Hunt for the Perfect French Macaroon

The first time I ever had or came to know a French Macaroon was a few years ago on a trip to San Francisco and the two places to find the best are Miette and Bouchon. Since Bouchon is a good hour and a half drive and Miette is in the Ferry Building where I work it is obvious where I buy mine, but not often since they are an outrageous $1.50 a pop! And that only gets you two bites!

This last Saturday, in an effort to do a little research I laid down a $10 and got 6 of the flavors on offer:

Vanilla, Hazelnut, Rose Geranium, Strawberr, Pistachio and Chocolate

All of their cookies had perfect tops, no cracks--still don't know how to solve that one! They had a good texture, chewy in the center with a hard outer shell. The centers were either a flavored buttercream or ganache. Not a surprise, but the Rose-Geranium didn't do it for me. I didn't care for the flowery flavor. I was surprised that I didn't like the chocolate, but it was much dryer than the others and the flavor wasn't chocolate-y enough.

After the research I have new ammunition to try again next week.