photo by Stephanie Shieh

For my surprise engagement congratulatory party at my office, my co-workers bought a box of macarons from Bouchon Bakery.  Our office is right at Columbus Circle, so it’s surprising I actually hadn’t tried these before!

Macarons are naturally (read no flour in original recipe) gluten-free desserts.  They are made with almond flour, sugar, and egg whites.  Though traditional French, their origins are rumored to be in Italy and they traveled to France with Catherine de Medici’s Italian pastry chef in the 16th century.  Don’t confuse them with macaroons, which are more of a cakey-cookie and have many varieties. 

Our macarons were flavored chocolate, vanilla, pistachio, caramel, lemon, and strawberry.  The thing about Bouchon Macarons is that they’re huge.  We had 6 macarons for 4 people and it was almost too many for one sitting (almost).  They are also uh-mazing.  Some find them a tad too sweet, but my sweet tooth found them just right.  The outside is soft with a little crunch and the inside bursts with fabulous fillings.  Favorites included vanilla, caramel, and lemon. 

While I would gladly eat these every day, these traditional French cookies don’t come cheap, even when ordered online, so they are best saved for special occasions.