A few weeks back I had the opportunity to try Francois Payard’s “MakeCaron™” box, which contained the ever so elusive macaron shells.
The third-generation pastry chef, Payard, is a very well respected French pastry chef with pastry shops all over the world. Francois Payard has made macarons all of his life, just as his father and grandfather did. He introduced them to NYC in 1993 and now he wants America to take over the flavors.
Payard’s creation, MakeCaron, which launched in November last year, is basically the base cookie of macarons. After watching dozens of “make your own” macaron videos and reading articles online, Francois realized that macaron shells are very temperamental in the regular kitchen (I can vouch for that- with my own set of failures at attempting macarons and the occasional successes). Plus he felt there are plenty of steps and small details to take into consideration to achieve perfect consistency which might not be everyone’s ball game.
Chef Payard thinks that “if you make burgers, you don’t bake the buns”. So, why not have the same concept for macarons.
On receiving my box of Makecarons to try, I decided to fill the shells with the traditional ganache (since I love me a good ganache filled macaron) and a chai spiced buttercream. Both of them tasted great. I sent the filled MakeCaron box with V to his office and he told me everyone told him to let me how much they enjoyed them. I kind of felt like I cheated by not making the shells, but well it was nice not to worry about aged egg whites, humidity and shells with no feet for once! I was sold!
I thought I will share the chai spiced filling recipe today but somehow I seem to have misplaced the paper I had written it on. I have a decent idea of what I added but since I do not have the exact proportions I will share the recipe another day.
So now lets just talk about the Giveaway, shall we?!
The lovely people at Francois Payard are giving away 3 boxes of MakeCarons (one of each color- raspberry, chocolate and vanilla with each box valued at $22) to one lucky reader of the Novice Housewife. All you have to do is to use the Rafflecopter below to enter in the giveaway. The giveaway will end on 27th January and is open only for people residing in the US (even if you don’t live in the US but know someone who would appreciate this, feel free to enter!)
All the best!
Disclaimer: While I was given the box of MakeCarons for free, I was not paid for this review and the opinions in this blog post are solely mine.
For more goodies, please do check Francois Payard’s website.
This is a great idea. Macaroons are a difficult task to undertake as you have to pipe out the cookies in exact shapes so they match up. I love your chai spiced cream filling. Have a super weekend. BAM
I like them all, but I’ll choose Raspberry.
These look delicious. Love eating them but just too much work to make them – winning them would be the best !
Chocolate Ganache
Thanks for the sweet giveaway!
How COOL. I have never heard of these before, but it’s awesome! I love cooking and making fun flavors and ganaches… I would attempt pistachio, chocolate, hazelnut… coconut… Your chai spiced sounds fabulous, too. Oh the choices! *entered* 🙂
Brooklyn recently posted..Say Something Cover
Wish I could win some macaroons, but I am too scared to attempt them myself!
indugetscooking recently posted..Meen Mappas – Spicy Fish Stew from Kerala
I think I’d love a lemon curd filling!
Cathi recently posted..Tuesday Giveaway Linky
I want to try a sweet n spicy Chocolate-Chilli Ganache filling! Thanks for the giveaway!
Manju @ Manju’s Eating Delights recently posted..Kerala style Chicken Stew
My favorite is always chocolate…
I love chocolate and raspberry!
Coffee creme!
Chocolate, coffee or an almond filling!
Thanks for the giveaway!!
Hope I get to taste those gorgeous macarons
Oh and I would love to taste the chocolate ones.
There are several fillings I’d love, but Pistachip sounds especially good!
I mean Pistachio!
I’d choose chocolate!
Yummy! I’d try a luscious coconut caramel filling! Mmmmm…drooling just thinking about it.
Who won? Sooo curious to find out!!! Still crossing my fingers!! : )