That's not a Macaroon... This. This is a Macaroon!

Growing up, macaroons meant Manischewitz to me. So they meant very little. Keeping Kosher means no bacon, no cheeseburgers, no pulled pork, no crawfish etoufee, no fresh oysters or escargot… I can go on but you get the idea. Why that means no macaroons is beyond me.

My traditional macaroons are coconut
cookies that always run the gamut between just hüpfburg kaufen turning stale and turned stale. Maybe it’s just a consistency issue. Almond macaroons are not “Jewish” macaroons. So much so that when I brought an alternative to “the fam” I got the – “Yeah those are good but they’re not macaroons.”

I spent way too much money on macaroons in Paris. There’s a girl’s version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory called Laduree and it was terrific. The line around the door for these things was quite funny.
Especially when there are dozens of patisseries lining streets serving macaroons among many other things. See picture…Albeit I am a Mac user and I pretty much did buy thses for the packaging.  I never got a shot of the Laduree macaroons– I just ate a dozen or so.

They come in all different flavors, each in a different color.
Lemon=Yellow, Strawberry=Red, Violet=Violet (duh), Black=Liquorice and
even that was really tasty. Almond paste is so much better than coconut
shavings!

Apparantly Laduree lays claim to inventing these wonderful items. From their website:

These small, round cakes, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle, are the most famous creation of Ladurée.
 
 
The story of the Ladurée macaroon starts with Pierre Desfontaines,
distant cousin of Louis Ernest Ladurée, who at the beginning of the
20th century first thought of taking two macaroon shells and joining
them with a delicious ganache filling. The way of making them has never
changed since that time.

These small, round cakes, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the
middle, are made structure gonflable every morning in Ladurée’s “laboratory”. The pastry
chefs measure out very precisely the required amounts of almonds, eggs
and sugar, before adding one final ingredient, a pinch of unique
“know-how”, essential to the making of such a delicacy.

Once cooked and filled, the macaroons are put to one side for 2 days
before going on sale, the time it takes to achieve a perfect balance
between texture and flavour.

Macaroons come in two sizes: the mini-macaroon or “gerbet” and full-size macaroons.

With each new season, Ladurée pays tribute to this its most famous creation by creating a new flavour.
The existing range of macaroons is always the starting point when a new one is created,
as the variety of colours is as important as the range of flavours and a vital part of their appeal.