Fun with Cindy making macarons....

S

sallybr

Well-known member
... our second time making these tricky French goodies....

a few selected photos of our adventure yesterday





the cookies were flavored with cinnamon, and the filling was a chocolate ganache with cacao nibs. Absolutely delicious! We need a bit more practice, but we are slowly getting there





 
Just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed your new blog post

and can't wait to make that cake. It's on my list.

 
So nice of you to mention it!

it was a special post since the person is leaving the group, she's got one fantastic blog! From what she posted today in her site, she won't stop blogging but is definitely going through some changes in her priorities...


the cake was great - a friend of mine wants to make it with white chocolate - I bet it would be wonderful too...

 
Sounds like you weren't completely satisfied. They look great! What are you trying to fix?

 
If you look at one of the photos...

... you will notice that the "feet" slipped sideways from underneath the cookie

we had several problems with the making of the "dough" and the baking - I will detail it all when I compose a blog post about it, although it might take some time smileys/wink.gif

 
Sally, I'm interested in how much time you let the egg whites age and how

long you let the piped cookie dough "crust". Those are the two steps that seem to vary widely.

Years ago I met a woman over dinner told me about her father (a baker) made a cookie that he would put on top of the refrigerator and let set for a whole day before baking. She had no clue what the cookie was.

I was THRILLED the day I read a macaron recipe where it said to let the piped cookie dough "crust" before baking. I felt like Nancy Drew.

But now I see that step is only 20-60 minutes long in all the modern recipe books I read.

 
This could very well shake your macaron world....

THis woman bakes macarons for a living - her method was recommended to me AFTER CIndy and I baked on Sunday by a food blogger I love, Joanne Bruno from Eats Well with Others

anyway, apparently a lot of the "you must do this"" - "you must do that" is not quite right. She's tested every variable and concluded it's all about technique. YOu don't need to age the whites, you don't need to wait for the crust to form, you don't need the freshest almond flour in the planet.

take a look at her method here

http://bravetart.com/recipes/macarons

 
But, answering your questions....

we aged the whites for about 3 hours, and used an alternative method to dry the crust, a very low oven, 200F. Following the recipe in the book we used.

I will describe it all in my blog post, but definitely now what I think was the main problems was not beating the egg whites enough. Plus my oven heating very slowly once you go from 200F to 350F for the baking phase

 
Wha Hoo Sally, Thanks for posting that link to the blogger you love...

I found a recipe for vegetarian taco salad using Farro. I have a grand daughter who is vegetarian and am always looking for flavorful food we can all eat with her.

 
Sally answered everyone's questions but let me add:

It is somewhat confusing when the experts cannot agree. Clearly, there is more than one way to do things "right". I think our most profound conclusion was that the best technique in Sally's kitchen might not be the best technique in my kitchen. The book we were using was beautiful and everything tasted delicious, much better than our last effort, but as a reference book, it left much to be desired. It was poorly organized and I had to keep flipping around during the process. Sally kindly is not reporting that while we used some powdered egg whites which are supposed to improve the structure of the meringue, I mistakenly told her to add it to the dry ingredients instead of the egg whites. That may have contributed to our spreading cookies as much as not beating it adequately.

 
Why on Earth did you get that book? smileys/wink.gifsmileys/wink.gifsmileys/wink.gifsmileys/wink.gif

full disclosure folks: I GAVE HER smileys/wink.gif

ok the book is nice, but extremely tough to use. Poor CIndy was flipping pages frantically, trying to figure out what we had to do

oh, well....

 
because I have one of the most generous friends imaginable

Not only generous but a wonderful hostess as well. And let's not forget her husband who opened several bottles of fine wine to share.

 
While I understand macarons are trendy right now, I finally asked myself, do I even like them? The

answer is no. Cupcakes died out, macarons took their place. Pretty and colorful, but fussy and not my idea of delicious. A canelé trend? THAT I could get behind! smileys/smile.gif

 
Well, if you don't like them there is no point in making them.... (more)

because they are not easy to conquer

I could not care less about trending stuff - I love macarons, loved them ever since I first lived in Paris. To me, they are the perfect type of cookie. NOt too sweet, a pleasant texture, and the color possibilities just make me dream!

plus, so many flavors! Rose water, pistachios, chocolate, caramel, nutella, vanilla, strawerries, cherries... there is really no limit to what can be sandwiched between those cute little things....

SO, the bottom line is.. yes, I would love to perfect them - and my goal is to make a beautiful purple macaron with lavender flavor... smileys/wink.gif

 
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