April Fooled by a chocolate bacon macaron?

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Have you ever felt out of place at a fancy dress party? Last weekend Antoine and I arrived at the door unsuspectingly wearing pyjamas and cuddly bears to meet a sea of hand painted Venetian masks and hired gowns from the Carnaval of Venice to Captain outfits.

In our defense we were dressed as characters from a French children’s show, Bonne nuit les petits. It felt, however, as if we were the April Fools of the year.  In France, they call it Poisson d’avril and its victims go around the rest of the day with a paper fish pinned to their back. But it was too early.  No, this was no joke.  No turning back. We were in that door and we had to carry it off amongst an array of anonymous forbidding masks and, apart from our neighbours, complete strangers.  At least we were comfy dancing in our slippers.

April Fool! Poisson d’avril !

A good friend, Belinda, provided consolation with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Be true to your own act and congratulate yourself, if you have done something strange and extravagant to break the monotony of a decorous age.” It so happened that Belinda was visiting from the US last week and so she was in the firing line to taste another macaron experiment to break away from the monotony of classic flavours…

This is too funny: you mean it’s not just chocolate?  Wait a minute, I get it!

I took her photo seconds before she cracked up laughing.


The flavour? Dark chocolate and bacon. It’s not so mad, is it?  We’ve seen bars of bitter chocolate with fleur de sel and seen chocolate chip and bacon cookies – so why not in a macaron?
The secret is not too much bacon, just enough to give a hint of saltiness and intrigue.

chocolate ganache with bacon rashers

Firstly, add a touch of fleur de sel to the chocolate shells, fry 5 streaky bacon rashers then infuse 2 bacon rashers in the cream for the ganache.

Infuse bacon rashers in the cream

Then discard the bacon from the cream and continue normally with a chocolate ganache.  I did cut back slightly on the normal quantity of butter used, due to the presence of bacon fat.  Julia Child did say that fat gives flavour, n’est-ce pas?  (Note: I tried a batch before these ones, using allumettes (mini bacon bits) but they kept getting stuck in the piping nozzle and the end result was like eating tiny bullets in the ganache.  So learn from my mistake. This next batch with infused bacon and rashers added to the ganache later was by far better.)

Place a cooked bacon rasher bit on top of the ganache

Cut up the rest of the bacon rashers with scissors and place on top of the ganache for each shell.
One wee tip: when putting any kind of “solid” in the ganache, always top it up slightly with a dash more ganache on top.  That way the ganache can infuse perfectly into both shells over the next 24 or even 36 hours (if you can wait that long) for chocolate toe-curling bliss.

Add more ganache on top of the bacon before assembling

Et voilà, mes amis.  Nothing fancy.  Nothing complicated.  Just more macaron fun!
Et maintenant…

Giveaway Winners to Celebrate the Fête du Macaron

As promised, it’s time to announce the 5 lucky winners of a copy of “Mad About Macarons!” from Waverley Books.  A huge thank you to all of you who participated and for so many lovely comments.  I honestly wish we could have given a copy to everybody!

Congratulations to:

  • Jenna Parrington
  • Mary Jane
  • Mary Rosch
  • Spinneys Cauldron
  • Sylvie

Please send me an email (jill@madaboutmacarons(dot)com) with your full name and address so that we can mail out your copy.  For the rest of you, don’t worry.  The macaron madness continues…. and who knows, we’re surely going to have another giveaway soon. 🙂  Stay tuned.

Just remember: don’t be caught out tomorrow on April Fool’s Day. Poisson d’avril !!!

Don’t be caught out tomorrow.  POISSON d’AVRIL !

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45 replies
  2. ken
    ken says:

    Was reading your blog on macarons. Thanks for the encouragement as I am still trying to perfect those little seem-so-easy-to-do macs! The tips you gave are really great. Guess I will work harder to make them but surely not attempting the bacon ones any time near – though bacons are my faves.
    Thanks again!

