Macaron Classes

We finally launched our classes last Friday.  We had been promising classes for years and it just never happened.  In the beginning, we tried having classes at the Hester Street Fair, which would have involved lugging out a toaster oven and Kitchenaid stand mixers, but they never quite happened.  So many things went wrong - either not enough people signed up to make it worth it or it poured and the idea electrical wiring in the rain terrified us.  For a while, we didn't have a kitchen that was accessible enough for the public to take classes in.  So, when we decided to open a store, we designed it so that there would be a classroom space built in.  When we first opened the store, we were so overwhelmed with having a new store that I pushed it off for January, thinking it would be slower then.  While it was slow in January, I was so exhausted that I spent the entire month just trying to recover. 

After being open for about 11 months, I finally felt comfortable about a lot of things.  We were in a good spot with our production, we didn't have a lot of things going on, and we had a restful week in the kitchen.  So it was time to stir things up and start teaching classes - finally.

I remember how difficult it was when I first started making macarons.  Trying to figure out how to make them without any baking experience and without any idea how to make meringue was a mess.  It wasn't until I took the professional class that I started to get an idea of how the whole process works.  Getting the opportunity to see them made in person was really the stepping stone to learning how to make them myself.  Taking the class was so valuable to me that I was nervous about making sure our class was good enough for our students.  I know a lot about macarons, but would it be enough?

Since then, I have helped teach all of our employees how to make macarons.  Even our sales team has spent a few hours in the kitchen learning how to make macarons.  So far, all of the macarons have turned out.  After teaching a dozen people how to make macarons, my kitchen team and I were ready to get started.

I'm really happy with how our first class turned out.  We were able to be super comprehensive and our students made some beautiful macarons.  Each student got to go home with over 60 macarons and hopefully they're able to make their own macarons at home, too.

So, we offer classes now in our kitchen at 111 St. Marks Place.  We can fit about 4 people comfortably for some hands on instruction with a great student/teacher ratio (4 students, 2 teachers!).  We get to teach our students how to make French & Italian meringue macarons and a handful of fillings.

Click on the photo of the macarons we made from our first class below to sign up for a class.