Last week it was my Dad’s birthday and since we’re on this “saving money” bent AND my Dad is the most difficult person in the world to buy for, I decided that I’d make something for him. But what to make? My Dad isn’t really into dolls, works on a building site so knitted goods would be nice but impractical, isn’t really a big cake fan and doesn’t watch much TV. ARGH!
In the end I decided to go with something I remember my Dad liking as a wee treat – the quintessential Scottish treat known as the Macaroon bar. Now, don’t mistake the Macaroon bar for a Macaron – these are polar opposites in the confection world. The Scottish macaroon bar is overwhelmingly sweet, traditionally made from mashed potato (seriously!) and coated in chocolate and toasted coconut. I’d been given a copy of the Maw Broon’s Cookbook
for Christmas last year and it has a recipe for Macaroon bars inside. Bonanza! Or so I thought…
Unfortunately the recipe is extremely unspecific, calling for ‘medium-sized potatoes’. I mean, that in itself should have been a warning sign. How do you define a ‘medium-sized potato’?! Anyway, clearly my spuds were too big because despite using almost TRIPLE the amount of icing sugar called for in the recipe my mixture never turned into a dough. Ah well. Instead, we popped into Glickmans which is a fabulous wee shop. It’s the oldest sweetie shop in Glasgow and can be found just down from the Barras on the London Road side. The lovely lady behind the counter suggested that I try their technique which is to use a fondant centre instead of the traditional mashed potato so I shall give that a try next time. Luckily they supplied me with a box of Dad’s favourite chelsea whoppers and a macaroon bar that worked!
So tell me about your crafting or culinary failures! What have you tried that has been a dire mistake?
Posted under baking, cooking
