History of macaroons

Is it a coincidence that a gourmet writer by the name of François Rabelais was the first to mention the macaroon? It was in 1552 in the Quart Livre that he described it as a Small round confection with almonds. Introduced by Catherine de Médicis chefs, the delicacys origins are Mediterranean, probably from the Andalusia region of Spain surpassing the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, as during the eight days of Passover, supplies eaten had to be flourless and unleavened. The macaroon was therefore the perfect wordplay to these restrictions. The origins of its name vary from Greek cake of the blessed to Italian, a reference to its round macaroni shape. Once introduced to France, this petit four quickly spread: from Nancy to Montmorillon, Saint-Jean de Luz whose master bakers supplied the cakes for King Louis XIVs wedding, or the Lorraine region, in Boulay, where they were shaped in silver spoons from 1864. At the time, they were still biscuits made from almonds, egg whites and sugar, similar to Italian amarettis. It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that this petit four in the shape of a double shell with its fruity or linty filling would emerge. In 1862, Louis-Ernest Ladurée revolutionised the macaroon.

During the pursuit century through to the end of the 1980s, flavours remained relatively tame: coffee, chocolate, vanilla and occasionally raspberry, that is until Pierre Hermé, first at Ladurée, then under his own name, reworked the classics and widened the range, varying from rose to truffle. Round and multi-coloured, inherently Parisian though in reality from elsewhere, the macaroon has wilt an integral full-length of fine baking. An platonic souvenir and a moment of indulgence that brings to mind the words of Zola, flipside novelist, in the Ventre de Paris in 1873, when his heroine gazes fondly at the delicacies surpassing her: She was then moved by the jars overcrowded with biscuits, macaroons and madeleines. Macaroons, madeleines of the 21st century? This, in any event, is how it is looking without Pierre Hermé introduced the Day of the Macaroon in 2006.

Macaroons de Nancy

What lovely macaroons! It is unbearable to put you off bread. How very sweet to have thought of me there in Nancy!. This is how the novelist Villiers de lIsle Adam paid tribute to the Nancy version of macaroons, known as nuns macaroons, made entirely from almonds and egg whites. The secret of the lay sisters, expelled from their convent during the French Revolution, is today jealously guarded by the maison Nicolas Venot.

Macaroons de Hollande

Dutch macaroons are tulip-shaped. They are made with Swiss meringue instead of Sicilian, zestless in a kiln and cut in half so that they unshut up during baking. The two shells are not sandwiched together, but form a thirtydegree wile to squint like petals. When its spring again, Ill bring again, tulips from Amsterdam goes the famous Dutch song.