I LOVE Macarons

I fell in love with macarons in Paris, and have been hunting for them in NY. These are not the coconut macaroons that most people are familiar with in the States. Parisian macarons are basically almond cookies with a butter cream filling. We couldn't get enough of Laduree's macarons. They weren't cheap, but were all worth it. Don't you just want to eat the packaging?

(images from Laduree)

There were surprisingly a good number of places that makes these delicious treats in NY. To narrow down to the ones worthy to try, I did my research by reading other foodies' reviews on macarons in the tri-state. So far, these were the places that we checked out: La Maison du Chocolat, Bouley Bakery, Madeline Patisserie, Financier Patisserie, Patisserie St. Michel (in NJ). We have yet to try Payard.

Many calories and pounds later, my fiance and I agreed that Bouley Bakery and Patisserie St. Michel were on top of our list (NJ - who would have thought?). Their macarons had textures that were reminesant of the ones we had in Paris - crunchy exterior, slightly moist & chewy interior, and with tiny random bits of ground almond.

(top - Patisserie St. Michel; bottom - Bouley Bakery)

(Raspberry macacrons, from left to right - Bouley Bakery, Madeline Patisserie, La Maison du Chocolat)

Here's a round up of the ones that didn't make the cut:

• La Maison du Chocolat - It looked like a giant mutated chocolate cookie that tasted like a flourless chocolate cake. Don't get me wrong, their chocolate flavored macaron was right on in terms of taste, but it was much too smooth, too large, and too flat compared to what we had from Laduree.
  
• Financier - They were ok in terms of taste and texture. If I recall correctly, they were on the dry side. But Financier does have the best brownies!


• Madeline Patisserie - They have macarons in all the colors of the rainbow. They seemed too artificial for my taste though.