This weekend I put my baking skills to the test and took a macaron making class in Paris, the capital of macaron-town with BonAppetour and Parisian Chef Benedicte. BonAppetour lets travelers meet the real chefs of the city they’re visiting and really get a hands on taste of the local dishes. If you know me, you know that the highlight of my baking career was forgetting half the ingredients and not draining the blueberries for blueberry muffins, giving me flat gray muffins. I knew that this class would challenge me, and my only goal was to make it out of the class alive (and drink champagne).

We started by nibbling on some merengues and fancy puffy biscuit things that were sent from heaven. Chef Benedicte informed us a bit about what we would do as I sipped on fresh squeezed orange juice, and we were off! We measured and weighed our ingredients, sifted, mixed, whipped, stirred, and all had plenty to do.

We made the macaron base, surprisingly the same for every cookie, and added food coloring for the lemon, raspberry, and caramel goodies.

Halfway through the class I was confident that out macarons would turn out great, and that I could have a career in baking. Just kidding about that last part, I’m still way too impatient to be a baker – but I truly appreciate pastry making now.

This class somehow turned out successful, despite most of us never having made macarons before – which, although, not too hard, is a process that deserves an afternoon to enjoy and correctly yield a perfect maca’ (can I call them that?).

After we finished baking, we got to sip champagne and wait for our macarons to chill a bit, after which we devoured them.

If you’re in Paris and want to have a lovely afternoon with an amazing host, use my code QUIRKINGBA16 to get 20% a lovely afternoon with Chef Benedicte (and some pretty lovely champagne as well)! Thanks to BonAppetour for an amazing afternoon in Paris!

Check out the talented ladies I got to hang with:

Abby, all PC to her!
Melissa
Anne
Jocelyn