Sunday, August 17, 2014

The Macarons of Seattle: An Excuse to Eat Cookies


Keeping with the theme of millions of posts about desserts for no reason--and also in honor of my upcoming visit to Paris--I’ve decided to tackle a macaron tasting tour of Seattle. “But what happened with the ice cream mission? Is there a winner of the Best Ice Cream in Seattle crown?” ask the 0 people who read my ice cream posts. Um, they were all good, so they all won. I’m a very sophisticated taster.

Will there be a winner of Best Macaron in Seattle? I’m not sure yet. I know I haven’t had my ideal macaron yet, so I suppose if I find it, that will be the winner. But I haven’t had one I hate, either. I’m very easy to please, especially when a rainbow of colors is involved.

As every dessert enthusiast knows, a macaron is a wonderful little French cookie comprised of two light, crispy, and perhaps chewy almond cookies with a creamy filling. They come in a variety of flavors with bright colors to match and are pretty much perfect in every way.


Bakery Nouveau


The first place I went to sample some of these gems was the Capitol Hill location of Bakery Nouveau. At $1.50 each, they are some of the cheapest macarons in the city, so I got three: coconut, strawberry caramel, and lavender. I took a picture of my haul lined up on my leg because I’d been carrying them around for ages and just wanted to eat them already but didn’t have a flat surface.
Not the best ever but they'll do. Same goes for the macarons.

I don’t normally get fruity macarons, but I was intrigued by the strawberry one. Meh. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the others. Strawberries are already so sweet, so adding them to something as sweet as a macaron just makes it taste artificial. I should have known.


I liked lavender and coconut, though. I was afraid the lavender might be too floral, but it was perfect. I really enjoyed the flavors of these two, especially the coconut, as it wasn’t quite as sweet. The texture of the cookies was pretty dense and chewy, which is good, because you probably couldn’t eat sixty of them in one sitting, but I think I prefer lighter ones with a crisp, airy shell.


I'm a sucker for novelty flavors, so I'm crazy about this place.

My next destination was Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. in Belltown, which, in addition to cupcakes, has an overwhelming variety of macarons. They actually had a MACARON CUPCAKE. WHAT. It was a cupcake with macaron shells on top of the frosting. No, I didn’t get it...yes, I was tempted.


Everything in this shop was adorable and made me want to eat it. I settled on two macarons: samoa and french toast. The samoa was coconut with chocolate and caramel drizzles and it was pretty good, but I really liked the french toast one: the shell tasted like a snickerdoodle and the filling was maple flavored. The texture was so light and nice and, despite the sugary-sounding flavors, they weren’t overpoweringly sweet.




Damn fine coffee macaron.
Next up was Le Panier, an unfailingly busy French bakery in Pike Place Market. Their macaron flavors are of the more traditional variety. I decided on salted caramel and coffee.The caramel one was pretty good--kind of chewy but with a nice, robust flavor that I appreciate in caramel. The coffee, however, was pretty much perfect, with an airy shell, creamy center, and balanced, not-too-sweet flavor.





Crumble & Flake is a tiny bakery on Capitol Hill that makes a pistachio croissant that will make you cry tears of joy when you eat it, or tears of sadness if they’re sold out. They also always have a few varieties of macaron with unique flavors. I tried an earl grey apricot and a chili lime chocolate, and they were quite unlike traditional macarons. They’re bigger and bolder, with dense shells and strongly-flavored fillings. I in no way think this is a bad thing; it’s a different take on a macaron to be sure, but it tastes good and that is obviously the only thing I care about.

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