Bouchon Bakery: Life size Macarons and Homemade Oreos

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center
One Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY

Across the street from Rockefeller Center is the famous Bouchon Bakery. I had heard that they had real size macarons here, by that, I mean the size that macarons are traditionally made in Paris. The macarons that are available in Canada are what the French call mini macarons. The actual size of a macaron is almost the size of a McDonald’s cheeseburger. I discovered this upon my first visit to Laduree in Paris. I’ve been searching for macarons that size in North America ever since.

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

I normally would not have ordered this but I had been told the homemade Oreos are amazing at Bouchon Bakery. I’m not even that much of a fan of store bought Oreos but when I saw the size of the big Oreos at Bouchon, my curiosity was peaked. I’m very Asian that way, size matters.

Homemade Oreos, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

Slightly larger than my cheeseburger-sized macarons, the homemade Oreo was filled with very rich and heavy cream, piped in fancy ribbons into the middle of the cookie. It was almost too pretty to eat. But I persevered!

Homemade Oreo, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

You can’t tell from the outside but there is a lot of cream filling inside the cookie, and it was delicious! The cream filling was thick and sweet, it really stood up to the bittersweet dark chocolate cookie. The cookie was nice and thick: crispy on the outside but soft and moist in the center, which is something you don’t get with the crispy wafer-thin store-bought Oreos. I much prefer Bouchon Bakery’s rendition of the Oreo over any boxed cookie.

Homemade Oreo, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

Homemade Oreo, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

I prefer the larger macarons over the minis since I love the sandwich cookies for their chewy cookies and the bigger the pastry, the more cookie I get. You can see in the below picture that the regular sized macarons are nearly three times the size of the mini macarons we are used to.

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

We picked one of each of our favourite flavours: caramel and vanilla. Needless to say that the macarons at Bouchon Bakery are perfectly shaped: nice even feet, smooth tops and each cookie was baked up in perfect symmetry. The caramel macaron was as delicious as it looked. Nutty and sweet, deep rich flavours that hinted maple and left an aftertaste of syrup. The cookie was everything I dreamed of: chewy, soft and very delicately sweet.

Caramel macaron, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

The equally beautiful vanilla macaron was also lusciously tasty. There were specks of vanilla bean seeds throughout the cream filling and the cookie was chewy and everything that I had craved.

Vanilla macaron, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

Bouchon Bakery also offers savoury lunch items like salads, sandwiches and quiche. In fact, I had heard that they make an incredible quiche. That’s next on my list to try.

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

And only at a fancy bakery in New York will you find foie gras dog biscuits. The box cleverly read: “for the canine who has everything.” I’m pretty sure there were some WASPs in line just to buy these dog treats for their sweater-clad pups.

Foie Gras dog biscuits, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

We picked up a couple boxes of mini macarons for gifts. Carrying these boxes of delicate cookies through the crowded streets of Manhattan turned out to be a major challenge. A few of them were crushed in transit.

Mini macarons, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

I’m definitely trying the quiche the next time I stop by.

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY