Macaroon madness

Macaroon's have always seemed well beyond my baking capabilities. When ever you see them being cooked on TV by a celebrity chef or one of the Masterchef programmes, the chef in charge always points out how tricky they are to make and that it takes years to perfect the art. What's more, if you ever buy any in cake shops or fancy patisseries, you'll discover how expensive they are.

Anyway, I recently gave them a go and soon realised why they command a high price in shops. These are not for the faint hearted. The key to this recipe is making the Italian meringue part of the recipe which requires you to pour boiling sugar syrup into your whisked egg whites. I'll admit it took me a couple of attempts!

Then once you have mastered this part of the recipe you need to make sure you whip the meringue sufficiently so you can spoon into a piping bag. Again...not straighforward. It's fair to say I struggled with the piping bit, especially as my mixture wasn't firm enough so my kitchen looked like a bomb site after I had finished. I had more mixture pouring out of the top end of the bag than the nozzle end!

But it was worth it in the end. Plus as I will repeat during this blog many times I'm sure, the proof is in the tasting and not necessarily the presentation and they were delicious.