    Reply
  6. Magic of Spice
    Magic of Spice says:

    Well being comfy while dancing is a seriously important issue, so I say you came out ahead 🙂 Now I do not eat meat but I have some bacon obsessed sons and they just so happen to equally love chocolate, so basically I am saying be happy you are not my neighbor (they are big boys) 🙂

    Reply
  8. Lisa McDonnell
    Lisa McDonnell says:

    I think chocolate and bacon is just brilliant! Sweet and salty with the satisfaction of pork fat…. mmmm. By George I think you’ve done it! And fuzzy slippers are way more fun than serious and heavy gowns and masks!

    Reply
  10. Sylvie
    Sylvie says:

    I can’T believe that I win this beautiful book. I am so happy. Sorry girls but one of this so colorful and so french Parisian book come in Canada. Merci mille fois. Bisous xxx Sylvie

    Reply
  13. Tiffany
    Tiffany says:

    I ALWAYS feel out of place at fancy schmancy events :D. And if I ate meat, I’d be all over these bacon and chocolate macarons. Perhaps you can ship some to me for my boyfriend who LOVES everything bacon 😀

    Reply
  18. briarrose
    briarrose says:

    Oh my…..sometimes you just have to be bold…then locate the nearest drink table. 😉

    Mmmm…..beautiful combination of chocolate and bacon. That hint of salt would give these such a wonderful kick.

    Reply
  20. Choclette
    Choclette says:

    Now I might have assumed this was an April fool if I hadn’t seen so many reviews recently of bacon flavoured chocolate. I do find it hard to get my head around, a bit like the marmite chocolate that I’ve heard so much about. Being vegetarian, I’m not tempted, but as always your macaroons look fantastic.

    Reply
  26. thoma
    thoma says:

    oh my…i love you for your crazy macaron ideas and execution…

    ahhh it’s terribly hot here.

    and now don be upset i’m back so soooon from my break ehehe

    Reply
  29. egb
    egb says:

    I am always impressed by how awesome you macarons look! Great idea with the chocolate and bacon pairing. So not a traditional macaron flavor, which makes it all the better!

    Reply
  32. Liz
    Liz says:

    Love the French tradition on April Fool’s…too funny! And you might have convinced me to try this new flavor combination…your macarons look exquisite as always~

    Reply
  34. Cheap Ethnic Eatz
    Cheap Ethnic Eatz says:

    I love the sweet salty combo of bacon and chocolate…a great little April Fool’s trick. So happens April 1st is my mom’s birthday so I always give her a small joke gift with her real gift…no tricks.

    Reply
  36. Janice
    Janice says:

    Oh my goodness, chocolate and bacon macarons, I can almost taste the sweet and salty flavour. Nothing worse than fancy dress snobs who BUY their costumes, home made is always best!

    Reply
  37. Kim- Liv Life
    Kim- Liv Life says:

    Bacon??? Well, not being a fan of bacon, I’m not sure this one is for me. However… Liv tired some chocolate covered bacon at the fair last year and adored it! She described it as a “salty chocolate” not much bacon flavor. So maybe your are indeed on to something!! I’m not going to tell her about this one for a few days or she will want to put bacon in our Vanilla Macarons, and I want Vanilla!! (Yep… this one is all about me!!)
    Congratulations to the winners!!!

    Reply
  40. Kate @ Diethood.com
    Kate @ Diethood.com says:

    I love that you showed up in your pj’s and slippers! How fun, and comfortable!

    I am a fan of the bacon chocolate combo … these macarons would be eaten up by me, and all me… now if I can just make them look as perfect as yours.

    Congrats to all the winners … you are going to LOVE this book!

    xoxo

    Reply
  43. Becky
    Becky says:

    I love your story about Poisson d’avril. I’ll be careful tomorrow! These macrons are amazing, dark chocolate and bacon. You are “Mad About Macrons.”

    Reply
  44. Amy
    Amy says:

    Thes macaroons sound amaing! I can only imagine how vibrant the chocolate flavor is with the salty bacon! They are beautiful as well :)!

    Reply
  45. Manu
    Manu says:

    Hahaha in Italy we call it the same: pesce d’aprile and we too pin the paper fish on people’s backs! 🙂

    These macarons are so intriguing. I love chocolate and I love bacon… I would love to try them! 🙂

    Hugs Jill!

    Reply

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