Macarons: Part I

Good evening everybody. My first real cooking related post on this blog is a fact! As I said before I wanted to learn making macarons and that's what I did. Fully armed with a recipe by the famous chef Sergio Herman, I got started.
First I must say that I didn't have an idea about what the exact ingredients of a macaron are and in my search for recipes I encountered a load of different approaches to making macarons. So why not getting inspired by one of our best chefs?
To be honest, my first attempt was not good. My kitchen looked like a battlefield during the preparations . Working neatly is a must when you're cooking!
First I separated the egg whites from the yolks and putted them in a bowl. Then I beated the eggs with the powdered sugar until they had the texture and consistency of bath foam. Then I added the almond powder, the flour, the grated coconut and a whiff of vanilla extract and stirred until I got a compact mass. Thereafter this batter was cast in a piping bag. And there it went wrong. Piping bags don't seem to like me because I always mess up when using them. :)
The problem was that the batter was too runny and therefore I never could have made circular macarons. As good as it got I made circular macarons on an oven plate (with baking paper on it of course) and baked them for about 20 minutes in a 165° preheated oven.
This was the result:

I filled them with a chocolate & raspberry ganache. This is the final result:

Taste: like a rather compact and dense cookie, it tasted like a sort of shortbread
Consistency: granular, with a rough, pocked surface
Overall comment: After some research on the internet, I figured out that what I made was not the typical French macaron ('macaron de Paris'), but -what the English call- a 'macaroon'. The difference lies in the ingredients: macaroons are much heavier sorts of biscuits with flour and grated coconut. French macarons are extremely airy and smooth meringue-like pasties.

What have we learned today?

1) There are macarons and there are macar(o)ons
2) Organisation and preparation is very important
3) Making macarons can be disheartening (but don't give up!)

With some new knowledge gained my next attempt couldn't go wrong. During my search I ended up with another heavyweight of Belgian cuisine: Roger Van Damme. The man who made 'The Best Dessert in the World' a few years ago can't be wrong.