Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My Adventures In Making the Elusive Macaron

I’ve read lots of different recipes and tried my hand at a few, and I’m walking away from this project with these tips that I think are essential for great macarons:



Bob’s Red Mill almond flour is ridiculously expensive. ($10-15/lb?!?!) I’m calling BS on this one. Go to Trader Joe’s and get their almond meal. It isn’t blanched, but the almond skin just adds more flavor. It gives them a cute speckled look.

 

Buy a kitchen scale if you don’t have one. I ironically bought the Biggest Loser one for the express purpose of making cookies. It was pretty reasonable ($20 at BB&B).

 

Age those egg whites, or at least get them to room temperature. Yeah, this sounds gross, but I lived to tell the tale.

 

Don’t over-mix! Undermixing is better than over-mixing. Show some self-control and know when to stop. 40 strokes max. Use a rubber spatula.

 

Let them rest. I really think this was a crucial step in my successful batch. After you pipe the batter, whack the tray on the counter a good 3-4 times to release air bubbles (pop them with a toothpick), and then let them sit for at least 30 minutes to form a nice skin. They are much less likely to crack this way.

 

They NEED to mature. Don’t question this. These take advanced planning if you are making them for a specific date. If you taste them right after they are baked, you’re not going to be impressed. These babies absolutely need filling (yummy buttercream is my preference) and they need to sit in the fridge for at least 3 days before you eat them. On that note, let them come to room temperature before you devour.

*****


Attempt #1 – Brave Tart’s recipe

4 oz. (115g) almond flour

8 oz (230g) powdered sugar

5 oz (144g) egg whites – temperature and age not important!

2 ½ oz (72g) sugar

½ tsp (2g) salt

Scrapings of 1 vanilla bean

 

You can read more here http://bravetart.com/recipes/Macarons but basically this recipe calls for you to beat the egg whites like they owe you money. This recipe differs from the others I’ve seen in that regard, also in that she says that temperature and age of the egg whites are not important, and that you do not need to let the piped macarons sit and form a skin.

 

This was my first attempt at macaron making, and I’m pretty sure that I over-mixed, therefore creating hideous little cracked monsters that were in no shape or form a macaron. While they were ugly, they were delicious. I’ll give them that.  I was very frustrated since these were supposedly pretty easy to master, and apparently everyone else had success. So…I moved on to a reeeally “fool proof” recipe for attempt numero dos.

*****


Attempt #2 – The Sucre Cuit Style – Italian Meringue

200g almond meal

200 g powdered sugar

200g sugar

50g water

150g egg whites, divided into two 75g portions

 

You can see detailed pictures and the whole recipe at http://dessertfirstgirl.com/2010/10/making-macarons.html  This recipe is supposed to produce much more consistent results, because the meringue is cooked, and therefore very stable and pretty resistant to over-mixing (which, as you will recall, is where the problem was in attempt #1) So…they “worked”. Kind of. They baked up lopsided, but did get something that resembled feet. I will not be making this recipe again, because the taste was nothing in comparison to Brave Tart’s recipe. Hers tasted fastastic, and these tasted…well…blah. They were very sweet and really couldn’t hold their own without intensely flavored filling.

*****


Attempt #3 – Not So Humble Pie’s Recipe (the one where the clouds parted and the angels sang)

5g dehydrated egg white powder (this is hecka expensive but necessary)

28g sugar

225g powdered sugar

125g almond meal

100g aged egg whites (mine were 3 days out at room temperature)

Scrapings of one vanilla bean (I added this)

Success at 295 degrees for 18 minutes

If you are pulling your hair out desperately awaiting the next coming of the macaron gods, please go here http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/08/macaron-troubleshooting-new-recipe.html They turned out to be tasty and perfect and looked exactly right. I made them for Christmas and everyone was thoroughly impressed.

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