And when you do succeed, keep your fingers crossed and pray to the baking gods that you can keep succeeding.
In the last 2 years or so I've been stumped by the humble macaron. When done correctly, they look beautiful. However, a slip of the hand in any of the steps means that you can end up with some pretty mutated macaron shells. I've pretty much seen them all… lop sided, exploding from the top, feetless, hard, oozing…etc and the list of faults go on.
The recipe is very deceiving… calling only for approx 5 ingredients, all easy to get. The technique of putting it all together did not sound too hard when I read it either. How hard can it be? I've seen lots of people talking about the whole process online and how temperamental macaron batter can be. I could not believe something with less than 5 ingredients could be so difficult to put together. That is, until I tried countless recipes (both the french and Italian method) and was staring at what was probably the 8th batch of failed macarons that I begun to feel completely defeated. What did I do wrong?
Well, after some research I discovered that there is A LOT I could have done wrong. The sugar temperature, how the meringues are beaten, the way I combine everything… Gosh!
But then, 2 days ago… it happened. The ingredients all decided to align and I managed to make my best lot of macarons. I think this was either a fluke or I have finally managed to make this whole macaron thing work.
I think I'll just have to make more just to double check that I've got this right :)
In case you are wondering, here is what I have learnt on my macaron adventures... It may not all be right, but it's what worked for me.
I find that the Italian method is more 'durable' because the meringue is actually cooked so it makes the batter more firm.
Make sure EVERYTHING is exact - the weight of the ingredients, temperature of the sugar syrup...etc
When pouring in the sugar syrup into the egg whites, make sure the egg white have formed stiff peaks. Then when the recipe says slowly, it means pour it in a steady stream (kind of how you would pour milk into a glass). Make sure your mixer is still running (at medium speed). Once the sugar syrup is poured into the egg whites, whip on high to get all the heat out. It's ready when the sides of the bowl is cool enough for you to touch it.
I used a really fine sieve for the almond meal and icing sugar, somehow I think this helped because it made it much easier to incorporate the wet ingredients.
Use a piping bag with a nozzle to pipe the macarons. Make sure they are piped evenly.
Learn to know how hot your oven is. Mine is a fan forced oven and I find that I had to subtract 10 degrees or so from the recipe.
If you are curious, I used Adriano Zumbo's macaron recipe which can be found here. Follow everything exactly and you should get some great results :) (You can leave out the Cinnamon and colouring). For the filling I just made some ganache and piped it in.
I found that Adriano's recipe gave me approx 40 small macaron shells which will make approx 20 macarons.
Time to attack the croquembouche!
