Macaron help?

Hello everyone. As a newcomer to the forum I don't expect many of you would be willing to open up and share with me your personal secrets about how to cook the perfect this or that, but I thought someone might at least be willing to give me a few tips.
Macarons, from my research, are tricky little beasts. The same recipe (even the same batch!) can result in many VERY different cookies depending on environmental conditions. For most (as far as peoples recipes have told me) it takes months of trials and failures to get just one batch that turns out right, and even more time to get a recipe that works consistently.
I suppose the starting point I should begin at is tasting a proper one, but I'm too poor to afford a trip to Paris, and even then, what constitutes a "proper" macaron seems to elude even the most seasoned chefs. I'm sure I can find some good ones here in Chicago, but even then, I'd have to find a way to duplicate them in my home kitchen.
What I'm asking for here is a recipe that I can get right with some reliability. I understand that I really have to find what works best for myself, but a good recipe that I can make is the starting point from which I can build a macaron recipe best suited for my needs.
If I could find someone willing to tutor me in the art of making a proper macaron, I'd be even more thankful.

Celt-

You might want to peruse these two threads. Both have macaron making tips.

Showing off: French Macarons
Macarons – where to find them

Good luck!

thanks.

The idea that macarons are insanely hard is, to me, a myth. Getting from good to great may be hard, but making a decent macaron is not that difficult, particularly if you have any experience baking other pastries with a fairly high degree of precision.

This recipe by David Leibovitz gives very good step by step instructions for a chocolate macaron. Helen Rosner of Grub Street also recommended this video even though it's in French. If you go to its YouTube page there are translations in the comments. The main virtue is that you get a very clear visual presentation of the technique, even if you have no idea what they're saying.

Mike G wrote:The idea that macarons are insanely hard is, to me, a myth. Getting from good to great may be hard, but making a decent macaron is not that difficult, particularly if you have any experience baking other pastries with a fairly high degree of precision.

This recipe by David Leibovitz gives very good step by step instructions for a chocolate macaron. Helen Rosner of Grub Street also recommended this video even though it's in French. If you go to its YouTube page there are translations in the comments. The main virtue is that you get a very clear visual presentation of the technique, even if you have no idea what they're saying.

You're correct in that that NOT insanely hard to make. There are very few ingredients and there are simple techniques which can help insure success. However, even now, after more batches of them than I can count now, I still have the occasional disaster and it can be anything from my whites not being aged enough (or too much) to too much humidity in the house.

But Mike, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you on David Leibovitz's instructions. First, look at the photo at the top of his blog. That's NOT what macarons should look like at ALL. This is one of the first recipes I tried and it was a miserable FAIL.

Now THESE are macarons Oooh. La. LAHHHHHHH....

After trying about a half dozen different recipes, I came upon the one at Tartlette's blog, which I have been now using for a couple years and it is probably the MOST foolproof/reliable one I found and tried with consistent success.

I think someone above linked to my "notes" about making macs at home and I tried to cover a lot of the problems I encountered in my trials. Most failures I have now are usually when I'm experimenting with flavors or changing up the ingredients of the cookie itself, but then, I'm EXPECTING more misses than hits in those cases.

Feel free to PM me with questions if you want. I'm not a pro or expert, but I've been doing them well for about three years now and if you hit any snags, I've probably hit them, too and can give advice. I've become rather passionate about them as you might be able tell.

Good luck!

The ones at the top are too hamburger bun-like, but mine turned out fine from that recipe, I thought. That said, I will check out your links and advice.

tgoddess wrote:Now THESE are macarons Oooh. La. LAHHHHHHH....

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2011/08/mark_those_calendars_lx_world.php