j'aime le dessert

Did you miss me? Let's pretend you did. I am exhausted. March is the worst month in this house every year for sickness. If you don't know, my son, Charlie, has asthma and whenever he gets sick, we pretty much always end up at the hospital for steroids and breathing treatments so he can actually breathe. Sounds fun, huh? I am on a first name basis with several nurses at Children's Hospital in Troy. (I recommend their E.R. very much!) And as any of you parents know that when your kid gets sick and you have to sit with them in doctors and hospitals, you will get sick. Eric and I both ended up with it too but now, we are all mostly better. Time to celebrate and BAKE SOMETHING!!!!

I am doing the desserts for my cousin's bridal shower next month and I wanted to play around with doing a smaller dessert to go with the cupcakes and cookies. I decided to try out French Macarons. Fancy, right? I'm a classy lady like that. I normally do not make anything that doesn't have chocolate but these screamed SPRING to me so off to the depths of the internet I go and I came across this recipe by The Spruce. Anything with 'easy' and 'perfect' in the title for a first time try at something, I'm cool with!

Before you start the recipe I did a few things that I think will help: 1. I started by breaking out my Ninja food processor and grinding up the ingredients so they were extra fine to combine well. I did this for the casting sugar and almond flour.

2. I printed a Macaron template from google to maintain the correct size. Mine was 1.5'' but you can do whatever size you would like.

3. Put a small metal bowl and hand mixer beaters in fridge or freezer to cool.

Now the real work begins! 1. After you've pulsed your sugar in the food processor, do your almond flour in there and add your powdered sugar. Use a whisk or fork to break up any big pieces and combine. You can find almond flour in the baking or health food section of most grocery stores!

2. Take your bowl and beaters out of the ridge. Beat 2 eggs and a pinch of salt together to form soft peaks. You can tell soft vs. hard peaks by seeing if your mixture still jiggles a little when you shake your bowl. Once soft peaks are reached, add in your blended sugar and beat until stiff form peaks. I actually tested it by turning the bowl upside and voila! No spillage!

3. Now combine your almond flour/powdered sugar mix into your egg white mixture and fold in. I did this in 3 stages to incorporate the mixture but not to beat it down.

4. Color your mixture! I used a bunch of colors because I wanted to see how they would turn out. You only need 1 drop of food coloring gel so start by that and add, if needed. I used 1 piping bag for all the colors and let them run into each other to create a swirl but if you want true colors, rinse out your piping bag in between or use different ones. I used a medium circle tip but might use a large one instead next time to prevent the bubble. (TipI've used Wilton products for years but after some testing, I've discovered I like the Americolor Gel set better taste wise. You also don't have to use as much to get the true color, which I appreciate!)

5. Let sit. I made 2 batches and only let 1 sit for the recommended 20 minutes. I wanted to see what happens. After tasting, the one that was left to sit vs the other one I say-don't let sit. They didn't come up as easily and cracked more. LEAVE THIS STEP OUT! 6. Bake for 7 minutes at 300*F and then open the oven for a few seconds to let the steam out and continue to back for another 7-8 minutes. I had dimples in my second batch. After reading more websites with tips, many suggested using a toothpick to smooth out. I will def. do that next time!

7. Let cool on a baking sheet on the parchment paper you cooked them on. Move them when they are cool.

8. Make your filling. I made a basic vanilla buttercream and added different flavors to experiment a bit. Red raspberry for the pink

Vanilla for purple and yellow

Salted Caramel for teal and blue

9.Pipe a small amount of filling onto the bottom of macaron and top with another. Continue until you are done!

10. Enjoy the final product!!!

Thanks for hanging out to read about a new baking experiment. I had fun with the colors on this one and might be adding them to the rotation and experimenting with some flavors combinations soon :) Eric gave them a thumbs up and the kids couldn't wait to dig in!

Another note while I have a few minutes of no one trying to throw a car down the stairs, being a mom is hard. Like really hard. Some days I don't feel like I'm doing a good job and some days I feel like a super hero. I know many moms feel this way and we often struggle with mom guilt. My husband never has dad guilt and sometimes I get jealous that he can do something for himself and not feel awful. I actually got mad at him for not feeling guilty and then felt guilty about that. I'm going out with my mom friends on Saturday and I'm super excited to see a show we saw 2 years ago. It's called "Pump and Dump." If you're a mom and haven't heard of it-you NEED to. So many laughs! This show was the start of friendships that have been continuing on since our kids were in preschool together. Anyways, when we manage to actually get out of the house together, we laugh, whine and support. I'd feel super lonely without my mom friends who just get it so thanks girls. You're the best and you make me feel like I'm not alone and a complete loser -I'm so glad you're in my life!