Experiencing Macarons at Sophie's French Bakery

Hello friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! I know we did. It definitely was not a typical one here though. My brother and Dad were off for the week to a baseball tournament which meant my Mom and I got some much needed girl-time. Besides meandering around our favorite shops like anthropologie and Williams Sonoma, Mom and I drove over forty minutes for....

macarons.

Not the most patriotic way to celebrate, I know, but I do think that supporting small business is quite American, so I'm pleased to say scarfing down some Key Lime and Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons was a perfect way to cap off the mom/daughter time.

Sadly I have no recipe for French Macarons, but I just really wanted to share with you all this gem of a French Bakery we've come to love here in Florida. It's called Sophie's French Bakery and it's in an adorable part of Tampa known as Hyde Park.

We discovered this bakery while visting the Hyde Park Market that occurs on the first Sunday of every month and features artisan foods, handmade jewelry, and fresh produce. After walking around in the blistering heat, we decided to stop into the bakery to grab a bite to eat and cool off.

Little did we know we'd fall head over heels for their out-of-this-world macarons.These were the first macarons my mom and I had ever encountered in real life, only having seen them all over Pinterest and drooling over them if caught on camera by Food Network. Meringue never came across to me as appetizing, but how could a cookie sandwich that cute taste bad?

The answer: it doesn't. It's one of the most delicate, heavenly llittle treats I've ever had, and after having just one lemon-flavored macaron from Sophie's, I knew I would be back for more. Now every time I come to visit my family in Florida, we make sure to take the drive and stop over to this bakery and sample whatever flavors they happen to have on that day. On the fourth, it just happened to be Key Lime and Strawberry Cheesecake.

Now the Key Lime was great, but the real show-stopper here was the Strawberry Cheesecake. The subtle yet distinctive flavor of strawberry from the shells combines with the creamy cheesecake filling to just melt in my mouth in one glorious bite. It had disappeared before I even realized I had eaten the whole cookie, and I found myself frowning at my empty hand, wishing if I closed my eyes another would appear between my fingers.

I have visited France before, but sadly I was only an awkward young teen and the word "macaron" did not exist in my dictionary. While enjoying a home-stay with a family in the French Riviera, we had stopped at the family bakery and were allowed to have whatever we wanted to sample. Naturally I went right to the baguettes, the scent of bread overwhelming me from any other thought. Now, looking back, I wonder if there had been macarons either in their shop or in the nearby market. Perhaps one day I will journey back there, and experience what a French Macaron in France tastes like...

Until then I will keep myself content with the macarons at Sophie's Bakery. Though I am sure the ones in France are phenomenal, I can't say I will be sacrificing much when Sophie's are just so delicious. Beautiful to look at and heavenly to consume, I can't wait to go back and find out what new flavors they decide to create.

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

Mastering the French Macaron - Part 1

Hello all!

You will never guess what I got for Christmas...

a macaron kit!

You're incredibly jealous; I know. But don't despair, because I plan on sharing with you all of the wonderful mishaps I encountered - kit or no kit.

For anyone out there who has not been fortunate enough to experience a macaron (not to be confused with a coconut macaroon - note the double oo) it is a wonderfully delicious French cookie sandwich that I have become quite addicted to after having tried at a French Patisserie near my parents' house.

So I found that mastering the art of the macaron is not a feat easily accomplished. Even after this post I have yet to do so, but the key is to be patient. Oh, and to question ambiguity in a recipe when it's appropriate.

The kit I received came with this adorable Macaron Recipe Book, and what I thought would be a fool-proof recipe. Think again. Sounding simple enough, I jumped right in. I aged my egg whites over three days; I ground my almonds as finely as I possibly could (only to realize that it's just easier and more efficient to buy Almond Flour) and got to work.

Now riddle me this Batman...if I buy a Macaron Kit it would suggest that I do not know anything about making the delicious petite French cookie, correct? Therefore the recipe should be detailed and quite explanatory so that I can learn, correct?

Not so my friends. Let's see...Recipe Oddity Number One: "add two unbeaten egg whites to the dry ingredient mixture"....and do what? Stir to combine? Leave it just plopped on top? Why am I doing that? It looks strange and wrong, but okay book. You know best. Recipe Oddity Number 2: "Whisk egg whites to a foam, add granulated sugar, then complete whisking." What on earth does complete whisking mean?

Thank goodness I have read other recipes on macarons to know you need to get the egg whites to stiff peaks, otherwise I'd have been totally in the dark here. How am I (a macaron novice) supposed to know what "complete" whisking should look like? If I just stopped after the granulated sugar was incorporated, I'd still have a runny egg white foam - which is definitely not desirable for macarons.

So - as my first attempt came out like so (note that there are no photos of these off of the silicone mat because they would not come off until I scraped them off):

and made me very sad, I decided to take a few, shall we say, liberties, with the recipe.

Look how much smoother they are! Who knew! True, the amond powder made a huge difference and that I do not pretend to blame on the recipe. But I omitted that weird thought of just adding egg whites to the dry mixture (maybe if I knew what they wanted me to do after that...it's like someone fell asleep while writing these recipe instructions).

Did they come out perfect? Sadly no; they were no cute macaron "feet" to be seen and they were quite thin.

Was there improvement? Yes; they taste great and the consistency (although they are super thin) is there.

And frankly, that's all I can hope for. If French Macarons were easy to make, we would see them much more often like we do chocolate chip cookies or brownies. The difficulty is half the intrigue; the other half is that I can never get enough of them.

I will be attempting this once again in the near future, hopefully with positive results. In the meantime, I have recently acquired an Artisan Bread Book that has recipes for ciabatta, bagels, croissants and more. Perhaps we will encounter a few of these On Sugar Mountain in the New Year? We will have to wait and see. :)

As always, Happy Baking!