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Amateur Macaron Extraordinaire

January 10, 2014 by Beth Meyer

The trip to Paris originated because I noticed that one of my favorite bands would be closing out their European tour in Paris on November 20. And because, it’s Paris and since arriving in London, I’ve wanted to take the train down for a visit.

The Local Natives show was (as always!) amazing and surprisingly I enjoyed going to the concert by myself. Something I never thought I would. It helped that I didn’t know a sole, and most everyone spoke French, so I had so shame singing along out loud to all the songs (super loudly).

Local Natives - Le Bataclan, Paris

Local Natives – Le Bataclan, Paris

Since it was my first trip back to Paris in 10 years, I knew that aside from re-exploring the main sites, I wanted to take a cooking class of some kind. That’s when I found La Cuisine Paris and learned that they had a three-hour technical macaron class scheduled for the day I arrived. Done!

Chef G (Chef Guillemette Bouche) started the course out by having us make the filling for the macarons. The fillings are what give the macaron most of the flavor. We paired up into teams to create a vanilla creme, dark chocolate ganache, coffee creme au beurre and pineapple garnish (which you can use any seasonal fresh fruit). I was on team vanilla creme.

Ingredients

Ingredients

Vanilla Filling

Vanilla Filling

Chocolate Ganache Ingredients

Chocolate Ganache Ingredients

Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Ganache

Following the fillings, we went to work on the macaron shells. We learned both the Italian meringue and French meringue methods. The Italian meringue method is safer because you temper the eggs with the boiled sugar and the French meringue has raw eggs. For the Italian, my partner (the former prep chef for Paula Deen for many years) and I made a pink cookie and for the French meringue, we opted for a green color.

Macaron Shell Supplies

Macaron Shell Supplies

Mixing Batter

Mixing Batter

Batter, ready for piping bag

Batter, ready for piping bag

Once we had the macaron batter fully mixed, Chef G taught us the proper way to fill our piping bags. It seems so simple, but my mind was basically blown when I learned the techniques of stuffing the pastry bag into the tip to keep it from squirting out immediately, the concept of folding the pastry bag over my hand to make filling the bag easier (and much less messy) and finally, the existence of disposable pastry bags!

My trays of macarons looked kind of like they were piped by a drunken sailor, but for the most part, they turned out quite lovely! I created a couple of snowmen macarons due to my inaccurate spacing, but I thought it actually seemed festive given it was the Christmas season.

Piped Macarons

Piped Macarons

Green Macarons ready to bake

Green macarons ready to bake

Once the macarons were cooked, the group began filling the shells with our variety of fillings and made boxes for us all to take home (breakfast!). The course was incredible and I highly recommend to anyone to take their macaron class the next time you visit Paris.

Everyone at La Cuisine Paris couldn’t have been more friendly, helping with every pre-Paris question I had, giving me tons of recs for my stay and even helping with post course questions on making macarons at home. They are truly lovely, lovely people and I can’t wait to go back and take another course with them in Paris!

Me & Chef G

Filed Under: Countries, France, Paris Tagged With: Baking, cooking, Cooking School, La Cuisine Paris, macarons, Macaroons, Paris

Comments

  1. Kyle Young says

    January 14, 2014 at 4:15 am

    My choux pastry class at La Cuisine with the charming Chef G was one of the highlights of my trip last March. Your post brought all the fun – and deliciousness – back !!!! Thx for sharing.

    • bethmeyer says

      January 14, 2014 at 2:59 pm

      Thanks so much! Chef G is so great! 🙂

  2. Sharman Howes says

    January 14, 2014 at 4:34 am

    A trip to Paris is not complete without a trip to LaCuisine!
    Classes are fabulous and instructors just great.

  3. KK Brown says

    January 14, 2014 at 1:45 pm

    I took the same class with Diane 2 weeks ago and absolutely loved it 🙂 This brought back memories LOL !!!

    • bethmeyer says

      January 14, 2014 at 2:58 pm

      They are so great! Such a fun class 🙂

  4. jacquie says

    January 14, 2014 at 7:01 pm

    I took this class with Dianne back in October – in total I took five classes from La Cuisine on my most recent trip. Already planning my return trip and WILL be signing up for more classes. An amazing experience

Beth Meyer

Hi y’all, I’m Beth. Born and raised in Atlanta. Moved to Los Angeles to work in event marketing. Spent 2012-13 traveling around the world for a year with my best friend. Followed by living in London for nearly three years where I attended pastry school. In April 2016, I moved back to the City of Angels, where I am a pastry chef and food stylist... read more...

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