People tend to find joy in round colorful objects like balloons, beachballs and berries. Because people often eat with their eyes, it’s natural that macarons, those French delights that are made in almost every color in the crayon box, have enjoyed a bump in the foodie world. Not to be confused with a coconut macaroon, macarons shells are made with egg whites, almond flour and sugar. The sandwich style treat can be filled with a variety of flavored fillings.
Toren Engseth, of Madame Macaron MKE, rediscovered a passion for baking when she wanted her children to enjoy quality treats with less sugar. One day, a friend brought over a macaron recipe and the ingredients. “She said, ‘you have to make these for me.’ Nobody in the area was really making them at the time,” Engseth recalls. “I’m a nice person and I did what she said. It took off from there. It was an effort, but it seemed like a fun thing to do at the time.”
Macarons are tricky to make, causing many bakers to shy away from the delicate confection. Having majored in environmental science in college, Engseth found her science background useful while figuring out variables to control when making the macarons. “There are only three ingredients in the macaron shell. It’s all about technique, accuracy and precision,” she says.
Engseth wasn’t initially convinced that macarons could be a marketable commodity in Milwaukee and needed validation to realize it was worth pursuing as a business. She launched Madame Macaron MKE during the summer of 2017. She works in commercial kitchen space in The Box, an event venue in Downtown Milwaukee. She notes the kitchen has a good, reliable oven, which is crucial in making macarons because they require consistent, even heat.
Madame Macaron MKE has regular flavors such as raspberry; lemon, lavender and local honey; or salted caramel. Engseth likes to work with seasonal concepts; her fall offerings included flavors like chai pumpkin or cranberry matcha. “I work with whatever is available fresh. During summer and spring, that’s fun. I use whole ingredients, and I make own jams and curds so I can control the flavor and the sweetness. I tend to put less sugar in the macarons. Any flavor that you put inside a macaron can be fabulous.” She experiments with fillings like date caramel, instead of a sugary caramel. She notes that macarons are also gluten-free.
Hunkering Down During the COVID19 Disruption
Before the COVID-19 crisis, Engseth had offered macaron making classes. In a small, hands-on setting, Engseth taught techniques and visual cues to watch for when making macaron, such as humidity in the air or moisture in the eggs.
This past fall, Engseth had already scaled back the wholesale portion of her business because it was hard to control the quality after she dropped off macarons at retail locations. Before the coronavirus crisis, Outpost Natural Foods was the only retailer where she sold them. Much of her business came from events and custom orders for catering.
“My calendar just totally erased itself,” she says. “I am grateful that I don’t have employees to lay off or huge inventories to absorb, but I don’t know if I’d quality for any small business loans for this situation. And I was just getting ready to expand with my own location.”
Engseth is particularly challenged with her product because it is so delicate and perishable. “Most businesses are not dealing with such a perishable product like mine, so they have an ability to stock up and ship out or maintain a little bit of an open system of deliveries or gift cards.
“For me personally, I’m not sure I can afford production and make enough money on the other side of that. You have to have a certain volume in order to maintain profitability. In order to rent my kitchen and do production, I don’t think I’d be able to return a profit. I’ll just hunker down and wait for better times.”
For more information, visit macaronmke.com.
