Before I realised it, it was 6:30pm. I was exhausted and I pretty much gave up on thought of driving tonight. Luckily I didn't pack all my clothes and toiletries in the car so I've still got PJs and my all important toothbrush with me without having to raid my car for essentials. So I shall leave in the morning after the peak hour traffic has mostly lifted. It'll take a good hour to get through Pennant Hills Road if its peak hour and that's definitely a road that I don't want to be stuck on.
So anyway.... when my brother got home, I told him to take photos of my macarons. The red ones are filled with a Dark Chocolate Orange ganache and the green ones are White Chocolate Pistachio. Here's a few goodies! (Note: I resized these like crazy down to 80kb~ from the whopping 6Mb~ files that they were.)
"Help me!"
King of the Hill
I always knew those pellets were sweet...
I think I've nearly perfected my recipe & procedure for making macarons. From all my numerous trials and errors, I've figured out 10 main tips to follow when making them. I could be wrong but hell, these are just some of my findings.
1) The finer the almond meal is, the smoother the macaron shell will be. It seems like a bit of a waste of both almond meal and money (It costs $6.50 for a 200 gram packet of Lucky Nuts Almond Meal) but its worth it if you want a smoother and less grainier shell. If you look at my photos, you'll notice that the green ones aren't as smooth where as the red ones are. So when I sift the almond meal and get to those larger chunks at the end, I throw them out. There's maybe 2-3gms of crumbs there so (imo) I don't think it hurts the recipe too much. I also try not to use the remaining almond meal in the packet if there's some left from a previous batch. But if I do, I generally don't try forcing the bigger flakes through the sieve.
2) Soft white glossy peaks. Beat the egg white till it reaches maximum froth then gradually add the caster sugar while beating until the meringue has soft white glossy peaks. You'll know when the peaks are soft when you lift the beaters up (while off), peaks form and fold over on their own. If they don't fold over and stay standing up straight, you've over beaten the meringue into the hard stiff peak stage. When adding the food colouring, try not to beat the meringue too much more otherwise you'll reach the hard stiff peak stage and you'll get a hard ass macaron shell.
3) Add meringue to almond meal/icing sugar in 2 batches. *Cut* the meringue mixture in half and add to the dry mix. Fold the mixture together so that everything combines. When you reach the point where there's only a bit of dry mixture left with the paste, add the rest of the meringue. Fold the paste and meringue well so that you get a smooth and even consistency. This allows you to have better control over how much the mixture is being mixed together. If you put all the meringue into the dry ingredients, you risk over mixing it and possibly developing a bubbly macaron. The Shell mixture is perfect when you are able to lift the spatula (while holding it horizontally) and the mixture smoothens out slowly off the spatula. If it runs too quickly, its been over beaten. If it is too stiff, its under beaten and chances are your shells wont flatten out after piping.
4) Piping bag is your friend. Not to bag out those needle looking contraptions for baking, but I think that they're just too difficult to control. I usually get the disposable piping bags with the tips (I've modded one tip to make the hole bigger) but I couldn't find them at the shops today. So I created my own: got the biggest ziplock bag I could possible get, folded over the bottom corner to make a scaline triangle, cut the excess plastic, fold the open edge a few times and taped it down with clear packing tape and magic tape. Then, cut 1-2cm off the bottom tip of the bag and slip in the modded plastic tip. Viola! Massive piping bag! The tip should sit in the bottom of the bag tightly so that it doesn't slip out while piping. These tips came with a cap to keep it securely on the bag. Since it was so big, I was able to put the entire batch into the bag which was awesome. It's easiest to fill the bag by sitting it in a tall glass and using a spatula to spoon in the mixture. When the bag is filled, zip up the bag while removing the air and twist it off. Purrfect!
