I am fan of the foodwelovebox from Foodwelove and a while ago I saw they were facilitating a workshop done by Hidde de Brabander from Dreams of Magnolia. Hidde is the one making the Macaron’s in Monique van Loon’s Culy way of Life. I just HAD to go..but I saw their post pretty late so when I emailed I got a response saying that the workshop was fully booked..fully fully booked. Darn it. Nothing to do, but wait..there is always a waiting list 😉 So I emailed back asking if it was possible to put me on the waiting list. No problem. My chances improved with 1%, but that did not stop me from hoping ;). So a few days before the workshop was due, I emailed again and too bad..NO one had canceled, but I was welcome during another workshop, organized in March. Yeah!!…finally. About 5 years a go my sister gave me the cookbook of Mr Macaron, Pierre Herme. It seemed just to darn complicated, so I never dared. NOW afer  5 years, I was about to make my first batch of macarons. EXITED 😉

We first started the day with a theoretic part where Hidde explained the whole process of making a macaron. At some points I just kept writing down and thinking..I don’t get it, but surely I will. I was to close to give up now, so I just asked as much questions as possible. Anti climax when Hidde told us “Ok..if you think you are going to taste the macarons your making today..<<sorry>>..at the earliest late at night”. Bummer, but what the heck..lets just give it everything to get to that moment of perfection. Eating my own macaron. We had lunch and after that headed down stairs to put the writing in to practice. OMG lots of questions to be answered: what color, what flavor, I just could not decide. The group decided we would make different colors so we could share and get a nice palette of colors. I chose to make pastel purple macarons filled with a ganache made of pure chocolate and kaffir lime leaves.

Then came the moment where we had to actually line up a baking tray and make the cookies. OMG stress..seriously Hidde made it look like it was easy..but it took me I think 20 macarons to get the whole technique. Making the ganache was easy peasy.

It was such a nice experience, the whole day. We were able to ask Hidde everything. He said, when making macarons, be aware that they might fail. But with the tips and trics, we would minimize that chance. Hidde uses the technique and recipe from Pierre Herme and also explained that it was going to be hard to tell us at which temperature you have to bake them. You need to know your oven in order to make them. Trial and error was the message basically.

I was realizing how much I was enjoying this moment and getting scared to try it at home..The more the day passed by, the more I was thinking no idea when I would be making these again so better enjoy it now! Oke the morning after my ganache was ready to be stuffed. Another nerve wrecking moment. If you pressed to hard, the whole macaron broke. But with a little patience all ended well. I now know why they are so expensive and will never ever complain about the costs. Amen to all successful macaron makers.

Look at how my babies turned out! Aren’t they great. The filling I chose was a perfect marriage. You could really taste the kaffir lime leaves enriched with pure deep dark chocolate. YUMM

You can buy a lot of products in the webshop from Hidde here and if you want to do a workshop, taraaaa here are all the details to get going.

If you want me to share the recipe with you, please comment below. 😉

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