Of Renaissance origins, the macaron did not become popular until 1792. Two Carmelite nuns seeking asylum during the French Revolution in the town of Nancy in northeastern France, baked and sold macarons as a way to support themselves. They became known as the Macaron Sisters. The original macaron was a small, flat single almond cookie with no filling. In the early 1900s a famous bakery in Paris developed the recipe we use today.

In 2019 Shannon Leyba of Mathews, began her career of making macarons, hoping to make them available at the Mathews Farmers’ Market. For Shannon, it was a way to expand her long-standing love of cooking other special sweets. We give you here some of her favorite recipes, other than her macarons which she reserves for her commercial use.

Shannon says she did baking while in high school as a hobby and continued during college years. “At Virginia Tech I was making birthday cakes for friends. On my 21st birthday my mother gave me a cookbook, ‘The Joy of Cook...