Monday, March 8, 2010

Macaroon Magic

After many months of lusting and fantasising over Macaroons (the brightly coloured chewy ones - not the icky coconut ones) I decided to attempt them myself. I have heard that they are difficult and fiddly and temperamental, which has put me off making them earlier.
However a good friend (and amazing photographer) gave me a really good recipe which he claimed, turned out perfect Macaroons.
And he was right. Oh god they are scrumptious!!

In following with the recipe, I will detail for you a few things I've learned.

Aging Egg whites:I didn't age mine and I think they worked out fine. I will try aging them next time to see if they turn out differently. I did make sure they were at room temperature though.

Size: I rolled my eyes when the recipe said "draw circles on your baking tray to make the right size" "pppffftt I can totally size them without lines" I thought. Wrong! Hence not many tops matched their bottoms.

Filling: Ganache needs to be made to the right measurements or your end up with a slippery goo that holds nothing together

Clean -up: Holey Moley they're messing to make. I ended up with sticky gooeyness everywhere when my piping bag had a blow out. Ensure you PLAN when cooking these and have enough space to make them.

Oven temp: Mine was too hot and they cracked a little bit. Don't just turn our oven up if you don't see 'feet' appearing!

All in all they were quiet simple to make and not that fiddley either. If you've been put off before by recipes that seem over complicated, give this one a go and tell me what you think!

2 comments:

Kylie said...

Oh wow... Now I have heard many people going into absolute rhapsodies about macaroons and I don't think I really believed them until I actually tasted one in Barcelona over the Christmas break... It was heaven. Every time I see an image of one my mouth starts watering these days :)
SO, I just can't tell you how excited I am about this recipe Bec :)) Thanks for the tips. Kx

Veronica Darling... said...

I want to eat them so badly! ARGH