In October 2009, the Daring Bakers made French macarons and I made some red beans & rice. I’m not sure what the Daring Bakers were up to today, but the kids and I were making French macarons using Martha Stewart’s Parisian macaron recipe.

I was a little nervous about retroactively taking on this Daring Bakers Challenge because I was under the impression that macarons are a very tricky species. Our finished product isn’t showroom-gorgeous, but I was pleasantly surprised to find they were pretty simple to make. They tasted great, too, despite what I overheard the kids saying after they pilfered a few fresh from the oven:

“Um, these taste kind of weird.”

“Yeah, they don’t taste like anything. They’re not very good.”

“But Mama said she was going to make a chocolate filling for them. Maybe then they’ll be better.”

I filled them with a chocolate ganache, and we are all in agreement that it did indeed make them better. Chocolate ganache’ll do that.