Review: Treat yourself to Swoon’s macaroons and cookies delivered to your doorstep

by Jayme Campbell of Confection Confessions

Thank you Artizone.

Photo by Jayme Campbell

Vanilla and salted caramel macarons from Swoon, delivered via Artizone

I love chocolate, I do. But why don’t we have heart shaped boxes overflowing with different macaroons for an eating-centric holiday such as Valentine's Day? No menu card included. I want to have no idea what flavor I am sampling until I take that first bite. Unlike the box of Russell Stover that I take a bite of each piece and toss it out, we know no meringue crumb will go to waste.

Ok, maybe my Macaron Magister’s haven’t quite commercialized the crumbly confection to the point if it being a staple on this beloved Hallmark holiday. Still, there are plenty of places in Dallas to get a very impressive macaroon.

I am amazed almost on a weekly basis of the random macaron sightings as of late. More often than not they are decent, sometimes amazing, and a handful of times simply disappointing -- most of which all stem back to quality control and realizing their finicky shelf life.

My most recent macaroon encounter was with Swoon Pasteries. This is a mixed review of sorts. I was sort of not sure the approach I wanted to take with the review. I sampled two kinds of macaroons -- a package of vanilla and a couple of packages of salted caramel.

The salted caramel was spot on. Speaking purely of texture, they were perfect. The outside crispy just like you would expect, the foot of the macaroon -- impeccable -- and the filling outshined most any macaroon fillings I have had as of recent. There was a thin, gooey layer of home made sea salt caramel, followed by a silky dollop of caramel butter cream. The added texture to this macaron was unexpected, yet brilliantly executed.

Pineapple and apple Sues from Swoon, delivered via Artizone

This brings me to the vanilla macaroon. The flavor was there. One of my simple pleasures is a well done vanilla macaron. Unfortunately, this macaroon has far exceeded its shelf life and was unbelievably stale. I hate to see good macarons die.

For me, if I know I will not eat them the very day they are in my possession, in the freezer they go, only to be brought out no more than 30 minutes or so prior to my planned consumption. Finicky creatures they are. Not only do you have to be careful of how long they sit out, but they are so delicate that transporting them also needs to be handled with care.

I also had the pleasure of trying their signature cookie, the Sues. They are the love child of a hand-pie and a cookie. Delicious and buttery shortbread cookies filled with handmade jam. The pineapple was great, but I could have gladly eaten my weight in the apple Sues.

Overall, I loved the products, just hated that one package of macaroons were inedible. Not sure if Swoon is to blame or Artizone. I don’t know the ins and the outs of how the product is moved around and how long they are kept. Are they made when I place my order and picked up then? Does Artizone keep some supply on hand and someone just dropped the ball on the QC for my order? Who knows really? But as delicious as the other items were, I would be willing to place another order and give it another shot. If it happens again, then we know there is a problem because macarons are expensive and I don’t plan to keep throwing away money.

Hopefully I have not scared you away from a roulette game of pastry. However, if you’re not a fan of gambling but still want to try Swoon, go for the Sues, you can’t go wrong.