My Future as a Pastry Chef

Update from Abroad: Quitting school to become a french pastry chef.

Monday afternoon I went to another atelier sponsored by EDUCO - macaron making!! It's no secret that I have a sweet tooth and my friends and I had been looking forward to this macaron making class for a while. I learned that making macarons is both an art and a science. The woman who led our class had thankfully already measured out all of our ingredients (using a scale - not measuring cups. science) and gave us very careful step by step instructions. First we beat the egg whites and sugar together to create a meringue. After that we had to add the dry ingredients (mix of almond flour, powdered sugar, and probably some other things). However, this is a very important step called "le macaronage". You have a paddle/spatula type thing that you hold in your hand which which you beat your batter in a specific way called "macaroner". This is a verb in the french language that literally means to do this action to make macarons. It's a very intense batting action and actually makes your hand and whole arm REALLY sore. But it was so fun. Everyone looked ridiculous. After that you add in these special powders that can only be found in French pastry shops. These powders are what give the macarons their beautiful colors and flavors. (Except in the case of the nutella and speculos which were flavored with hazelnuts and graham crackers respectively, with a nutella and speculos filling). Natalie and I were in charge of the pistachio which is my favorite type of macaron (I think, they're all so good...). Then you put the batter in one of those pastry icing type bags and have to very carefully make little circles on your tray. But they can't be too big or too small and they have to be even.

After that you bang the tray on the table a couple of times to make sure all the biscuits are flat and don't have any weird points. While the macarons were in the oven we made the fillings. For the pistachio, speculous, and nutella macarons we made a mix between a whipped cream and an icing and then added flavorings to them (pistachio aroma, then straight up speculos and nutella). For the raspberry ones you could just use raspberry jam (but not jelly!). And for the chocolate ones we made a delicious chocolate ganache. Then once they come out of the oven you match the similarly sized ones up, put some filling in the middle and stick em together!

But here comes the kicker.... when macarons come out of the oven they're firm and crispy like a biscuit :( The way that they become so soft and airy on the inside is by putting them in the fridge.... FOR 24 HOURS AT LEAST. We were devastated that we couldn't eat our macarons right away. But it's all good... cause I just had one tonight and it was absolutely divine :)

The final product :)

I've decided that if you're a french pastry chef you've just really made it in life. After this class all I wanted to do was open my own patisserie and live in Paris forever eating delicious pastries. (Still a possibility)