Macarons, Part Two

I tried another batch of macarons today, nixing the attempt to make them chocolate for two reasons. 1) Chocolate macarons are supposedly more difficult than other kinds; and 2) I couldn't find Dutch-processed cocoa at a reasonable price (it was $12 for a small box, compared to $2.50 for a mix of regular cocoa and Dutch-processed), which could be a problem due to acidity. Best to stick with 'regular' macarons for now.

The recipe I used, other than not having cocoa, differed from the first recipe in the following ways:

• less granulated sugar
• the sugar is added to the egg whites at an earlier stage
• more egg white, but also more powdered sugar and ground almond
• the piped batter was allowed to sit out for 30 minutes before baking
• they were baked at a lower temperature, for a shorter time

The egg whites I microwaved for 8 seconds after getting them to room temperature. By sight alone they didn't seem any different, as in, they hadn't gotten opaque and were as translucent as ever, but when whipping them up I could distinctly smell an eggy smell, which I've never experienced before when making meringue (but perhaps I've never had reason to get that close for that long).

They never got glossy. I don't know the reason for this -- whether it was the microwaving or the earlier addition of the granulated sugar, or maybe something else altogether. Yesterday's batch became glossy almost immediately after adding the sugar. This one I whipped and whipped and whipped far beyond my natural inclination (and ultimately, the good of the end result), because I kept waiting for them to get glossy and they never did. I even added a little more granulated sugar at the prescribed stage from yesterday's batch to try and get them to gloss, but just didn't happen. It was frustrating. When they're glossy the texture is almost like nougat. This one never got beyond fluffy egg white.

I finally stopped the machine when the meringue was so thick/fluffy that practically the whole mass of it was stuck in the whisk. Since I'd come this far, I decided to plow on and at least see how this batch would turn out, for the sake of science.

Folding the dry ingredients into the meringue went a lot faster and easier this time than it was yesterday; the end batter wasn't as thick as yesterday's, though it was still slightly thicker than the "flows like magma" description/photos from the macaron sites I've perused.

So how did these meringues turn out?

• they were VERY puffy, so much so that a layer of air separated the top layer from the bottom layer ... they were so fragile that when you bit into one, it fell apart (unlike yesterday's, which were crunchy and hard)
• immediately after baking, each one had a nice little foot -- after drying, the tops sunk down so that the feet disappeared
• the tops of the cookies were consistently uncracked; however the batter wasn't thin enough to keep it from 'beaking,' so the baked cookies had a slight rise in their middles
• they were still sweeter than I would like

I'll make some more adjustments and try again!

The First But Not the Last

This is going to be the start of what I suspect are many posts on the same topic: macarons.

Don't confuse macarons with macaroons. Macarons are a type of French pastry that's usually pressed into a sandwich by a ganache filling in between two cookies. Macaroons involve coconut and are far denser. The basic ingredients of macarons are ground almonds, powdered sugar, and egg whites.



And like so many French pastries, they are extremely difficult to perfect. Le sigh. (See what I did there?)

I've been intrigued by them for a long time, but have never actually had a proper one until last week. I've considered buying them, but they're rather pricey (about $3.50 per, and they're small cookies), and making them seemed like I was just asking for despair and disappointment. But, as I said, I finally had one -- a miniature version, a spicy pear macaron at Crush, one of Seattle's nicer restaurants -- and I dug it. Really dug it.

So I rolled up my sleeves, girded my loins, took the plunge, enter your favorite phrase here, and made my first attempt at them -- David Lebovitz's French Chocolate Macarons. It was supposed to be 'user friendly.' And of all the reading I've done on macarons, it was relatively simple. But they didn't come out right. Macarons -- from what I've read and what I experienced (limited though it was), aren't actually crunchy, like meringue cookies. They may have a slight crunch on the outside, but the inside should be pillowy and soft, though not chewy and not too sweet. When they're baked up properly, they'll have "feet" -- the trademark of a properly made macaron.



My batch of macarons had a number of problems:

• the almond meal that I used wasn't ground fine enough (I think)
• the cookies were far too hard and crunchy
• the "feet" were inconsistent -- some cookies had it while others did not
• the tops were grainy and often cracked instead of smooth all over
• while folding in the dry ingredients to the egg whites, I could tell the batter was getting very stiff, and yet since it didn't look as described I had to keep going

For my next batch, I'm going to be trying a few changes, according to some other recipes/posts that I've read:

• keep egg whites at room temperature for 24 hours or more, or microwave for 10 seconds before using
• make sure almonds are finely ground, and sift with the powdered sugar twice to make sure everything is as fine as possible
• get a proper pastry bag/tip
• do not overwhip egg whites (DL's recipe said to whip until glossy and stiff, but others seem to disagree, that the meringue should only reach soft-medium levels)

Couple of recipes to try:

• Basic Almond Macaron Batter
• Vanilla Buttercream
• Vanilla Bean Buttercream
• Swirly Macarons

As I experiment further I'll be posting the results here!