french chocolate-orange macarons, part two

They don't have feet, and they all have cracked heads and burnt toes, but these little babies are so vastly improved from my first attempt that I am not minding so much.

It is amazing how much better it turns out when you actually follow the directions and use the correct ingredients. I even weighed all the ingredients this time with my new kitchen scale (I'm becoming so professional).

This time I used a cookie recipe, this recipe, and followed it to the letter. Only difference was my oven got a little hotter than was required and burned the cookie bottoms. The recipe suggests you firmly rap the cookie sheet on a table once the cookies are piped. This is supposed to prevent cracking. I did it and they cracked any way. Perhaps due to the moisture in the air? The weather was threatening rain when I made them and I've read that moisture is the death of the macaron. Next time I will make twice or three times the ganache since I ran out before I was done filling them and, as you can see, I didn't fill them ll that thickly.

So, I have more to learn about these tricky critters. In the meanwhile, they are super tasty!

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