Melange of Macronage: Vegas Edition

When you think of Vegas, gambling, clubbing, or getting married when you’re drunk comes to mind right? For me, I immediately put my new HTC Thunderbolt to use and looked up places to get what else but my favorite macarons haha Ironically, there were no FRENCH macarons at Paris but instead I found them at the Venetian, Caesar’s Palace, and the Bellagio.

First stop, Bouchon Bakery at the Venetian. This bakery has 3 locations, Vegas, NYC, and Napa Valley... it makes me very happy that I’m moving to NYC because this place has amazing macarons, up to Paulette standards which for me is the top tier until I try Laduree macarons in Paris. The macaron shells were the perfect combo of crispy and chewy and the filling was flavorful but not overpowering. It also had that melt in your mouth sensation... yumm :) Good start to macaron hunting for the day.

Flavors: Pistachio, Coffee, Chocolate, Vanilla

Next stop, Payard Patisserie at Caesar’s Palace. These macarons were pre-packaged so I was a bit worried... and I wasn’t thrilled about the choice of flavors. I saw raspberry, lemon, violet... basically a buncha fruity flavors that I’m just not fond of. The macaron shells were too soft and there was no sense of chewiness which I think a macaron should have. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed but the coconut one was surprisingly good. The rest were a bit too sweet.

Flavors: Raspberry, Violet, Lemon, Coconut, Vanilla, Coffee

Last stop, Jean Philippe Patisserie at the Bellagio. I’m hoping for redemption here after being disappointed by the previous place. These macarons also came pre-packaged so I didn’t have very high expectations. These had an explosion of filling which overpowered the cookie and just left you with a lotta filling in your mouth and no balance between cookie and filling. So if I could combine these macaron shells with the filling from the previous place, I’d get a better macaron.

Flavors: Chocolate, Pistachio, Raspberry, Coffee 

Lesson of the day: don’t buy pre-packaged macarons... and Bouchon totally saved the day haha 

Melange of Macronage: Part 2 (Macaron Boogaloo)

Schoggi Imported Swiss Chocolates (San Francisco) - http://www.schoggi.us/

I really want to find somewhere with decent macarons near Union Square.  La Boulange was such a disappointment that I've refused to try it again.  Yelp helpfully informed me that, besides Swiss chocolates, Schoggi apparently also supplies macarons.  After ordering a selection of sweet macarons, we were given four savory varieties to experimentally taste.  The sweet macarons were unremarkable; better than La Boulange but worse than all the others. 

The savory macarons were disgusting, with the exception of the small green one on the upper right (olive oil). The one on the bottom right was balsamic vinegar...it tasted like a gritty shot of vinegar.  Not exactly faulty marketing but I'd hoped for a more complex flavor profile.  The one with black seeds was supposed to be truffle flavored.  It tasted like straight garlic.  Straight, cold, garlic.  The last macaron option (top right) was goat cheese.  I had high hopes for this one.  It was soggy.  When I wrote that note on the card for macaron feedback, the employee tried to teach me a macaron lesson about how savory macarons use less sugar so they are always soggy (false).

I was disappointed by the only-adequate sweet macarons and even more disappointed by the savory variety.  Worse yet was the fact that the Schoggi employee apparently knew very little about how to make a macaron and then attempted to knowledge-bully me into feeling bad about my opinion.  Knowledge-bullying a customer is bad enough--it's even worse when you are incorrect.

Flavors I recommend: None.  But if you have to have one, the lemon was ok.

Pop Polls- Baking Inventions

Silpat... heard of it? It’s only the most popular invention the baking world has come up with. Its a non-stick baking mat made of silicone and fiberglass and can be washed so it can be reused over and over again. This means... no more buying parchment paper which gets expensive if you’re like me and bake almost every week... and, less trash! Clearly an added bonus since we’re running out of landfills and gotta do our part for the environment... god I sound like I’m doing a PSA. But really, if you like to bake, I would recommend investing in a couple because they’re really awesome. We’ve all had those “oh no, I can’t get my cookies off the parchment paper without destroying them” days or “I greased this pan so many times and its STILL sticking?!”and it was super frustrating right? Well, with silpat, you never have to worry about that because they’re non-stick and you never have to grease your pans ever again. Its also really great when you’re working with extra sticky batter or making toffee... less mess and no need to do a lot of scrubbing. If you have a friend that loves to bake, these also make great gifts!

