Day Four

I think that today might be the hardest day to get past. The fatigue right before entering the home straight in a race. Well I will persevere.

Uneven feet and cracked tops

Today’s macarons were under mixed. Which I have to admit feels like a bit of a triumph although the produced was a step down from yesterday. Under mixed macarons can be fixed before piping, over mixed ones can't. So now I'll take the 30sec test a little more serious, i.e. if the ribbon hasn't melded with the batter at the end of 30sec then I'll mix a little more. The thing that made the difference in my batter was the fact that I made a full batch and it is much easier to whip a strong meringue with a full batch. Not only does it take longer for a larger quantity of sugar and water to reach 110oC (who knew) but it is also much easier to whip a larger volume of egg white, so I was able to get the egg whites to a stiff peak well before 110o and then just maintained the volume.

Chocolate caramel macarons

The macarons were still shiny on top, but a lot of them had a little raised bit in the centre (over mixing) and the feet didn't form evenly. Some of them didn't have feet at all (now they can't run away, muhaha) and those that did had a foot on one side and not the other. I'm not certain if this was a factor related to under mixing or not, I'll have to look that up.

Chocolate ganache filled

I found a macaron trouble shooting guide on food nouveau, while this guide is exclusively for French method macarons I think that i can follow Marie's advice about uneven feet: only rest between 20-40min and when using an oven with poor circulation (yes!) leave the door ajar with a wedged wooden spoon. So considering that I have to put my macarons in the oven in two batches I'll let them sit for 20min, bake 2 trays (15min) and then put in the last two trays. 

Pulse

Day Three

Catching the afternoon sun

 

When todays Macarons came out of the oven I stood there looking at them, "Is that it, is this what they're supposed to look like? They look pretty good, but I don't know". And I realised that I've never actually eaten a store bought macaron. I've seen them through the glass and I came close to eating one at a high tea, but got distracted by all the other delicious food. And none of these experiences or all the pictures I've looked at really give me an idea of what my finished product is supposed to be. 

Lemon Butter Filling

Well I'll just keep going with the challenge and see if I can reproduce the same quality of macaroons or improve them a little more, either way and I'll be happy. 

The trick of leaving them on the bench (20min today) really worked and I had no more cracked tops and the macaroons had some real height to them. I'm thinking of leaving them a little longer tomorrow. There is also the issue of which rack in the oven to put the trays on. The oven I'm using is particularly zealous in heating from the bottom up so anything below the bottom half is off limits. Today I baked them in two batches one after the over on the third rack down. This is a good rack but I end up with macarons that have sat on the bench for different lengths of time and therefore have slightly different heights (the ones that sat for longer were higher).

Smooth tops thanks to sitting on the bench before baking

While I was mixing up this batch I did start to wonder about my Italian meringue. Was it stiff enough? At the end of whipping in the syrup I would say that it was at a soft peak stage, but I suppose it should be a stiff peak. More research (i.e. a quick study break from researching raw milk cheeses to look up Italian meringue) A few webpages and a youtube video later and here’s what I know: Italian Meringue should be at a stiff peak and I can't over whip it so I'll just keep whipping until I'm happy with the consistency. 

I've also decided that I need a little practice in piping the filling. It’s actually quite tricky to pipe just the right amount, not too little or too much. Like most things in life practice makes perfect.

Not enough filling, but oh so perfect

Let’s hope tomorrows macarons are just as good or better!!

Pulse