French Macarons 3

You’ll be so glad to know this post is subtitled, “And now I’m going to shut up about macarons.”  Because after this, I promise I am.  I am quite satisfied, for now, with the results of my most recent macaron baking fast.

Yes, I’m a freak, I baked another batch tonight.  I think this time I folded just the right amount because I piped out the macarons and the tips disappeared, though it did take awhile for that to happen.  Also, the feet were high.  I’m talking, “Daaaaaaamn son!” high.

Let’s take a look at the evidence.  Here’s a picture of the bottoms:

On the left side are yesterday’s Silpat adventure.  See how they’re all sort of sponge-y looking?  And you probably can’t tell, but the bottom left is actually concave.  Also, overall, they’re larger because I likely overfolded and they spread more after being piped.  On the right side are the results parchment produces.  Look, the bottoms are smoother!  And even though the tips were more pronounced upon piping, they slowly (like over an hour) sank back in.  Also, you can definitely see which ones were single-trayed, as the bottoms just look firmer.

Tonight, I piped out 4 trays.  I kept the same 1:1.2:2.35 ratio and I had only 92g of egg whites this time as opposed to 100g.  And even though I didn’t mean to, I actually let these sit out for over an hour.  It wasn’t on purpose, I just decided to make homemade potato chips tonight (I know, I’m a freak) and it took longer than I expected.

Here’s a side view (top to bottom, trays 1 – 4):

Tray 1: Rest, something ridiculous.  Like 1h20 I believe.  Double trayed.  Baked 12 minutes with a starting oven temperature of 350-degrees and then dropped down to 300-degrees.  As you can see, these are hollow because the insides collapsed after pulling them out of the oven.  Every single macaron I baked yesterday had even more dramatic hollows than Tray 1.

Tray 2: Rest, 1h32.  Single trayed.  Baked 8 minutes.  I forgot to bring the oven temperature back up, so baked continuously at 300-degrees F.  Less dramatic hollow.

Tray 3: Rest 1h40.  Single trayed, using the high/low temperature method.  Baked 8 minutes.  These, I flipped over to cool upside down actually.  Looks not bad.

Tray 4: Rest 1h48.  Double trayed, using a constant 300-degrees F temperature.  Baked 12 minutes.  Flipped over to cool.  These look like the best of the bunch.

Upon inspection, the bottoms of Tray 4 are the softest, but I was also anxious to get the results and probably peeled them off too soon.  They are soft on the inside and not sticky, which I appreciate.  I am also glad the cookies did not collapse, so I will definitely cool them upside down in the future.  I also tend to like the long and low method of baking, but mostly because I know I’ll just forget to keep raising the temperature.

And now with that said, one thing I have learned about making macarons is to definitely make sure that the egg whites are foamy before adding any sugar.  They should at least double in size, you want to make sure to really break up the egg whites before adding any sugar.  Otherwise, your egg whites won’t achieve the volume and structure it needs.  I’ve also taken to adding 1/4 tsp. of cream of tartar.  Do this step on low.  Add the granulated sugar incrementally until well combined, then amp up the power to high.

Foamy!  The bubbles in the egg whites should be small and uniformly distributed.  Initially, big bubbles will form but really make sure you whip the egg whites.

Also, don’t be afraid to really bang the cookie sheets after piping.  You want to make sure to release any large air bubbles in the batter.  The way you pipe them is pretty much the way they’re going to bake (with the exception of the tips sinking back into the batter).

In conclusion, I think I have clearly demonstrated that I am a freak.  The amount of time I’ve spent baking macarons these past two weeks is probably bordering on unhealthy.  You know it’s bad when your husband walks through the door, looks at the cookie trays on the table and can’t even muster up a single emotion besides reserved resignation.

French Macarons 2

This post is subtitled, “Why yes, I am going to obsessively track my macaron progress.”

I was analyzing my recent macaron progress and realized I was having some issues with hollow shells.  Based on reading online tutorials, I believe that my problem lies with a too-hot oven or being baked too long.  I’ve been using two oven thermometers so unless my oven is possessed (hmmm, possible), I was baking them at the temperature I intended.  It was starting to look like tweaking my baking procedure was in order.

I think you can guess where this is heading.  I did indeed make another macaron batch today.  I decided to stop getting fancy with flavors and really master a basic macaron recipe first.  Today, I opted for a 1:1.2:2.35 ratio of egg whites to almond meal to powdered sugar.  The level of precision to which I have approached this would make Brian proud!  It seems like just yesterday he was wigging out at me for not leveling my cups of flour with a knife.  Ah, so young, so inexperienced.

I’m still continuing on with the French meringue method.  I thought briefly about using an Italian meringue, but then reminded myself to master one thing at a time.  And it’s not that I don’t think my shells as they are currently baking taste unpleasant.  It’s just that I know that they could be SO MUCH better!

So I whipped up a batch again.  No flavoring, just sugar, almond meal, egg whites and my technique.  I suspect I over-folded a bit this time around.

I piped the rounds onto Silpats this time around (yes, I know I said I didn’t like Silpats but I thought I would give them a chance to redeem themselves).  I opted for a “high heat, low heat” method.  I think the theory is the high heat will puff the shells up initially while the lower heat will allow the insides to cook properly and prevent hollow shells.  So I would raise the temperature back up to 350-degrees F, drop it to 300-degrees F, then open the oven door and pop in a tray.

