The Macaron Diaries

My work-life balance has been a little bit out of kilter for the past few weeks so I haven't been posting as often as I would like.  I tried to remedy this last weekend by making macarons and bringing you a charming vignette of how I did a macaron making course in Melbourne last year and overcome my macaron hoodoo.   Instead, the hoodoo struck in a big way.  I spent almost all of last Sunday trying different techniques and, at the end of a long and frustrating day, I had six useable macarons and a kitchen that looked like a train wreck.  I had food colouring on my bench, there were smears of coloured meringue on the floor and in my hair, and I somehow managed to burn my upper arm with a baking tray.  Not to be dissuaded, I spent the next couple of days thinking about where I went wrong, and had another go during the week.  I am pleased to report that I broke the hoodoo and was able to give my work colleagues some perfectly formed pre-Easter macarons.

Buoyed with my mid-week success, I had another go this morning.  The hoodoo decided to return just to make sure I didn't get too confident.  I had a Goldilocks and the Three Bears moment with my batter, and also managed to burn myself again.  However, I've come a long way since last week and I'm holding onto to that.  The secret to macarons seems to be practice, practice, practice and patience, patience, patience.  You also need to own a lot of bowls. 

Basic Macaron Recipe (makes about 35 macaron halves)

You need to start this recipe the day before, and be in a good mood.

125g almond meal
125g pure icing sugar
extra 25g pure icing sugar, sifted
100g egg whites
100g caster sugar
pinch cream of tartar
15ml food colouring

Put the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor and process until you get a fine powder.  Do not over-process otherwise the almond meal will overheat and release its oils resulting in a runny batter.  Sieve the combined almond meal and icing sugar (known as 'tant pour tant') and leave overnight on a covered tray or baking tin to dry out. 

Separate the eggs the night before too as they need to clarify.  Refrigerate overnight, but take them out two hours beforehand as they need to be at room temperature when you use them.

Whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy and add the caster sugar in three batches.  Continue whisking until you reach a firm peak and the caster sugar has dissolved (test by rubbing a small amount between your thumb and forefinger and if you can feel grains, keep whisking).  Add the colour, and whisk until combined.  Colours fade in the oven so you need more than you think, but do not add more than 15ml otherwise the batter will become too runny. 

Add the tant pour tant and the extra icing sugar to the meringue and mix until you get a smooth batter.  This mixing process is known as 'macaronage'.  Despite all the hard work that you've put into your macarons up until this point, it is the macaronage that makes or breaks the macaron. Not enough mixing results in macarons with peaks, and too little mixing creates a flat disk that sticks to the baking paper and crumbles easily.  To get the consistency just right, test by peaking the batter with your thumb and forefinger.  If it stays peaked for more than a minute, keep going.  If it de-peaks within a few seconds, you've gone too far.  It is at this moment that you feel crushed and wonder why you started making macarons in the first place.  This is when I had my Goldilocks moment.  The batter for the lavender batch was too firm, the pink batch was too runny and the green batter was just right.

Too firm

Just right

The end results - too firm, too soft and just right

Mark circles onto some baking paper.  I used an upside-down medicine measure, which is 4.5cm in diameter.  Put the baking paper under a silpat mat or some baking paper, and place on a baking tray.

Using a 12 mm piping tube, pipe away, but don't pipe to the edge of the circles as the batter will spread.  Give the tray a tap to de-peak the macarons.  Leave the macarons to dry on the baking tray as they need to form a skin.  Depending on the weather, this may take 30 minutes or more than an hour.  Test by lightly tapping the macaron with your finger and, if the batter sticks to it, continue the drying process.

Put the macarons in a 160 degree celsius oven for 12 minutes.  Allow the macarons to cool before removing them from the mat.  I used both the silpat mat and baking paper, and the silpat mat gives a better result as the macaron is more evenly cooked, and is easier to remove.  Pair like sizes of macarons together and fill.  I used white chocolate ganache.

Making macarons is a confronting exercise.  You will find yourself questioning your ability to bake anything at all and wondering what led you down this path of frustration and insanity.  You will draw deeply on your reserves of patience and find yourself on the brink of disaster and disappointment at every step of the process. It is a marathon effort, but they are just so cute and dainty, and you just know you are going to make them again....and again.

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