Macaron Comparison Post

You can see in the background the one I munched on! :)

Good Morning all! I hear the weather is supposed to be grand today, so here is hoping!

As promised, here is my comparison post for the Macaron I made on Friday 14th August. These are subtle differences, but make the difference when you are making them.

All the ingredients are the same, just combined differently. The ingredients you'll need are;

- 125g Ground Almonds
- 125g Icing Sugar

Mix these two ingredients together to form a light, sandy colour and set aside.

- 90g Egg Whites

Whisk these in a clean bowl until the are puffed up and white and fluffy. The nice thing about eggs is that they get brighter and lighter in colour when they are whisked and then even more so when sugar is added. It is almost like they are happy and brightening up because they are being made into something delicious. Just me thinking that?... Naturally.

- 110g Caster Sugar

Whisk the sugar gradually into the egg whites until it is all combined. Then whisk on a high speed until thick, glossy and forming stiff peaks. This is when it will stand up on its own when a dollop is taken on a spatula and it doesn't fall off, but it stays there.

This is the first subtle, but makes a difference, difference. I am making a French meringue I think, French being the one most of us tend to do when making meringue. Which is not making a sugar syrup, but just adding the sugar on its own.

At this stage, you'll want to add the colouring if wanted. But don't over whisk it or you'll loose all that wonderful air you've just whisked in. If you did over whisk, which I have done in the past, you'll end up with an equally glossy mix, but it will have the consistency of a liquid, all droopy and doesn't hold its shape. Sad. ):

Piping the Macaron and allowing them to form their skins

Fit your piping bag with a plain nozzle and twist the end then tuck it into the nozzle. This is a handy wee trick that I do to stop the filling falling out the other end before I've finished filling the bag.

Put the piping bag inside a jug and wrap the piping bag around the edges on the top rim of the jug. This again, makes it easier when doing it on your own. Personally I'd love a third hand, but we can't have everything we want. It would make things so much easier. Lol!

Fill your piping bag with the Macaron batter and pipe onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment. Not the silicone. This is another subtle difference, I wanted to see whether a different surface would change anything. And yes, you will notice I have piped onto some silicone mats, but again that is to compare the parchment and the silicone both with this varied recipe.

Pipe similar sized rounds onto your mat. Hold your piping bag vertically above where you are piping, none of this slanted business. Pipe until your desired size and then in one quick movement, bring the bag up away from the piping zone, this will hopefully, if I have explained it thoroughly enough, create a clean break between piped macaron and piping bag. This will leave you with a nice wee Macaron, or the makings of one.

After they are all piped out, go to a clean, wooden counter top. Any hard surface will do. Take your tray and hover it above the counter or surface. Drop. Let the tray fall to the counter. This is a controlled drop, it will burst all of the air bubbles out of the Macaroons and this will also allow them to spread out so that when they bake, they don't do some bazaar stuff and spread in the oven in a weird way.

Then wet your finger with water and flick the excess away. With your now damp finger tap the top of the macaron where there is a little blip from piping. Gently press and flatten this and then leave them alone. When they are all done, bring them into a cool, dry place to allow them to prove.

You want to give these a good hour and a half to prove to ensure they are protected and won't crack when baking. This is another subtle change, as last time I didn't prove for that long, and even though they tasted yum, a few had a few little cracks. Not ideal for a perfectionist, like myself. Sometimes I can be too picky though, so if yours have cracks, that's cool. I'm all about home baking. It isn't supposed to look like it was made in a factory environment, this is me, my kitchen and my oven, specific to the way I work and the way it works. The oven and I are best buds!

Today was a much cooler day and this made it ideal for Macaron making! Yay!

Baking the Macaron;

Have your oven preheated a good 40 mins before needing to use it. If your house is cold, don't put the heating on, wait until your oven is preheating- this will heat up the house rightly!

Pop one tray in the oven at a time into the middle shelf of the oven. This is the prime shelf, it has the best heat and air circulation and allows the Macaron to cook evenly. The middle shelf in the oevn is like the suite in a hotel, the box in an opera house, the bottomless of Pringles tins! Pure bliss is the middle shelf of the oven!

If you were to cook them all at once, on say all three shelves, they would come out at different times and shades possibly.

Cook these for around 10 minutes. I have found that depending on the day and temperature and oven, these times will vary. So basically when baking these, you and the oven must be one. You can't go and do the ironing or play with the dog when these are baking- it isn't like they are bread or cake, these can change within seconds from being perfect to beastly!

See how they have a bottom and foot- parchment = Success!

Once they are cooked leave them in a cool room and allow them to cool completely.

This is another subtle difference, with this method, they come out with a more stable structure, slightly crunchy but wonderfully gooey and chewy on the inside. They will keep for up to a week and a half in a cool, air tight space.

Another interesting thing is that when baked on the silicone, the Macaron come off slightly hollow, in that the middle sticks to the mat, which is fine. I just fill that hollow space in the Macaron with filling and it makes no difference. But on the parchment, it comes away clean and with a bottom to go along with its foot. Yay! This is why I tend to use parchment, opposed to silicone. But I impulse bought these new mats and had to justify them in some way by using them at least once for what they were intended for.

So this was a good experience, as I now prefer parchment for Macaron. The silicone won't go to waste though, there's biscuits, and breads and all that to use them for. Macaron are sticky you see when in batter form, with would make them stick to things like that.


Filling the Macaron;

Take all the Macaron halves off of their baking sheets and set aside on the curved tops. This allows the base to dry out a bit more, making it easier to pipe onto.

You can have whipped cream, lemon curd, chocolate ganache, buttercream, whatever really with these. But I'm just gonna fill these when I eat them.

The other thing when making these is that when you are making them, don't fill them until you are serving them, as it will make them soggy slightly. They preserve and store better if you package them and then fill as needed.

Take another piping bag and snip the end, to give a small hole. Put whatever filling you have chosen in and then pipe onto the Macaron. Start in the middle and then bring the piping bag up until you have your desired amount. You want enough to be able to see the filling when the Macaron are sandwiched together, but not an overload, or the Macaron will be overpowered by the filling and it will also drop out and ruin the appearance. ):

Plate up and eat! Thanks again and I'll be back soon for more.