Fast Ed: 5 steps to the perfect macaroon. Learn How to Make Macarons in 5 Minutes. Macaron Troubleshooting & A New Recipe. Blogging about macarons today!
Yes I know, I blog a lot about macarons but even with all the information I've posted on the blog, I still get a ton of questions in my email box. An overwhelming number of emails, emails that I don't always have the time to answer punctually, so I felt a need to address the questions in one space on the blog. I'm posting a troubleshooting guide to help folks with their macarons. I'm also posting another french macaron recipe. One that I've been working on for almost two months. My counter covered in notes, which as you can see, are on paper towels. One of the hardest questions I've had to address with my baking has to do with hollows. When I make a batch of macarons, about 90-95% of the cookies are perfect and 5-10% will have a gap between the soft interior and the shell. Now when folks come to me with macarons like the one on the left, I tell them not to worry.
Still the hollow problems that many people have seem to go far beyond the insides shown above. A Macaron Troubleshooting Guide. Almost two years after being published, my illustrated ‘How To Make Macarons’ post is still by far the most popular post on my blog.
After answering to hundreds of readers posting all kinds of questions, from which equipment to use to why they can’t “get feet”, I thought writing a troubleshooting guide was in order. I gathered all this info through macaron making experience and by reading dozens of articles, blog posts and books on the subject (sources are cited below when I quote from them). I believe this post will answer most (if not all!) Questions macaron novices might have. If after reading this page you think I forgot something, please send me a line or write a comment below and I will edit my post to always keep it up-to-date. IMPORTANT NOTE: This troubleshooting guide is about the classic, French method of making macarons, which doesn’t involve an Italian meringue. Index What should a “perfect macaron” look like? About the ingredients About the equipement. Macaron Recipe/Troubleshooting.
Lately, I’ve been a bit obsessed with Macarons.
If you make them and taste them, you’ll be smitten as well. Macarons are to the French what cupcakes are to the rest of us! I have little bowls of egg whites . . . becoming of age . . . in every corner of my kitchen. Sad but true. My fridge has never been so backed up with egg yolks at one given time. The Ten Commandments. Recently, I’ve gotten to know fellow Kentuckian Victor Sizemore.
While his photography business has him in Los Angeles most weekends, Monday through Friday he’s a Lexingtonian and (convenient to my purposes) a consummate foodie. He bought my desserts-for-photos pyramid scheme hook, line and sinker. When I sent him a text along the lines of, “hey, if you want to turn a box of pastries into photography, let me know!” I thought maybe we’d get together the next week or something. But he wrote back, “on my way.” I had Victor Sizemore, of Mad Men in Vegas fame, en route to Table 310 to do free photography and nothing but laminated dough, a vat of caramel, and unbaked profiteroles on hand. Victor arrived at the restaurant just as I finished boxing these rhubarb St-Germain macarons, altogether about fifteen minutes after my first text.
Which got me thinking about how I reached the point where I can say, “macarons save the day” when so many people experience the exact opposite. Colouring Guide. A few weeks ago one of my friends at work asked me to make special macarons for her engagement party.
I agreed without hesitation. I love making macarons, and love to experiment with new colors, flavors, etc. The only challenge was that they needed to match her wedding colors! She requested hot pink, orange, and lime green. All I had to go by was a set of photographs showing the exact colors she wanted, which I was expected to match precisely. I always make macarons that are very subtly colored, most times to coordinate with the filling. So these are the amounts that I ended up using to get the right colors: Hot pink: 1 ounce red + 1 ounce pink Orange: 1 ounce orange + 1 ounce yellow Lime green: 1 ounce leaf green The hot pink macarons had Nutella filling, the orange macarons had orange blossom filling, and the lime green macarons had vanilla bean filling.
French, italian and swiss method.