Macarons from the Macaron Cafe

 This past weekend I not surprisingly caught my youngest son's cold. I completely jinxed myself by telling my husband how awesome it was that none of us have gotten sick since before Halloween, then BAM! it was like a chain reaction, Lennox started first with the sniffles, then me and now Jowell, the only one who thankfully hasn't caught this nasty cold is Louis {knock on wood}. We however were pleasantly surprised with a knock on our door from the FedEx guy while this cold wreaked havoc on us. Jowell was so excited, he kept asking me if Santa had sent him a gift, I explained to him that Santa was on vacation so he'd have to wait till December to get gifts from Santa again. When I opened the package there was the cutest little box with a mint colored ribbon and a note from my friend Naomi (Catherine) who works for the Macaron Cafe in New York. The little gift helped us get our minds off of feeling so...under the weather.

Macaron Cafe: 625 Madison Ave. Entrance on 34th street NYC

I loved all of the drawings on the box, I thought to myself {if the box is this pretty I cant wait to see the macarons on the inside} and boy were they pretty. I felt like I should be wearing a pretty dress, wearing white gloves and sipping on tea but I settled for sweat pants, a decent looking tee shirt and a mug of hot chocolate.
One thing that I do want to point out is that the French macaron should not be confused with the American macaroon, I admit that I had been spelling macaron wrong {I kept adding the extra O. I know, I should be ashamed of myself for spelling it wrong,} for the past few days until my sister pointed out my error. A macaron (pronounced mack-ah-rohn)  like the one in the pictures are made with almond meal, egg whites, sugar and come in a variety of colors/flavors, they are also pretty difficult to perfect. A macaroon (pronounced mack-ah-roon) are made with shredded coconut, egg whites and sugar. Now that we have that cleared up we can move forward.

Louis and Jowell were a little too eager to try the macarons with me, Jowell couldn't sit still and I saw Louis eying the coconut macaron. I was lucky that Lennox was napping or he might have devoured all of them, I can't lie I was pretty excited to try them as well.

Pistachio macaron, decorated with shamrocks for St Patrick's day

The pistachio macaron was adorned with a shamrock design for St Patrick's day, Jowell was so delighted with it, he said it was made for a leprechaun. The outside was so nice and crunchy but the inside was nice and chewy just like a macaron should be. The filling had a nice subtle pistachio taste with bits of actual pistachio in it, and the slight almond flavor of the macaron cookie complimented the pistachio filling well. We all agreed it was one of our top favorites.

Vanilla Macaron

The vanilla macaron was hand down amazing, it was like you took a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, melted it a bit and sandwiched it between two crunchy but soft almond cookies. I was in love with this flavor, the little specks of vanilla bean in the filling made it feel more like a cone of vanilla ice cream.

Dark Chocolate Macaron

"Yum it taste like chocolate milk" was the first thing Jowell said after taking a bite of the dark chocolate macaron. He was all smiles after this one, and it was so delicious. With it having a dark chocolate filling you would think it might have the slight bitterness that dark chocolate usually has but it was actually quite delicate on the tongue. It was nice and smooth, and just like Jowell said, it reminds me of a glass of chocolate milk.

Coconut Macaron

The coconut macaron was so soft it literally just melts in your mouth. This one was Louis's absolute favorite because it reminded him of Puerto Rico. The coconut flakes surrounding the coconut filling gave it a nice texture. It was sweet but not overly sweet, I cant say enough good things about this one.

Nutella Macaron

We all enjoyed this nutella macaron a lot, nutella anything is a win to me but the little caramel bits sent it over the edge. I wish I had ten more of this flavor, its like a creamy ferrero rocher. Louis said it's actually better than regular nutella because the chocolate flavor isn't overly strong so you can taste the hazelnut and caramel in the filling better.

Matcha Green Tea

I have never actually tried matcha green tea so I wasn't sure what to expect from the matcha green tea macaron. I always drink regular green tea but matcha green tea is a very concentrated form of green tea which means its backed full of vitamins and minerals. I was the first one to take a bite since Louis got nervous when he heard the word "tea" {he's weird about tea and refuses to drink any type}. To my surprise it was not very sweet which is a nice break from the normal type of macaron. You could definitely taste the green tea, and Louis said "it tastes minty with out the mint". Jowell really enjoyed it and kept asking to take more bites.

Jowell was sad when they were all done

If you want to purchase some of these delicious macarons you can visit one of their four locations in New York or if you aren't in the area you can order online and they will be shipped right to your door. They also offer non pastry items at their restaurant if you are in the mood for something savory you can check out their menu here. I don't often travel down to New York but I think I might venture down to the city just to get my macaron fix and I'm excited to try more of their different flavors.

We really enjoyed the macarons and want to thank Catherine Ford for sending us a box, and we also want to thank the Macron Cafe for making such delicious macarons!