I recently attended a ‘Magic of Macarons’ cookery course at Le Manoir aux Quat’saisons. A couple of weeks later and I took the plunge to do these in my own kitchen and recreate the most delicate and delicate of sweet treats.

I started with my recipe I was given, followed it step by step. I duly followed the recipe and the notes I had made during the course and filled my blue piping bag with the almond mixture. Having deftly piped my mixture into many 3cm discs, I placed into the oven. Within a few minutes there was a problem… no feet! The macarons just didn’t rise and spread out – disaster. These went straight into the bin. I went out and came back to reset. I again followed each step one at a time and double checked everything I did. Popped my piped discs into the oven and again no rise…

By this time I was annoyed with myself, ‘what didn’t I note down?’ ‘Is my oven not right?’ ‘Did I under whisk?

A day later and a calmly re-tried, having slowly filled my own bin, I mo0ved to my mother’s kitchen to give her oven a whirl (by this stage I would have tried anything to make these work). For the 3rd time I followed the recipe, I weighed as precisely as I could, I monitored my sugar syrup like a hawk. However this time I whisk the Itali Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon. an meringue for 5/6 minutes longer than the 2/3 minutes in the recipe. Once again I filled my blue piping bag (I order the same as we had used on the course, as I wanted to be as close to what I did on the course), I placed my trays in the oven… 5 minutes elapsed, I checked them to let out any moisture from the oven – hooray I spotted a foot and then feet on my macarons.

They worked! I don’t know if it was the oven, or whisking more, but the important thing is I didn’t give up trying. Baking something as precise as a macaron is incredibly tricky and requires patience. The results and gratification of when it works is a wonderful feeling – definitely a challenge I relish.