Crumbs to Crunch

As I was strolling through the cobbled streets of Quimper, I chanced upon the quaint  Les Macarons de Philomène . Never have I ever seen so many macaroons in my life. They were displayed beautifully and looked so inviting. As Oscar Wilde once said "I can resist anything except temptation", the same goes for me so I went straight in there! It was a difficult task picking which flavours to try. In the end I chose caramel, coffee, chocolate, raspberry and strawberry macaroons. I particularly enjoyed the the fruity flavours as they actually tasted like fruit instead of artificial flavourings. All the macaroons just melted in my mouth and I was in paradise! If you want to make your own Macaroons, don't forget to check out our  handy hints.

Macaroons are my baking Everest. Despite numerous attempts at home, I can't quite make them work. They tend to be ugly and the texture is completely wrong. I decided that the only way I could create the perfect Macaroon would be to seek some help. Luckily, I stumbled upon Atelier Gourmand in Chartres. This lovely little business gives cookery classes, so I signed myself up for the Macaroon class. The set up is really good fun. Everyone is given their own little station to cook at, so yes I did pretend that I was on Bake Off or Masterchef! The lovely teacher then takes you through everything step by step, telling you when exactly to do anything and giving little tips and tricks. The recipe was also far easier than ones I have tried in the past- no need for any sugar thermometers! So two hours later, I had finally produced two rather fine sets of macaroons! What do you think? I feel like to publish the recipe would be giving away the trade secrets of Atelier Gourmand, bu...