delicious failed macarons

I was wary from the start. A French macaron recipe that requires no sifting, no carefully timed beating of egg whites, no gently folding of ingredients, no tapping of pans, in fact nothing special at all.

For those of you who don't know, French macarons are one of the test recipes to determine a good pastry chef from your average run of the mill pastry chef. It makes or breaks you.

But I set aside my disbelief and made the recipe. It was just too easy to pass up. Although, once made, the batter appeared too thin to pipe onto a cookie sheet so I poured it into mini muffin tins, and voila: mini muffin macarons. I then had the audacity to bring them as a gift to some of my French friends. What did they say, you ask. They said that each region of France has its own version of the French macaron and my squashed mushroom looking ones resembled some from a region in the south west.

Regardless of the shape or texture of these creations, they taste pretty darn good. No matter what region they come from.

Failed French Macarons
Makes 18 cookies, adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 cup blanched almonds
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 egg whites, beaten lightly
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat an oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the almonds, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla extract in a food processor and pulse the mixture until it has taken on the texture of a very coarse paste. Turn the food processor on high speed and blend the paste for 2 minutes, until it is very smooth and thick.
2. Spoon the batter into mini muffin tins
3. Allow the batter to rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
4. Bake the macaroons for 12 minutes. Remove the hot macaroons to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.