and each time they come out horrible. Generally they have been flat and sticky, but my friends, I am overjoyed to announce I have finally concurred my white whale! But how did I do it? Sadly, it came down to research and persistence.

I doubt it will be a surprise to you that my white what were macaroons. I have many, many recipes from books and blogs that I have tried - I even have the Adriano Zumbo book but never attempted his recipe, sounded too hard. I had definitely given up, until one day (while home sick, funny enough) I was catching up on one of my favourite blogs, raspberri cupcakes, and I saw she had linked to another site with tips on making macaroons. The site was BraveTart. She makes macaroons for a living and has trailed every single myth there is about these little devils. I read with excitement. Her logic made sense. Her recipe was straightforward. It sounded plausible. It was all about technique, not how old your eggs were or how humid the air was. I wanted to believe her, so the following weekend when I was almost 100%, I gave her recipe a go. To my complete and total amazement - they worked! They were not perfect, but there was a foot and they were not flat. The following weekend I tried again, this time adding some food colouring. They worked again. I then tried a third time, this time with flavour and colouring. THEY WORKED AGAIN! I had tried about 8 times before reading her blog (there are about 7 different articles listed on her main macaroon page, I recommending reading them all) and now I can even see the mistakes I made in the past. 

I know I am in no way the Queen of Macaroons now, and I will continue to make mistakes. But these babies aren't a fad, they are delicious and so worth the trouble. I plan on trailing them and perfecting my craft. And I know my faithful taste testers will be happy to stick by my side through this time ;-).

Yep, even busted these beauties out for my son's fifth birthday party.