french baking Archives - Cookie Diary

French Macarons at Home: The 47 Batches It Took Me to Get Them Right

Margaret Chen · May 23, 2026

French Macarons at Home: The 47 Batches It Took Me to Get Them Right

I still remember sitting on my kitchen floor in December 2018, surrounded by twelve cracked, lopsided, hollow shells that were supposed to be French macarons. I had followed every online tutorial I could find. My feet were wrong. My shells had craters. My filling oozed out sideways. That was batch number three, and I genuinely … Read more

French Sables: The Simple Butter Cookie That Taught Me Real French Technique

Margaret Chen · April 11, 2026

French Sables: The Simple Butter Cookie That Taught Me Real French Technique

I still remember the moment I realized I had been making butter cookies wrong for nearly a decade. It was February 2018, and I was standing in my kitchen staring at a batch of flat, greasy discs that were supposed to be French sablés. I had followed a recipe to the letter — or so … Read more