Silpat come in many different sizes...


small


medium


large

For the most part, I would get the medium sized one because most people have baking pans that size. You want your silpat to be smaller than your pan, not bigger... floppy silpats can cause problems like deformed cookies and things sliding around. Before, it was okay for your parchment paper to be too big because you could always fold in the sides or cut it but you can’t fold or cut silpat so going a size smaller is advised. Personally, I have the large sized ones only because my mom has these ridiculously large baking pans but if you’re not sure, I’d say medium is the safest bet.

Where can you buy silpat?
Costco- comes in a pack with different sizes
Amazon
Williams Sonoma
Sur La Table
Bed Bath and Beyond

I would say if you can’t get to Costco which will probably offer you the best deal, Amazon and Bed Bath and Beyond will have the best prices.

Melange of Macronage

A- I’m obsessed with finding the best macarons because well, they’re my favorite cookies, maybe even dessert of all time. Anywhere I go, I’m constantly on the lookout for a new macaron place to try and I find myself comparing it to my all time favorite place here in SF. The dream is to one day get macarons from Paris and eat them, sitting on the lawn at the Eiffel Tower on a nice day... anyways back to the present, here are reviews of a couple places here in the Bay Area...

Paulette Macarons (San Francisco, Beverly Hills)- http://www.paulettemacarons.com/macarons.html



A- This is it, my favorite place. I found Paulette’s about a year ago while walking around the neighborhood where my mom worked and I was instantly hooked. These macarons are perfect... I wish I could make them like these, not gonna happen. Why are they so perfect? They taste the best and they’re the cheapest at $1.60 per macaron... the cookies have the classic glossy, smooth shell with the perfect combination of crunchiness and chewiness, not too hard but also, not too fragile where they’re easy to break. The ganache melts in your mouth and is extremely flavorful and not too sweet. The cookie and ganache compliment each other so well and did I mention that the macarons are all identical?... unlike some places where some are bigger than the other or some are deformed looking. each flavor is true to name... none of this pistachio tasting like almond business which has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves.


Flavors I recommend: earl grey tea, pistachio, vanilla, rose, almond


C- I can’t write much about this place because I’ve only tried two of their macarons.  Even with just two, Paulette’s is the bar by which I measure other macarons.  The almond was flavorful without being cloying.


Patisserie Phillipe (San Francisco)- http://www.patisseriephilippe.com/index.html





C-Patisserie Phillipe is adequate if you have an hour to wait before Caltrain arrives, or if you are having a macaron crisis upon arriving in the city.  They aren’t bad but SF has much more to offer.


A- This place had such great reviews on yelp so I had high expectations. I was somewhat disappointed... why? The macarons weren’t very uniform and the shells were very tough, making it hard to bite into and some of the fillings weren’t true to flavor. But overall, not bad and they taste better the next day.


Flavors I recommend: espresso, hazelnut, rose


Pamplemousse Cafe (Redwood City)- http://www.pamplemoussecakes.com/macarons/index.html



C- You know it’s good because we used the pic for the background.  Pamplemousse has some really nice flavors, deliciously offset by the creamy mousse in the center.  When I first went in here, I tried an orange blossom, expecting it to be horrid (I don’t know why I try things when I expect them to be horrid...I just do).  Luckily for me, the orange blossom macaron turned out to be fantastic and it’s one of my regular orders now.

This is about your only option if you’re down in the peninsula instead of in SF-proper.  It’s a good thing the macarons are so great.


A- I found this place since it was close to school and the website listed all these interesting flavors so I was excited/intrigued. The cookies are a bit crunchier than they are at Paulettes but if you let them sit out in room temp for awhile, they soften a bit. These are quite chewy and the  mousse is more creamy and not really like a ganache. I like these, but not as much as I liked Paulettes. I’m still waiting to try the chocolate earl grey one... both times I’ve gone, nada.


Flavors I recommend: pistachio, amaretto, hazelnut, coconut, rose



La Boulange (Market St.)- http://laboulangebakery.com/



C- The croissants here were yummy but this review isn’t about croissants.  The macarons were horrible.  I can make better macarons than these and my macarons are only just edible.  I literally threw out the vanilla one.  I never throw out dessert.  


A- All I have to say is HORRIBLE. The vanilla didn’t even taste like vanilla... made me wonder what I was eating...