Macaroons edge cupcakes out of the plate
Dainty, crispy, delicate, elegant - these are just some of the adjectives used to describe macarons. And these fragile bits of wispy confectionary are edging out another faddy dessert that was responsible for floating a thousand home-bakers' careers - the cupcake.
Yes, the with-it turn up their noses at cupcakes these days while taking tiny bites out of this biscuit-like product that belongs to the meringue family. A macaron (also spelt as 'macaroon' ) is a crisp meringue shell made essentially with three things: almond flour, egg white and icing sugar. Usually, two macaron shells are sandwiched together with a filling, which can range from the humble buttercream to exotic concoctions such as wasabi-and-white chocolate.
"The meringue does lend itself to a lot of experimentation with the fillings. We are even creating some savoury macarons that will be more salty than sweet," says chef Tanmoy Savardekar of The Winking Macaron on Mosque Road. Savardekar used to be pastry chef at Olive Beach and Monkey Bar before he quit to start his own patisserie, and his macarons have created quite a buzz. Savardekar does macarons with several exciting fillings such as dark chocolate and star anise, peanut butter, vanilla caviar and salted caramel. The Winking Macaron also serves up other desserts but the macarons are the go-to option for most customers. The patisserie sells around 150 macarons every day.
Chef Girish Nayak, the current pastry chef at Olive Beach, is quite sure that macarons are poised to become the latest sweet craze. "At Olive, we have been doing macarons for four to five years and the demand is definitely growing. It is a versatile confection that can be consumed by itself, with a variety of fillings, with plated desserts as a substitute for biscuits, or with ice-cream," says Nayak. He has experimented with savoury macarons as well, filling them with foie gras and creating an especially la-di-dah one with a vanilla and champagne filling.
Venkatesh Raghu and Prasanth Shadakshari are so convinced of the macaron's imminent superstardom in the world of desserts that they have set up a factory to churn them out in large numbers in Basavangudi. Their venture, Amande Patisserie, is a year old and the two are set to open their first retail outlet at Hypercity in Brookefield, though they have been supplying macarons and other desserts to restaurants and bakeries. Why macarons? "My co-owner Prasanth is a Le Cordon Blue-trained chef and we were flatmates in Sydney. When we decided start our own venture in Bangalore, the macaron craze was just taking off in the West and we thought we would make it our primary product as well," says Venkatesh, who fell in love with macarons during his honeymoon in Paris. Amande also plans to introduce Bangalore to other delicate French confections such as profiteroles and millefeuilles, which are mainly available at fivestar cake shops today.
Yes, the with-it turn up their noses at cupcakes these days while taking tiny bites out of this biscuit-like product that belongs to the meringue family. A macaron (also spelt as 'macaroon' ) is a crisp meringue shell made essentially with three things: almond flour, egg white and icing sugar. Usually, two macaron shells are sandwiched together with a filling, which can range from the humble buttercream to exotic concoctions such as wasabi-and-white chocolate.
"The meringue does lend itself to a lot of experimentation with the fillings. We are even creating some savoury macarons that will be more salty than sweet," says chef Tanmoy Savardekar of The Winking Macaron on Mosque Road. Savardekar used to be pastry chef at Olive Beach and Monkey Bar before he quit to start his own patisserie, and his macarons have created quite a buzz. Savardekar does macarons with several exciting fillings such as dark chocolate and star anise, peanut butter, vanilla caviar and salted caramel. The Winking Macaron also serves up other desserts but the macarons are the go-to option for most customers. The patisserie sells around 150 macarons every day.
Chef Girish Nayak, the current pastry chef at Olive Beach, is quite sure that macarons are poised to become the latest sweet craze. "At Olive, we have been doing macarons for four to five years and the demand is definitely growing. It is a versatile confection that can be consumed by itself, with a variety of fillings, with plated desserts as a substitute for biscuits, or with ice-cream," says Nayak. He has experimented with savoury macarons as well, filling them with foie gras and creating an especially la-di-dah one with a vanilla and champagne filling.
Venkatesh Raghu and Prasanth Shadakshari are so convinced of the macaron's imminent superstardom in the world of desserts that they have set up a factory to churn them out in large numbers in Basavangudi. Their venture, Amande Patisserie, is a year old and the two are set to open their first retail outlet at Hypercity in Brookefield, though they have been supplying macarons and other desserts to restaurants and bakeries. Why macarons? "My co-owner Prasanth is a Le Cordon Blue-trained chef and we were flatmates in Sydney. When we decided start our own venture in Bangalore, the macaron craze was just taking off in the West and we thought we would make it our primary product as well," says Venkatesh, who fell in love with macarons during his honeymoon in Paris. Amande also plans to introduce Bangalore to other delicate French confections such as profiteroles and millefeuilles, which are mainly available at fivestar cake shops today.
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