macarons, attempt 1
April 14th, 2009
please excuse the crappy quality. i need to get my camera fixed so i can stop using my phone
I made macarons. Yea, I said it. I finally made those candy-colored cookies that the blog world is going crazy over.
And? I failed. Sort of.
Mixing and baking? I did a great job! They came out with feet, and how I imagined they should be as far as texture (i’ve never eaten a real one) So, according to all the blogs that have documented failure, I have won.
Only, I didn’t get the color right because I was scared of adding too much moisture. Same with the flavor (they were supposed to be yellow, and lemon)
And let’s just say I learned a valuable lesson in using the right tools. I was like “who needs a piping bag?!” so I used a ziploc. Got scissor happy. Hole was far too large to do any good circles with.
Then I had to throw 1/4 of them away, because I used too much water in my “let them steam off the parchment paper” experiment. Soggy cookies disintegrate.
Finally, way fed up, I piped in buttercream frosting from a can and called it a day. Way too exhausting.
The good thing? I know where and how I went wrong, and they’re totally fixable.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:03 am
I too am TOTALLY obsessed with macarons, and have tried making them at home! Four times actually. Two were successful, two not so much. I’ve discovered a few things:
a) whip the HELL out of the egg whites before you add the other ingredients, then hardly mix it at all once the ingredients are all brought together.
b) the food processor is your best friend when grinding down the almonds, but watch b/c apparently it turns into a paste if left too long!
c) you can bake them on Silpat sheets (available for about $10 at kitchen stores) and they come off easy as pie with only a few minutes to cool.
Basically, it made me realize that it’s worth spending $3 per cookie to buy them from pros!!!! Good luck on your future attempts