Macarons ♥

Lately, I noticed this craze about Macarons. This confectionery has been mushrooming in many outlets in Penang. As a cakes, cookies, chocolates and pastries lover, I MUST DEFINITELY find out what is it that is so special about this Macarons.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, there is no such thing as a macaron. However, the dictionary suggest macaroon which meant 'a light biscuit made with egg white, sugar, and ground almonds or coconut'. The word originated from the late 16th century: from French macaron, from Italian maccarone.

The Wikipedia suggests that a macaron is 'a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. It is meringue-based: made from a mixture of egg whites, almond flour. The confectionary is characterized by its smooth, domed top, ruffled circumference and flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavous that range from the traditional (raspberry,chocolate) to the new (truffle, green matcha tea).'

Here's the interesting part:
'Since the English word macaroon can also refer to the coconut macaroon, many have adopted the French spelling of macaron to distinguish the two items in the English language. However, this has caused confusion over the correct spelling of the cookie/biscuit. Some recipes exclude the use of macaroon to refer to this French confection while others think that they are synonymous.'

Right, that's enough education on Macarons.
Here is my first encounter with Macarons. ♥

Macarons with a lovely, neat packaging... Ideal as gifts too in my opinion.

♥ ♥ ♥

Darling and I shared the green one (mint flavour with chocolate filling) as there is only one =)

This lovely box of Macarons was bought from Ritz Cakes & Pastries for RM15.
There are 8 pieces in the box with my favourite being the one and only mint with chocolate. The others are quite nice as well but I couldn't really make out what the flavours were.

I guess the blue one could be blackcurrant with jam filling as it tasted grape-y. The pink one could be strawberry with caramel filling. However, it was just sweet with not much strawberry flavour. The beige/yellow one could perhaps be mango or probably passion fruit. It was really nice with a tinge of sour.

You could also get one for yourselves...
Ritz Cakes & Pastries
98-G-23, Jalan Fettes, Prima Tanjung, 11200 Penang.
Tel: 04-8991254

124, Jalan Burmah, 10050 Penang.
Tel: 04-2298254

or visit their website
http://ritzcakeshop.com