Guilty pleasures: The Macaroon

Since today is Shrove Tuesday – the day in which you are supposed to have one (or many) last feasts to use up all the decadent foods you’ve sworn to give up for Lent – I thought I should offer you some food porn.

This is the guilty pleasure I mentioned in my list of food resolutions – a coconut macaroon from the supermarket. Looks benign enough, doesn’t it? Then take a look at this…

In case you can’t quite read the small print, there are more numbers here than in a maths textbook. Even the coconut is not quite coconut, but something called ‘Kokomix’ – which has lots of other goodies in it like milk fat, stabiliser, preservative, colour (colour? it’s white!) and modified starch. The most depressing thing is that the ‘chocolate’ is a mixture of cocoa powder and various fats – but it DOES have coconut oil, which I guess boosts the overall coconut factor a bit.

What this label doesn’t tell you though is that these toxic treats really are delicious. I first discovered them at an Italian cafe in town, where they cost three times as much despite being identical. Learning that they were on sale at the supermarket just a few minutes’ walk from work was my downfall towards the end of last year. Not now though. I am strong. I have willpower. And I am going to go one further and give up chocolate  for Lent. After all, my chocolate dependent friend Ann once gave it up for a year – surely I can manage six weeks, right? Especially since the chocolate on the macaroons doesn’t count…

Are you giving anything up for Lent? Or is retox, not detox, your motto?

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12 Comments

  1. February 20, 2012 / 6:13 pm

    Oh my God it is Shrove Tuesday! That's what happens to a retired and rebel catholic.. Shrove Tuesday and I didn't know! Mind, it should be at the end of Winter. Cleaning out the pantry. Love to you Lucy and how the wee girl has grown!

  2. February 20, 2012 / 7:58 pm

    My onlky one attempt at giving up chocolate, several years ago was an epic fail. I gave in- having forgotten my resolution- within 5.5 hours of making it! Oops. Retox all the way….

  3. February 20, 2012 / 8:45 pm

    YOUR macaroons are the best!

  4. February 20, 2012 / 10:09 pm

    Lucy, it's beautiful. We don't know yet what we will give up for the Lent.

  5. February 20, 2012 / 10:27 pm

    Ah a proper macaroon, not it's elegant french cousin. I'm sure a few numbers can't do you that much harm every now and then. It rather goes against the grain to give things up at a specific time for pseudo-religious reasons that I don't hold. So, no I will keep eating as normal.

  6. February 21, 2012 / 3:31 am

    mmmm… perhaps I should give something up for lent. think i might make pancakes for dinner to get into the spirit!

  7. February 21, 2012 / 9:59 pm

    I was going to make Dosa (indian pancake) for shrove tuesday, but didn't realise it took 2 days to prepare D'oh.

    It does seem a bit ridiculous that they break down all the ingredients and sub-ingredients on a biscuit.
    But I have to say E-numbers shouldn't scare you, just need to learn which are good and bad en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number , you can even get an app for it.

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