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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Another Macaron post...though the first for me!

Being Macaron-inspired by Sue at Basically Baked , I found my way to Chez Arnaud's in Maple Grove, MN.  It was one of my first daytime work week adventures after being retired. It is a whole new world to me being able to go shopping when it is not busy! Anyways, it is a small French bakery.  Many of the desserts were expensive, but fortunately for me I was macaron hunting and those were not so expensive.  They had Lavender lemon and salted caramel macarons. I liked both of them, but I think the salted caramel was my favorite flavor. I also purchased pain du chocolat (chocolate bread).  It is basically a chocolate filled croissant.  As Sue said in her post, it was fabulous!  I will not attempt to make macarons because they are simple to buy and they are not my favorite cookie. They are worth purchasing once in a while just to taste something different.

Salted Caramel and Lavender Lemon


The gooey, delicious middle

6 comments:

  1. I'm glad you liked the chocolate filled croissant! I wish the salted caramel would have been an option the day I was there. I went to another bakery in Minneapolis (or maybe it was St. Paul?) and had macaron there. I liked theirs much better, but like you I doubt I'll make them.
    Congratulations again on your retirement!!

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  2. Thanks for the congrats...I hope I like it. Not going into work every day does give me more time to bake. Wish the weather would cooperate. I suppose I could fire up the oven when it is 90+ out, but I'd feel guilty! Wish it were a "dry" 90!

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  3. Oh baby, those look great! Makes me miss France. :)

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  4. Wow these look great!! Have not seen any with a middle like that. Looks so delicious!!

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  5. Gloria, if you make it to Vegas or New York, you have to try the ones at Bouchon Bakery. They're so good and they might give you a higher opinion of macarons overall. My favorites are the vanilla.

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  6. Ohh yum! The lavender one looks interesting. I agree with Anna about Bouchon Bakery. I went on my first trip to NYC this summer and Bouchon's vanilla macaroons rocked my tasted buds!!!

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