For the longest time, I’ve thought macarons (not to be confused with macaroons, which I’ve actually tried) were the prettiest dessert, beyond cupcakes and croissants and even cake pops and meringues in their beauty. But I had never tried one, despite their delicate and refined pastel exterior.

Last night at a popular twin cities cafe, Cupcake, I saw a new-ish display of macarons. I usually don’t shell out much money for fancy desserts, but I thought I would give the caramel variety a try, and see what all of the fuss was about.

Now, whenever I saw macarons I always had this idea in my head that they were a crunchy, very sugary cookie, similar almost to a very dry meringue, sandwiching a thick very sweet frosting interior. When I picked the cookie up, however, I was startled to see a whipped cream-like filling start to ooze out from between the two cookies. When I bit into it, I was even more surprised to find that the cookies fell more under the category of “chewy.” Now, to each their own when it comes to sweets (and pretty much everything, in my opinion), but these confections are just not for me. I like my cookies sugary and crunchy, and I am not crazy about whipped cream. Thus, after I let a few others try it (yes, we managed to eke more than one serving out of this cookie!), I crossed macarons off my list.

Next time I’m getting one of these, my tried and true favorite:

Have you ever been not so pleasantly surprised by the taste of a very pretty food? I’m remembering my experience with passion fruit…

What is your favorite dessert?

Meri