I have fallen in love.  Can that really be possible?  Yes.  I have fallen for french macarons.  They are these beautiful little melt in your mouth crunchy yet chewy cookies.  Yes they are all that and more.  They take a day to really grab a hold of your taste buds.  Another cool little fact about them is that they are totally gluten free.  As soon as I perfect these little beauties, I'm going to make them for my gluten-free friends.  Although making them and trying them is fun.  They are the reason I have to up my running.  I really wish that I would have known about them when we were in Paris 6 years ago and purchased some from Laduree themselves.  Hopefully the next I go to visit my grandparents, I can get a hold of one of these.  In the mean time I'm going to practice and practice making these wonderful little treats.  I'm sure my family will get tired of them before I do.  They are just so much fun to photograph and I feel culinary to boot.  I've made a coffee flavored one that turned out better and a white chocolate candy cane one.  The flavors and colors that macarons come in run the gamut of the baker's imagination.  There are so many different approaches to making them as well.  I've only tried one method but am looking forward to trying different ways.  From what I understand, the reasons they have little hats is that I didn't turn them enough when mixing the almond flour with the egg whites.  It takes practice and experience to know when the batter is mixed just enough before it becomes over mixed.  Something I am willing to practice over and over again.  I also need to work on making butter cream frosting and ganache for the filling part.  Of course they can be filled with so much such as nutella and jams.