Vegan French macaron bakery, Mac & Moon, opened earlier this month in the brand new Auction House Market food hall, in New Orleans.
The vegan bakery specializes in vegan macarons made from aquafaba, the viscous brine found in a can of chickpeas, and serves vegan treats like ganache tarts, mochi, cupcakes, chocolate-coated fruit, vegan rolled ice cream, bubble tea, and frozen drinks.
Like New York City-based vegan macaron/chocolate shop Confectionary!, Mac & Moon is a collaborative effort between two small, independent businesses. Karmacarons, a vegan macaron company started in 2016, and organic artisanal tea company, Magnolia Moon Collective.
Karmacarons was founded in 2016 by San Francisco native, Madisen Gill, and New Jersey native, Kristina Ostrom. The duo met while working at a grocery store and found that they both shared a love for high-quality, vegan desserts. Determined to master the art of making an eggless French macaron, Ostrom and Gill worked diligently to perfect their recipe and found success selling their vegan confections at local farmers and pop-up markets. After receiving encouragement from the local artist community, Ostrom and Gill took their business online and began accepting private catering orders.
In a heartfelt post on the public Facebook vegan cooking group, Aquafaba (Vegan Meringue – Hits and Misses!), Ostrom expressed her gratitude towards the endless support given by the online vegan baking community in opening the new Louisiana vegan establishment.
“Two years ago I found this page to pick the brains of those who had begun paving the way in the Aquafabulous world,” Ostrom wrote. “Since then I have worked enormously hard, coming from baking vegan macarons in my home kitchen to having a bakery. I began selling macaron wholesale with my company, Karmacarons from there and traveling around to festivals vending.”
Ostrom continued: “From two years ago trying to nail down a recipe, to today, making around 2,500 macarons a week. Three months ago I opened the internet’s first completely vegan macaron shop, Mac & Moon. I feel like I need to thank so deeply everyone in this group, because even though I am sure I would have eventually figured it out on my own, yall definitely gave me the courage to keep trucking forward, helping me believe creating the recipe was possible.”
Not alone in its quest to produce vegan French baked goods, Mac & Moon joins plant-based businesses like New York-based Sweet Maresas, Miami’s L’Artisane Creative Bakery and Montreal’s Dugout Patisserie in serving cruelty-free French treats.
Image Credit: Mac & Moon
