Macarons with Apple Vanilla Compote

Just about two weeks ago I took a macaron making class at Ateliers et Saveurs with my awesome friend and a few fellow Yelpers. It was a lot of fun and I had wanted to put my new skills to work immediately, but the weeks have been busy and time to bake wasn't available. 

When I finally did find time, it happened to be close to 9PM, but I started anyhow. Even when faced with the reality that I don't have a proper sifter (where'd my sifter go?) I forged ahead, improvising with cheese cloth and a strainer (not ideal) and made it work. No piping bag? No problem, I used a ziploc bag, with a snipped end.

So what you see pictured above is quite the feat of improvisation and though they were quite good, they weren't great. I'm now armed with a shopping list of much need tools for not only making delicious macarons, but for many other food projects as well.