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The Land of Lost Content

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows:

What are those blue remembered hills,

What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,

I see it shining plain,

The happy highways where I went

And cannot come again.

A. E. Housman ('A Shopshire Lad')

by Theresa Collier, Publicity In case you have not followed along from Wednesday’s post, Overlook is publishing Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food and Real Fast Desserts in paperback next week.  I’ve sliced, mixed, braised, and baked my way through four simple recipes starting with “Chicken with Olives and Oranges” and “Bulgur Wheat with Mango and Mint.”  Real Fast Desserts, a follow-up spawned

        
     
      Nelle coveting the box.

I'd been hearing people rave about macarons on food blogs for months on end.

I read about the intense passion, the pilgrimmages to Paris pâtisseries, the unprecedented cultish status of this French sandwich cookie, and I thought, "how good could it possibly be?"

Well, now I know.

Look at me! Yesterday, an innocent child chasing cupcakes. Today, a sophisticated mademoiselle of meringue! My eyelids are fluttering, my pulse ever quickens, my face flushes at the thought of yet another sweet encounter.

How do you say, "OMGthey'resodanggoodyouwannaslapyourmama" in French?

We got our sampler box from Michel Patisserie. Check out the flavors:




Of course, for the alphabet soup kitchen helpers, it was love at first sight. Such pretty colors! The promise of raspberry, chocolate, and caramel was almost too much to bear!



Some arranged tea parties,


others engaged in Olympic-style judging,


still others held serious macaron conferences, debating passion fruit vs. orange, mint vs. lemon.


Knowing just how rare and precious macarons are in this part of the world, I called in the troops for safeguarding,


but one clever ted managed to take off with a few before we could stop him.


I will say it was difficult deciding which one to taste first. I had waited a long time to try macarons, and I wanted my first bite to be memorable. I went with pistachio since green is my favorite color.


The base of the cookie has a ruffled circlet called "the foot."

The meringue wafer looks solid, and previous experience with other sandwich cookies like Oreos or sugar wafers made me expect a crunch.



But no -- when you bite into it, you realize the surface is eggshell thin, giving way to a slightly chewy meringue/light cake texture that beautifully blends with the creamy filling. The flavor was phenomenal -- intense but not overpowering. I thought, if angels bake, this is what it would taste like. Fairies must serve these at their tea parties.

And then and there, I reconsidered my longstanding allegiance to cupcakes.

Suddenly, cupcakes seemed gauche, messy, over-the-top. Macarons are

jek in the box {is home}/flickr

Bonjour!

Would you like a macaron? Please help yourself!


mosaic from lildamselfly's flickr photostream

Small and round, crisp, creamy, so colorful and, let's face it, so dang cute -- you'd have to be hard-hearted indeed to turn down one of these beauties. Before you accuse me of misspelling the name of this French meringue cookie sandwich, let me clarify -- le macaron is different from the American macaroon (a sticky, chewy, overly sweet coconut cookie).

The macaron got its name from the Italian word, maccarone, which means "fine paste," or "fine dough." Its exact origin is still being debated (some say they were first made at an Italian monastery to resemble monks' belly buttons). ☺ But most agree the macaron's French debut occurred in the 16th century with the arrival of Catherine de Medici, who brought her pastry chefs with her upon marrying King Henri II.


Rose macaron by lynac/flickr.

As with most things culinary, the French took the simple almond flour, egg white and sugar confection to new heights, serving them in the 19th century with spices, jams and liqueurs, and then in the 20th century, inventing the sandwich cookie we know today. Credit goes to Pierre Desfontaines of the famous pâtisserie Ladurée, who took two of these meringue discs and filled them with chocolate ganache. Ever since, French pastry chefs have taken great pride in creating new flavor combinations, moving beyond the standard vanilla, chocolate and raspberry, to exotic delights such as matcha tea, rose, mango, and passionate fruit. Today, if you visit most any Paris pâtisserie, you will find trays and trays of marvelous macarons, with fillings made from ganache, buttercream, and various jams.


Chocolaterie Biscuiterie Larnicol in Bordeaux by [(o)].

But "macs," as they are affectionately called, are so much more than pretty, elegant cookies served with coffee, tea or champagne. Not only are they challenging the cupcake's popularity as favorite hand-held sweet among foodies in this country, but in Paris they are serious status symbols. In his cheeky blog post, French sommelier Olivier Magny calls the macaron "a key social lubricant in Paris." Strong stuff for such a little cookie. "While most Parisians have given up on ancestral guilty pleasures (sex, drugs, alcohol), very few will say no to the modern form of socially acceptable vice: Le Macaron Ladurée."