Hello everybody!
So I received this Lékué Macaron Kit as a VERY belated christmas gift, and decided to make some macarons! And I thought I'd do a little review for you all.
As you can see, it comes in this gorgeous packaging. On the lid it shows the contents of the kit, and when you open it the flaps are LITERALLY covered with pictures of delicious looking macarons.
The kit includes:
- A piping unit/thing
- A silicon baking mat with ridges to keep the macarons uniform and perfect in shape and size
- Six piping tips
- And a recipe a booklet!
So here we go, into the nitty gritty.
First off, I love that the kit includes a recipe booklet. It has wonderful recipes, and the first one is a basic macaron recipe which you can really customize to your hearts content. It also has recipes for Wasabi Macarons with Pistachio Filling, Tiramisu Macarons, Rose Macarons with Earl Grey Cream, Chocolate Macarons with Orange Cream, and Vanilla Macarons with Dark Chocolate Cream.
I made lavander macarons with a lavender cream cheese filling. And they were DELICIOUS.
I absolutely love the mat, it is a life saver. It makes keeping the macarons nice and uniform. You can put the mat directly on the rack in the oven, although It is silicon and a bit wobbly if put directly on rack; I put it on a baking sheet for more stability. I would recommend doing this.
Next, the piping unit. Now I call it a unit because I'm not really sure what to call it. This is the only part of the kit that I was disappointed in. :( To use, you take off the top and scoop in the batter and pipe away! I found the piping unit/pouch/circle/sphere-thing very difficult to use. It was a full of batter and and I had to apply so much pressure to get out enough batter for just ONE circle on the mat. not only that but the batter would ooze out where the tip attaches to the unit, and a bit where the lid screws on. Not so much fun. My wrists were very sore after piping, and it was quite difficult to clean afterwards. It's definitely easier to pipe something that isn't as dense as macaron batter, but still easier use a piping bag.
All in all, I would (unfortunately) not recommend this kit. Mainly because the piping unit was SO difficult to use. I loved everything else about it. The best part about the entire kit is really and truly the mat, because it has the ridges to keep the batter from oozing all together, so your macarons will turn out perfect every time.
Even though this kit isn't great there are others out there that you can use, OR you could go ahead and just use parchment and a baking sheet with a piping bag. And even then you don't need a piping bag, all you really need a big zip top bag and to cut a 1cm opening ( not until you've filled the bag) in one of the corners and there you have a homemade piping bag! Macarons aren't really that hard to make, they're just a bit tedious. And the best part is that you can make them for less than how much you would pay in a shop.
So, I hope this has inspired you to make some macarons yourself!
Much love & Glitter
xoxo <3