Tray 1: Rest 20 minutes.  Double trayed.  12 minute bake.  Feet projected outwards rather than up so overall height was low.  I immediately removed these from the hot baking tray and let cool on a rack.  The bottoms were sticky (a problem I always have with Silpats), so I stuck them in the freezer before removal.  Many of them actually had concave bottoms.  :(  The ones that were flat on the bottom had slight hollow-ness.

Tray 2: Rest 40 minutes.  Single trayed.  8 minute bake.  These baked the highest.  Same issue as before, sticky bottoms.  The hollow was a bit more pronounced here and the bottom was thicker.  I suspect that the insides collapsed shortly after removing from the oven.  A tip I’ve seen to prevent that is to let them cool upside down, but the sticky bottoms prevent that.  Now that I think about it, I wonder if immediately turning them upside down while still attached to the Silpat would have fixed that.  Ah, perhaps another day.

Tray 3: Rest 55 minutes.  Single trayed.  9 minute bake.  Smaller foot.  Not as tall when baked.

Lessons Learned: Do not double tray Silpats when using your oven!  Melanie, have you seriously not learned that yet?  A medium rest is best.  Also, I think I should have tried double-baking the last tray to compare rest times and number of trays.  Eeek, too many variables.

Next Test: I think I’d like to try just baking them for longer at a lower, constant temperature but I do feel like I should test this same method using parchment.  I think I will probably do that, but pipe out a few macarons per sheet, so I can better examine the results.

Conclusions:  Anyone feel like macarons?  Come on over!  I’ll even brew a pot of tea, to help wash down the sugar.  :)

French Macarons

I have two secrets that I’m about to ‘fess up.  First, I have really horrible taste in music (okay, not so secret!) and the new 3Oh!3 song has been stuck in my head.  I mean, really stuck.  I’ll be doing something random and suddenly I’m humming, “My first kiss went a little like this!”  Darn you, catchy pop music!  (Here, you can listen to it yourself but please – don’t judge me!  Ahhhh,no judging!)

The second secret is that it has been a little over 2 weeks since I took a cooking class on macarons and I have made (gulp) seven batches. I had to double check to make sure I counted that right, because that is an appallingly high number for just two weeks, but it’s true, seven freakin’ batches of macarons.  Two vanilla bean, one lemon, one coconut, one passable chocolate and two not so passable chocolate ones.  From all of that, here is what I’ve learned:

- I prefer parchment to Silpats.  If I use parchment, I prefer to double-stack my cookie sheets, but I prefer single-stack for Silpats.
- I do not like making chocolate macarons anymore.  At all. For real.
- My favorite filling is ganache.  My second is something of lemon curd consistency.  And my least (by very far) is buttercream.
- My spice grinder really comes in handy.  It takes a bit more time than a food processor because it can only handle 1/2 cup increments, but I feel like it makes a finer grind.
- I double sift.  Sometimes, I will freak out and triple sift, but the only difference I’ve noticed is that I tend to make a huge mess during the third sift (watch out, sugar on the loose!).  So, with that knowledge, I think I will endorse a double sift.  I haven’t tried a single sift yet.

In so many tutorials, many people say “fold until mixture flows like magma.”  Seriously, people.  Of all the people in the world who want to make macarons, how many of those have ever even seen magma?  Does anyone out there know what magma is like?  Because I for sure don’t.  But once the instructor demonstrated what this mysterious “flows like magma” standard meant, it all sort of made sense.  I say “sort-of” because I still don’t get how exactly it flows like magma (I would like to see magma at work first), but I understand what they mean now.

Basically, when you fold the dry ingredients into the stiff-peaked egg whites, you want to fold them into submission.  Beat those egg whites down!  But not too vigorously!  You want them to have structure, but not too much.  If you run a knife through your battter, the line should disappear within 10 seconds.  Or if you scoop up some batter with your folding-instrument-of-choice, it should run from it in a thick ribbon and the ribbon should disappear within the batter in 10 seconds.  Ten seconds, good rule of thumb.

I’ve experimented with different ways to fold.  I’ve done a gentle fold where I slowly incorporated the mixture.  I’ve done a quick fold (no more than 20 or so enthusiastic folds).  It is hard to determine which method is better, except: any method with chocolate will equal automatic suck.  I’m not sure if it’s the addition of the cocoa powder or what, but every time I try to make chocolate ones, the batter gets super thick and goopy.  I don’t want to overfold, but it definitely does not achieve magma-status.  My first batch was decent, but I used a bit of water to tamp down annoying tips and I believe it broke my shell.  So they looked like brownie bites, but had a nice crispness to the exterior.  My second batch was unmitigated disaster.  They were like your worse chewy-brownie nightmare, all sticky in your teeth.  The fact that it sticks to your teeth should be a sign, brownies should not stick to your teeth like candy!  And the third batch was okay, they tasted like soft brownies.  So, no crisp shell and chewy interior and isn’t that what a macaron is all about?

Chocolate macarons, I wish I knew how to quit you.  I’m going to take some time off and make some other flavors, but  I know I won’t be able to resist you and I’m going to want to try again.  Please try not to break my heart next time!