The Highline + Un Catastrophe Total

Spring finally peeked around the corner last weekend. The temperatures flirted with 60, the sun dazzled and I broke out my light jacket for the first time this year. After getting a pretty pink manicure (to welcome the new season naturally), I headed to the Highline, camera in hand.

I remember hearing about the Highline when it opened, an old raised subway track that had been repurposed into a walkway overlooking the Hudson. I read about art installations and benches and beautiful views, but upon hearing that it was way over on 10th Avenue, my interest in going waned.

Then I began working at The Daily Beast, and routinely trudged over to 11th Avenue, passing underneath the Highline every time. Then Keith worked on an assignment about the Highline and introduced me to the art along the walkway. Then it became warm enough to spend more than two seconds outside. Then the sun finally peaked out from behind those rainy, dreary gray clouds.

Then, finally, I made my way to the Highline.

It felt like the air was clearer up there, the sky a little brighter. Though it was very crowded, I felt like I could be in my own little world. It’s rare in New York City to find a place that’s quiet enough to think. While Riverside Park is my go-to, the Highline is a close second. And since it’s a short walk from my new office, I think I’ll be spending a lot more time among the clouds this summer.

Unfortunately, this weekend I crash-landed back to Earth. After dreaming of making my own macarons for months and finally settling on a coffee-chocolate combo (have to get my coffee fix somehow … ), I attempted them on Sunday. I knew going into it that the recipe would be tricky, as it took even the great David Lebovitz seven tries to perfect. I warned myself to keep expectations low — there was no way I was going to get perfectly domed macarons with little feet on my first go-round.

I read for weeks on the technique: grinding the almond flour with the powdered sugar to create a fine mix, whipping the egg whites to a super stiff meringue, folding the wet and dry ingredients exactly the right amount, drying the macarons out after piping, leaving the oven door open while baking. I knew it all. And I still managed to produce un catastrophe total.

Perhaps my first mistake was trying to grind my own almond flour, using blanched, slivered almonds and an old food processor. The almonds did not grind evenly and began to form a slight paste before I realized and added the powdered sugar. But it was too late. Clumps had already started to form. (In my defense, almond flour costs $13 at my grocery store.)

My second mistake was foolishly adding ground coffee granules to the batter, creating a very bitter, gritty cookie. Then I began to get frustrated. The batter never became smooth because of all the textural issues, but I folded and folded until the meringue became slightly soupy. Piping was a total nightmare, as my batter was too thin. Perhaps most embarrassing of all, I forgot that the cookies were in the oven and burned them. I, who have never burned a single baked good in my life. Burned. An entire tray of macarons. Thankfully one batch came out perfectly golden (albeit completely cracked), but the bitter coffee and the almond pieces totally ruined the taste.

It was a disaster through and through.

But after stewing over my mistakes for days, I’ve come to realize that I tried something new and messed up. There’s no shame in that. Failure is a just as much a part of life in the kitchen as it is anywhere else. I’m glad that I took the chance and hey, I made my first meringue! While I probably won’t be trying macarons again in the near future (see: $13 for almond flour), so it makes me appreciate those $3 macarons from Madeleine’s that much more.

Have you ever had a kitchen disaster? What were you trying to make? What went wrong? Come, vent with me!

By the way, if you’d like to try macarons yourself, I loosely followed a recipe from Martha. Not the most French resource, but she was the only one I could find that didn’t measure ingredients in grams.