5) Silicon slipmat vs Baking Paper. I haven't quite worked this one out but I've found that you SHOULD NOT USE CHEAP BAKING PAPER. The shells stick to the cheap stuff like cash to a hooker (pardon the expression). I've gotten the best (varying) results from a combination of the GLAD Bake Baking Paper and two different types of silicon slipmats. One of the slip mats seems better than the other but I seem to get the best results out of the GLAD Bake Baking paper, which I think I will use more often than the silicon mats. I've found that the bottom of the shells dry more evenly from the heat of the aluminium baking tray with GLAD Bake compared to the silicon mats. My silicon mats may possibly be too thick(?) hence why the bottoms aren't drying properly.
6) Piping templates are awesome. They're easily availble off the Net so just print a few off and slip them under the paper/slipmat when you're ready to pipe. When piping, squeeze out mixture vertically into the center of the circle of the piping template (on the slipmat/baking paper, of course) then finish off it off with a 12 o'clock to 6' o'clock action. The extra action minimises the potential for that little tip on the top of the shell. If the shells don't smooth out on their own, you can use the back of a damp spoon to flatten it, BUT DON'T WET THE SPOON TOO MUCH. The shell won't develop that layer of 'skin' if you use too much water. Perform the wet spoon trick is AT YOUR OWN RISK.
7) Dry time is important. Different recipe versions say different drying times. Some say 15 minutes, others 30 minutes, and a few say 45 minutes. I say, 1 hour or MORE! The drying time allows the shells to develop the skin that will help it to keep its shape and develop those much wanted 'feet'. You should be able to lightly touch your piped shells and keep your finger clean. If some of the mixture goes onto your finger, it hasn't developed that skin. So, leave it alone.. for longer. And make sure the trays are resting on a table top area that is flat and LEVEL.
8) Bake one tray at a time. It sucks to have to wait and watch patiently for these suckers to cook but just bake one tray at a time on the middle shelf of your oven. It's easier to keep track of how each tray turns out. If the first tray screws up, change the heat for the consecutive trays. Oven temperatures also vary like crazy which is incredibly annoying. The oven at my parents house is fan forced while the oven at my beach house is not. My recipe says to cook the shells at 130"C for fan forced but they burned and cracked in my parents oven so now I cook them at 110"C. If the tops of the shells are cracking in the first half of baking, the oven is too hot. The shells will also dis-colour if the oven is too hot. Also, I read that if the specified drying time has been reached and the shells don't come off cleanly, put the tray back in for a minute or two. Turn down the temp just a bit so you don't risk burning them. The extra time in the oven helps a little bit to dry them out a bit more.
9) More chocolate for thicker ganache. I like making a thick ganache so I've modded my recipe to include more cooking chocolate. The original recipe says 150gms cooking chocolate but I use 200 grams. I still use the original 1/4 cup of thickened cream. So, my general technique to make ganache is to heat the thickened cream just a bit in the double boiler/metal bowl on pot of boiling-simmering water then add the cooking chocolate. Stir the ganache vigorously until smooth, then Remove from heat. You can add extra goodies to your ganache at this stage - crushed pistachios, finely chopped/grated orange peel, peppermint essense... etc etc.. It all depends on what kind of ganache you want to make. There are a multitude of possibilities that I have yet to try.
10) Coordinate colours with flavour. I've made a few weird combinations of macarons but I think it is important to coordinate the colour of your macaron shells with the flavour of your ganache. The better they look, the more likely it is easier to gauge what flavour they'll be and they'll taste better too since you're brain is working with the combination of the colours. So while the idea of having a Pink shell macaron with a pistachio ganache tastes great, it doesn't quite tingle the taste buds in your mind. A green shell is better to coordinate with pistachio since its green! Just like, Pink shells should go with white chocolate ganache and yellow shells should go with lemon ganache.. etc etc..
So there you go.. I've been able to make a few perfect macarons here and there but its all about trial and error, plus a whole lot of patience! I figured these tips out from making about 20+ batches of macarons, each of which have failed in some aspect. I hope they will be of help next time you try to make these devilish treats.
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