Macaroons are pretty much fancy sandwich cookies. They are made with almond flour and are fussy, but delicious.
Almond flour is just finely ground almonds. You get a batter like this that you then pipe out into dots on a cookie sheet.
If you've ever made meringue cookies, it's a similar process. However, the baking process is fussy and you need to be by the oven to make adjustments often.
After baking the cookies I made the filling for the recipe. One part of the filling is making raspberry jam. If I make this recipe again, I would probably just go buy some jam as I didn't think mine tasted too different and it would save on the time that it takes to make these cookies.
I ran into a snag with the rose buttercream. I couldn't find any rose water, so I'm not sure how that would have changed the taste. I was skeptical about the frosting since you have to heat it over a water bath and I was sure the eggs in the recipe would curdle. I was wrong and it comes out as a smooth frosting that even with the addition of the jam tasted to me like a fancy butter spread that will be going on some waffles in the near future to finish up the leftovers from the recipe.
The next part is the assembly. I tried to match up all the cookies since my hands aren't steady and I don't have the practice and finesse of a professional baker to ensure equal sized cookies.
Next I applied the jam to one side of the cookie. I also don't think I cooked my jam long enough, because it stayed runny. I also would probably just strain all the seeds out, because I'm not a fan of them, but it isn't a critical thing for the recipe.
Then the frosting was spread on the other half of the cookie.
And then after putting the two together, a marvelous macaroon was created.
Because of the piping method for creating the cookies, I made exactly the three dozen cookies that the recipe said it would make (I usually make my cookies too big and end up with significantly less).
And then I got to indulge in the tasty treats. They came out delicious, but the amount of work that went into them makes me hesitant to try them again. However, I was really pleased with the cookie part which is plain, so I think I'll make those again and maybe try some different filling combinations.
The one bad thing about macaroons is that they do not hold up for a long time. I kept mine in an airtight container in the fridge, but the liquidy jam I made had them getting softer after a day. I'm not sure how well they would have lasted after that, because they were all eaten.
