macaron madness

After a sunny afternoon spent relaxing on my roof, I had a compelling urge to make macarons. While so many other bloggers are baking and blogging about these marvelous beauties, I do not consider myself “jumping on the macaron bandwagon”. My slight obsession with making macarons has been prominent for quite some time now (I’m starting to think that I have a seriously addictive personality!); I just have yet to really post about them.

I usually use a French meringue-based recipe with which I am quite comfortable and successful. But, ever since first attempting macarons, I have been on a quest to improve and find the best recipe, as well as having wanted to attempt Italian meringue based macarons for quite some time now. The macarons on Helen’s blog Tartlette have always mesmorized me. They are always so beautiful – perfectly round, risen and shiny – ahhh such inspiration. I have wanted to try her recipe ever since first stumbling across her blog. And so I did. I went outside of my realm of familiarity and tried her recipe…but, unfortunately, with only partial success.

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Ready to bake, I gathered my silpats and ingredients and began whipping and folding. Italian meringue recipes are really no more difficult than those using French meringue, they just take a little longer as you must wait for the meringue to cool before folding it into the TPT. I did notice, however, that the batter did not resemble the batter of the macarons I am used to making. As a result, I was concerned if I had folded enough or too much or even achieved the correct “macaronage”.

I piped 4 trays of little rounds, let them sit out to dry and then popped my macs into the oven. After just 5 minutes the macarons formed their adorable feet and the tops were smooth and flat, but to my horror, the feet on the first two trays were lopsided! My other two trays, however, came out beautifully even except for a little “ledge” that formed on the edge of the shell before the feet – as in the feet do not extend all the way to the edge of the macaron, but rather starts underneath. I also noticed that they did not have the shiny sheen that my previous macaron successes have acquired.

lopsided and ledges oh my!

After cooling, I took a bite of one and it was actually very good. The thin crunchy skin slightly crackles and collapsed into the moist and chewy inside, making for a delicious bite. But still mystified as to my lopsided macarons, I emailed Helen to ask her advice…

First, she gives me hope when she stated that it took her a couple
of times to be comfortable with the Italian meringue base. But now she
does not want to switch back!

About the ledge before the feet on my macarons, she told me that
they are really not that bad, but to keep in mind that the Italian meringue
is much more susceptible to outside agents than the French. She believes the
humidity acts up on the air whipped in the whites, and the environment makes
it tricky from what when we think we have folded enough and what actually
happens with the molecules in the whites. Helen also confided that those
edges sometimes happen to her when the humidity is high outside, so she
tends to make macarons when the humidity is low.

As for the appropriate folding, it is hard to determine when first working with a
recipe. It takes trial and error. Knowing when to stop folding is really a
matter of practice – the more you make them, the more you feel when to stop. I
am very comfortable with the amount of folding it requires to get the right
consistency on French meringue based recipes, but I guess I will just have to
keep working with this recipe to figure it out. I believe I may have underfolded
just slightly, but only practice will tell….if you have any ideas or advice
to share regarding the folding, I would be forever grateful!

And her suggestion for the lopsided macarons – when you hook them together, add two pieces of licorice to the top, and you have a macaron monster!

Almost forget – I ended up making lavender macarons by adding finely ground dried lavender to the TPT. Unfortunately I could not find my purple coloring, so they remain pale and not a lovely lavender hue to so synonymous with lavender macarons. I also remembered that I still had a little batch of white chocolate lavender ganache from some chocolates I had made earlier and decided to use that as a filling for sandwiching the shells. I’m sorry I don’t have a recipe for the white chocolate ganache; I think it was a 2:1 ratio of white chocolate to cream and the cream was gently infused with a bit of lavender and a vanilla bean before
making the ganache.

While this first attempt was acceptable and yummy, it was certainly far from perfect. Yet, I can just tell that Helen’s recipe works and has the potential to create a perfect macaron. Macarons are finicky, but a great challenge that I intend to perfect. While I didn’t take Helen’s suggestion to make little macaron monsters, I did eat my fair share of the lopsided ones! The good ones, I’ll be sure to savor slowly and share with friends.

innards

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