Tuesday, May 24, 2011

French Macarons // Mini-Burgers

Yesterday, Etsy tweeted a link to these adorable mini-mac French Macarons. And yes, they are shaped like cheeseburgers! Of course, I had to make them. Unfortunately, my day was incredibly stressful and when I get stressed out, I CAN'T seem to make anything the way I want to. It's kind of like I project my stress into what I make and it can be really frustrating. So, i only got 10 good cookies out of this batch, and they weren't even that good. A lot of them cracked. But, I documented the journey, cracked cookies and all.

I use Stella's recipe for macarons and 95% of the time, they are pretty good. I'm not in the realm of perfect yet, but pretty good is good enough for me. She also has an incredible Macaron Myth post on her blog that takes the scary out of macaron making. After a month of using her recipe, this is what it looks like. (I have it memorized by now, but still keep it just in case.)
I would like to introduce you to my buddy, R2D2, jr...my robot coupe. I dubbed the food processor at my old place R2D2, and this one is the same size, but has to be junior, since it's the second. It's a little beat up, but I love it. I make my own walnut flour for macarons, and this is the where I make it!!
I'm not going to go step by step here, just wanted to show my process.
Walnut flour. Mmm.
And I am not shy to share my mistakes. My first batch was horrible. I was n the phone for half the process and then the health department showed up and almost gave me a heart attack. (Not that I had ANYTHING to worry about, but they always make me so nervous...) Here are some awesome macarons that came out stupid and got eaten by the cooks and thrown in the trash. Boo.
While I waited for the good batch to bake, I got my little hamburger patties ready. I used chocolate cake and then sliced it thinly in half.
I made some fondant cheese slices. I wanted to eat them up!
A few of my cookies were still cracked, but whatever. I don't even care anymore. Raspberry sauce for ketchup!
Green buttercream for lettuce!
And, ta-da. mini-burger cookies.
Pretty cute if I do say so myself.

I'm off to the post office. Goodbye friends.

xo,
Beca

7 comments:

  1. SOOO ADORABLE!!!! now there's a sweet burger even a vegetarian like me can eat ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. ok, that looks amazing. Misleading, but amazing! ;)
    nikki

    ReplyDelete
  3. ok...after my san francisco post and after going to all of those links that etsy was leaving, i cannot stop thinking about macarons! can i please try some of yours?! I want one so bad and have no idea where to get one here. I NEED one PLEASE!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. those are impossibly cute! i can't wait to make my own lil burgers! i've always been so intimidated by macaroons, but i think i'm gonna give it a try!

    xo.anna marie

    ReplyDelete