Frustrating

Been having problems with my macarons in the last three tries. The first had a runny batter that spread too much before it could enter the oven, the second and third had a few crack tops and the feet were lopsided (same old problem I had previously). My family and neighbours are more than happy to eat the failures but it irks me I had only one success and things had gone downhill from there.

I've note a few things I've done differently. Hopefully with these observations, I can rectify the problems I've been facing.

1. The egg whites used were relatively fresh. Hee...all thanks to the great rapport my mum has with the egg seller. I had previously used eggs that had been 3 weeks old and the whites aged in the fridge for 3 days.

2. Sifting of the TPT. I usually just use them straight after a good blizz in the food processor. This time round, I sieved the TPT thinking it will help in the folding into the meringue. Hmm...got to reduce the number of folds since the TPT do get mix in easier with the sifting.

3. Instead of gradually adding in the sugar during the whipping of the meringue, I've dump it in at one shot.

4. Reduce the drying out time to 30 mins. Need to gauge the drying out time according to the weather.

Getting better....

Finally a batch with decent dome and feet. I think my God has heard my desire to master these finicky little guys.

My nemesis - macarons

The way to overcome fear is to face it head on. Still far from perfection, but at least they have feet :)

Macarons

I finally had my first attempt of macaron making!

Been hesitating to bake these for the longest possible time partly due to all the horror stories and failed attempts I've read from food blogs. However, to throw away the egg whites left over from making lemon curd just seems so wasteful....I really had enough of baking and eating chiffon cakes :(

So last nite, I used excel spreadsheet to scale down one of the two macaron recipes I owned. Had decided to go with the italian meringue method as I'm pretty confident of cooking sugar syrup having gotten plenty of practice from making almond brittle. Besides, I just can't imagine myself whipping egg whites by hand which was called for by the second recipe.

The grinding and re-grinding of almonds was fine...so is the pouring of syrup into the beaten egg white. The only thing that really baffled me was the mixing of meringue into the dry ingredients. Every blog and recipe I've read called for the final batter to be smooth and flowing like magma. But how would I know how magma flows since I've never seen an active volcano?! Eh...maybe I could rely on the video recording my geography teacher had shown during lessons many many many many many years ago? Piping was pretty easy as I've drawn a template to be used under the silpat. The recipe didn't specify for the piped batter to be left to dry but I decided to do that since Singapore's weather can be pretty humid.

Not wanting to miss the action, I sat in front of the oven as the macarons formed their feet. It is such a sight to behold. The feet will gradually push the hardened cap upwards as it forms. Of the 30 macaron shells, 6 of them had uneven feet. I wonder if it's due to uneven heating in my oven. Will give it another go tomorrow to see if I can rectify the problem. Wish me luck.