What are Macarons/Macaroons? Most Americans are familiar with the coconut macaroon. I found the Macaron (with one o) in Paris all over the city. I would compare the popularity to the chocolate chip cookie of the USA. Both delicious, but very different. What is your experience with the discovery of the French Macaron?
MACARONS
Dating back to the 18th century, the macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts' baker's oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base. Macarons, also anglicized "macaroons", are not to be confused with a similar pastry also called macaroons. Macarons are sandwich-like pastries made with two thin cookies and a cream or ganache between the cookies. Macaroons, on the other hand, are dense cookies made either with coconut or with a coarse almond paste. Macarons come in a wide variety of flavors varying by store and season; ranging from traditional to exotic. At the Versailles Court in Paris, members of the Dalloyau family, whose descendants later founded the gastronomy house of the same name, served macarons to royalty in the then ruling House of Bourbon. In the 1830s macarons were served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices. The macaron known today is the "Gerbet" macaron, born in the 1880s in the Beleville neighbourhood of Paris. The double-decker macaron filled with cream that is popular today was invented by the French pâtisserie Ladurée.
MACAROONS
Macaroons are sweet foods made either with coconut and egg white or with a coarse almond paste formed into a dense cookie or confection. They are often confused (due to the very similar spelling) with the French Macarons which are entirely different in appearance. The English word macaroon comes not from the French macaron, but from the word maccarone, regionally used in Italy to refer to maccherone (kind of pasta, with a hole and a larger diameter than bucatini) - because almond macaroon paste is the same colour as macaroni pasta. Macaroon cookie biscuits often use egg whites (usually whipped to stiff peaks), with ground or powdered nuts, most commonly coconut but sometimes almond. Almost all recipes call for sugar, which caramelizes and provides body and a smooth, moist texture to the macaroon. If the coconut or other fabric used is very sweet, however, the sugar may be omitted. Macaroons are commonly baked on edible rice paper placed on a baking tray. A coconut macaroon is a type of macaroon most commonly found in the United States, although invented in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland. It is a conventional macaroon with a distinct coconut flavor and containing shredded dried coconut. They tend to be closer to a soft cookie than their meringue cousins, and about as sweet. Increasingly, coconut macaroons are dipped in chocolate, typically milk chocolate. Versions dipped in dark chocolate or white chocolate are also becoming more commonly available. Nuts are often added to coconut macaroons, typically almond slivers, but occasionally pecans, cashews or other nuts. In Australia, a blob of raspberry jam is often concealed in the centre of the macaroon prior to cooking.
