Petit fours for dear friends

Raspberry macaron

The little sis and I watched Julie & Julia at the theaters during her visit. Halfway through Meryl Streep's overacting and Amy Adam's lack of, she asked me, "Why do they eat like that? It's so cho lo (which means uncouth in Cantonese)." What a charming observation, I thought. You're right.

While the movie didn't do it for us, the one scene that stays on my mind is when Julie said, "I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That's such a comfort."

I couldn't agree with her more and find myself thinking about that moment all the time.

There are days when my body's aching from sitting at a computer for hours at an end. When nothing goes right from day light to sun down. When the simple ringing of a phone causes startles and I want nothing more than to break free from my PC, TV and mobile screens, I just know that I can walk into a grocery store, pick up some lemons and make something special.

So last Saturday, even though I had to wake up at the crack of dawn having slept 4 hours, I decided to spend the rest of my afternoon baking. Bobo was in town and Serene had requested for macarons. How could I resist?

All packed and ready to go. From left: passion fruit and vanilla bean mini cupcakes with a sprinkling of white chocolate chips, Valrhona chocolate chunkers and raspberry macarons. Hidden beneath is a layer of Amaretto macarons

Amaretto macarons


Little macaron. Little feet


How the back of a macaron shell should look like

I'm trying to decide whether I should try a new flavor this weekend or stick with the classics. What do you think?

When you get the chance, vote for your favorite classic macaron flavor here on FB.