Friday, November 13

The Cabris market was a fail. That’s what Max likes to say when something doesn’t work out his way or the way he planned something out he says “that was a fail!”. The website we were going off of said Friday, I’m positive it said Friday as we planned to go on Friday to the Cabris Market quite a few days ago based on that info. Luckily the village is a very short drive away, maybe 12 minutes. So we decided to walk around anyway and take in the views, it too is perched on the edge of a cliff and is visible from the Intermarche (grocery store) in Peymeneide that we go to and I’ve always wondered what village that was up there. So we hit a boulangerie bought some snacks and headed to the park and field to kick the soccer ball around.

The view from Cabris.

Shelby and I decided to cook some Macarons from a box that we got from the grocery store. If you don’t know what Macarons are, you’re probably lucky. Because they are these deliciously chewy cookies with a cream filling that come in a huge variety of flavours and are impossible to say no to. Wikipedia says “The intricate confection is characterised by a smooth, squared top, ruffled circumference (referred to as the “foot” or “pied”), and a flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavors that range from the traditional (raspberry, chocolate) to the new (foie gras, matcha). They are often said to be difficult to make”.

So I figured they would not be the easiest cookies to make but I figured with a box mix how hard can it be. Well heck, it was hard, I should have read the wikipedia info before instead of a minute ago. First we read the french instructions then we watched the french you tube video, I thought we were ready. We did good with the filling part, put it in the fridge to set. Then we started the cookie part, all we had to do was beat the egg whites to get them stiff then fold in the dry package. Perhaps it would have not been so difficult had we had a mixer of any kind. But alas, no such luck. We started with the hand blender thing that people probably use for pureeing soups but that didn’t do much to stiffen the egg whites. Then we grabbed the classic whisk and started hand beating with that. We all took a turn, minus Max but eventually gave up and just dumped the cookie package contents in and mixed it. I knew we were in trouble as the mixture was just too runny. Shelby however was calling me negative and that it would work out fine. I think she could have eaten the raw batter and also knew the filling was looking good in the fridge so it wasn’t a complete “fail” in her mind, I knew better.

We placed them on the cookie sheets put them in the oven and waited. They were so runny that they ran over the edge of the pan. They eventually did bake and rose a bit so we salvaged something of them. Let them cool a bit, placed the filling in between 2 cookies and then put them in the fridge to set for an hour as per the instructions. Because you know, we’re all about instructions.

They may not have looked good, but they tasted pretty yummy. I think I may leave the Macaron backing to the professionals.

This is what Macarons look like.

These are what ours looked like – haha! They were yummy though!