Daring Bakers: Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers' challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming's TheLast Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Macarons. A word that will simultaneously put joy and fear into the heart of any home baker. I was excited to hear that this month's Daring Baker's challenge - I've made them before, but lost the pictures before I had a chance to post them. I've been looking for another excuse to make them. I chose to make chocolate cookie with a salted caramel filling.

In the US, people often confuse French Macarons with macaroons - a cookie made primarily of coconut. Although macaroons are also delicious, they don't even begin to compare to the beauty that is a macaron. Macarons are a sandwich cookie made of almond flour that is combines with sugar and egg white. The texture is a combination of crispy and chewy, with a crispy outer shells that gives way to a soft meringue center. The cookies are sandwich together, often with ganache, caramel, or fruit preserves.[....]