Macaroons. In Conclusion

Remember, my first post about macaroons here and how horribly disappointed I was that they turned out horrible?

Well, here the photos of my 4th attempt at making it.

Not bad eh? Its still a work in progress but I'm getting closer to achieving

How does it taste?? Well you've got to ask Mr. Wonderful, ny friend Ming and bloggers, HP, Henry, Ying Zi and Josh, cos they got to taste it. :D

Well, I told Ying Zi, I'd blog about the recipe.

So what is a macaroon or in french, la macaron?

Well, in short, its a sweet confectionery that originated from Italy, and made popular by the French.

What's so special about it?

Its pretty and its delectable and making it, is a complete nightmare to make because you can get different results from such a simple recipe. Ask around and you'll find lots of people who attempted making it curse and swear.

So here's two disclaimer from someone who has (really) cried over the failures.

1. Be prepared to be disappointed if its your first try.

2. FOLLOW THE EXACT RECIPE, including the measurements and all.

So with that, if you still insist on giving it a try, here goes.

For the recipe, I actually followed the recipe from Not So Humble Pie. She goes really in depth into the science of making macaroons in pursuit of making the perfect macaroon including trouble shooting the process. She adjusted the recipe here, but I've not tried it yet since my 4th attempt so for now, I'll share her previous recipe :D.

Ingredients:

120g Ground almonds

200g confectioner's sugar

100g egg white

30-35g caster sugar

pinch of salt

food colouring

Utensils:

Round-bottom metal mixing bowl

Electric Mixer

Baking tray

waxed baking paper or silicone baking mat

spatula

piping bag

So for the recipe itself, (I'll be giving some tips along the way and the reason why I insist you need to do some things and etc.

1. Measure the ingredients to the EXACT measurement.

Any less,or any more will ruin it. Trust me.

2. SHIFT, the confectioner's sugar and ground almonds together and mix well.

I'll explain later why.

3. Line the baking trays with waxed baking paper.

2. Put the egg white into the mixing bowl with a pinch of salt and beat it with a mixer till its glossy and stiff.

Why I say a round bottom METAL mixing bowl, is because a flat bottom means the whisk on the mixer wont be able to get the egg white on the bottom and you won't be able to get that stiffness you need. (If you turn it upside down and it doesn't drop, its perfect. 

Why metal? Something about acidic reaction and blah blah blah. All I know is that metal bowls, makes better meringue.

You can also age the egg white for 24 hours but I don't cos I'm lazy. :P

3. As you beat the egg white, slowly add in the colouring and the caster sugar. Personal preference on how deep the colour you want to be.

4. Slowly, add a quarter of the sugar/almond mix into the egg whites and FOLD with a spatula until it mixes with the foam. Repeat till you've added all the mix in. Don't break the foam!

To do this, mix it in a circular motion on the edge of the bowl.

(these are pictures from my third attempt. Obviously, I didn't do it right cos its grainy and this is the reason why you should shift the sugar/almond)

5. Mix till the batter is thick but only slightly runny.

To know you've reached this point, do a test on a plate. drop some batter and the top should flatten after awhile without lossing its shape. If you over mix it, I'm sorry, I can't help you.

6. Spoon the batter into the piping bag.

You can make do with a plastic bag if you don't have one. It helps if you fold over the bag in a tall glass so it makes it easier to fill it up.

7. Pipe it into round even circles.

Make sure its evenly spaced out cos it'll spread. My piping needs work.

8. Tap the tray on the counter to bring up air bubbles and pop it with a toothpick!

9. Leave it to set for an hour to create the shell. (The bottom fluffy part is called the feet by the way)

Why an hour, cos in Singapore, the humidity is so high! Actually, even an hour is not enough, to create a proper shell. If you live an a low humidity area or have a humidity control thingy in your kitchen, half an hour is enough, sometimes even 10 minutes.

I left this out for 10 minutes, and the shells were too thin.

10. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius. I use a microwave/convention oven, so I don't need to do any pre-heating. The temperature range varies depending on your oven, if you know every quirks and idiosyncrasies of it, you can probably adjust accordingly. Usually the range is from 150 to 200 degree Celsius.

11. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Once again, depending on your oven. Let it cool.

As you can see, its important to use WAXED baking paper

Pretty horrible for my third attempt. But at least these went into the oven. My second attempt was thrown out cos I over mixed the batter.

Trying to pick it off the baking paper. Lol. The shells were so thin, they cracked that no feet formed. D:

So umm that's pretty much it. If you want to put some sort of filling, you can try jam which I used, or search for recipes for ganache online.

The filling I used for my fourth attempt.

I made it using 1/3 cheese cream, 1/3 icing sugar and 1/3 butter. This one, you can experiment on the ratio. :D

On a final note, here are a few things.

If you're confused over my instructions, here's a video I recommend watching to get a "visual" of how things are done and how things should look.

And I recommend really highly that you Not So Humble Pie before making any attempt whatsoever, and when you if you have any problem, just leave a comment and I'll see what I can help with? Lol.

Oh and thanks to HP and Ying Zi! I took your photos of my 4th attempt macaroon!