french macaron #1 :: macaron massacre
I have read blog after blog about making French macarons - they are all soooo different I wasn't quite sure where to start. So I took the recipe for the basic macaron - no fancy colors, fillings or etc. - from here. Seems she'd tried most everything and worked out the kinks.
I used the above ingredients measured to the exact gram!
125 grams almond flour
225 grams powdered sugar
3 egg whites
25 grams of sugar
Pinch cream of tartar.
I had even let the egg whites sit for 36 hrs in the fridge and brought them to room temp this morning (about an hour or so). I have read that this helps quite a lot, but also that using fresh eggs works best. Clearly I did not have that option. I may have to hit the farmer's marked for the next try.
I put the almond flower (purchased @ Whole Foods) into the food processor - ran that till it was much finer - added the powdered sugar and processed together. Then sift. Now here is one step that I did wrong - I sifted once and should have sifted twice... Somehow I don't think this was the problem tho.
The batter looked perfect - like thick magma as described by many a blog! It is possible that I over folded, but I limited to folding to 50 folds - and everything was blended pretty good. I combined the dry to the egg whites in three batches - I've read anything between 2-6.
Piping was easy - used my wilton bags and they came out beautifully. I made them too big and spaced them too close together...
I wanted to go with peppermint garnish - so I pulverized some candy canes and sprinkled on top - I think this was OK, but maybe too heavy in one spot... dunno.
I let them set for 30 minutes on the counter (rapped them once on the counter to flatten, though I didn't really need that). At five minutes in the oven they were perfect - round with little feet forming then all hell broke loose and the feet took over. They are basically hollow shells with all their guts spilling out --- what did I do wrong??? Did I over fold? Did I over or under beat the egg whites? Did I bake at the wrong temp? What?
Only a couple of them cracked their tops, but these feet are 100% wrong. I will now have macaron mush to eat... hmmm. I'll keep you posted when I try again. I am determined to get these right!!!
