Having tried them out, I'm beginning to understand what the guy means.
Last night I rushed to the supermarket after work to get more eggs and ground almonds and made a single batch of chocolate macarons. Still the mixture felt a bit thick and even after about a minute of banging the tray on the table, they wouldn't really settle down.
I decided to try increasing the baking temperature to 180 degrees (gas mark 4). I also piped badly and ended up with one tray of large ones - about 5 cm diameter and one tray of tiny ones - about 2 cm diameter.
I baked the large ones for 20 minutes and the small ones for 15. They went a bit light in colour. I baked them one tray at a time in the middle of the main oven, then left them to cool down on their trays completely before prising them off. This time they'd baked nicely and came off the baking paper. They'd also risen quite a bit and cracked.
I must remember to use large eggs next time, so the mixture is a bit runnier. The little ones looked more like amaretto biscuits than macarons and in fact they are closely related according to Larousse Gastronomique. So there.
I also skipped the first resting period.
Tonight I combined them with the chocolate mousseline cream and here is the result:
Crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle and creamy with the cream. Lundulph approved, he's good like that.
Tonight I made a second batch with rose water and red food colouring, they're cooling now and I'll assemble them tomorrow. I increased the cornflour to 30 g and still the mixture was very runny, so will try making a Swiss meringue to make it firmer. As these set very nicely indeed because of that, I lowered the temperature to gas mark 3, 170 degrees. I wonder if the cornflour made them rise, but they did and cracked of course too. And went yellowish, not nice at all, they were supposed to be pink! Should probably have skipped the cornflour altogether. And drop the temperature to gas mark 2 (150 degrees). They baked for 15 minutes as well, fingers crossed that's enough. Here rescue instructions.
2 comments:
That was the article that made me start to obsess over macaroons :)
And since you posted your first entry on macaroons I've been forced to eat them at least twice, Fred and I had a rather strange mint one on Monday actually.
These look very good, you're obviously determined to perfect them!
Hm mint...
Well, the rose water macarons didn't work out, 15 minutes was not enough, so I'll be attempting a rescue mission tonight. Bah!
Lundulph is asking for coconut ones, but they don't seem to be the "traditional" ones.
Yes, I'm obsessing and determined to get the hang of them. The recipe itself is so easy I already know it by heart. I just need to crack the baking bit :-)
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