Macarons: un biscuit très chic et un peu difficile

Pour célébrer le mois du mai, Couture Cupcakes a proposé un defi de macarons. For us English speakers, Couture Cupcakes set a macaron challenge for the month of May (see, 15 years of french is useful in everyday life). I have been to France several times over the years, and to be honest, I regrettably never tried a macaron. After tasting the only semi-successful results of this recipe, I have vowed to remedy by french-macaron-free life this christmas, when P and I plan to travel to Paris.
I was inspired by the article in Desserts Magazine by Helen of Tartelette, and decided to try my hand at it using her recipe. I hadn't planned ahead for these, so I used what was on hand and made simple almond macarons with a chocolate ganache filling.

The batter is easy to throw together, although the final folding step is nerve-wracking. I used a mechanical pastry bag to pipe them onto the parchment. this worked wonderfully for the first go-round, but I think the second loading of the bag got a bit overworked and deflated. I let the batter sit out for an hour on the cookie sheets, and could surmise that the first sheet would be more successful. the second looked thinner and as if they had spread.

I couldn't help but continuously peek through the oven window to see if they had risen and formed "feet." The first sheet did, the second didn't, but even the nice ones had some cracks. The photo captures the best of the batch (please bear with me, I am still learning the art of food photography)