Saturday, August 20, 2011

Trader Joe's Macarons - or What are friends for?


If you don't know Paris Breakfast you MUST run over there at once!  Paris Breakfast travels to Paris several times a year in order to keep us on the cusp of everything French, with a particular emphasis on French pastries and macarons.  She selflessly researches, photographs, paints, and shares her findings with us.
When I recently told her that I now have access to Trader Joes, she mentioned that she has never tired TJ's macarons because she has to use public transit to and from TJ's.  I recognized my duty at once:  I went straight to TJ's and bought this box of vanilla and chocolate macarons.


By the time I got home with it - 20 minutes at 94 degrees- they had defrosted, and I carefull removed one of each flavor from the box.    Please note that the macs are NOT a uniform size.  Hmmmm. Uh-oh!  The vanilla shell top crumbled as soon as it touched it!  

I put them both to the taste test.  They were OK, a bit too sweet but I think that is because they're vanilla and chocolate.   I've never had a vanilla mac or a plain chocolate macaron.  Half the fun of macs is the gorgeous colors and exotic flavor combinations.  I think the flavors (like pistachio, passionfruit, chocolate with blackberry filling, etc.) cut the sweetness and add a bit of tang.
But back to that collapsing vanilla shell:  would a second mac crumble, too?  I tried it, and it DID!  Now I was on a mission, and I had to remove all of them from the package.  Egad!  Every last one of the vanillas crumbled.  You can't serve crumbled macs to guests.  I had to choke them all down.  Then I noticed the irregular sizes of the chocolate macs.  Those, too, would have to go.  Can't serve guests irregular macs.  But, hey Paris Breakfasts, what are friends for?

5 comments:

  1. So glad you took care of those cookie irregularities! I think I'll have to see if our new Trader Joe's has more perfect macaroons. Thanks for the tip.....ridding the world of irregular cookies might be a life mission....

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  2. ' irregular sizes '
    Tut-tut!
    Most disappointing indeedy-do.
    Course they have traveled a long way from France so...
    I wonder if they had not frozen them on this side of the drink...
    I have lovely looking 5-month old macs in the fridge unfrozen though...

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  3. Now your mission is to find the perfect one and report back to us...a trip to Paris might be in the cards.

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  4. Hahaaa! I, too, have had Trader Joe macs--they are definitely not the best in the world, and they're so tiny, too--a complaint of mine! But they'll do in a bind. If you gotta' have a mac, they'll do, trust me! (I also wish they had more flavors--pretty limited--so far, I've seen the vanilla and chocolate at our store, too, but that's it.

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  5. ahhh macarons, Carol "turned me on" to these little beauties and I swear I ate my weight's worth in Paris - it will be hard to find a commparable one this side of the pond I am afraid.
    Sandy
    Myfiddlestix

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