Seeking Macaroon Tips and Advice
Mon, 09/14/2009 - 10:05
I attempted hazelnut macaroons over the weekend. I've read a bunch of material and followed the recipe as closely as I could only to find that I was badly beaten down by the batter! Does anyone have any helpful tips, good starter recipes that I could look at? Any helpful tips from others who have been owned by the macaroon batter would be greatly appreciated! 
I attempted hazelnut macaroons over the weekend. I've read a bunch of material and followed the recipe as closely as I could only to find that I was badly beaten down by the batter! Does anyone have any helpful tips, good starter recipes that I could look at? Any helpful tips from others who have been owned by the macaroon batter would be greatly appreciated!
I have been on a macaron making binge lately and have had some success. If you go here it has the macaron recipe (by Helen of Tartelette) which uses the simple French method. Below are some links to the three methods of making macarons. Which method have you been using? A lot of bloggers like the Italian method because it gives more consistent results.
Resources
There are three methods for making macarons:-
French - which uses a simple medium hard meringue
Italian - which uses a heated sugar syrup to stablise the meringue
Spanish - which uses extra sugar in the meringue to help stablise it
Tartelette had written a long article called Demystifying Macarons (in Dessert Magazine #2 p36-43 see this link and go to page 38) on the French method which gives a whole host of tips and hints on the process.
David Lebovitz web page on macarons has an extensive listing of links about making macarons.
Syrup and Tang A macaron round-up which goes through the French and Italian methods in great detail and has many links to other resources.
Julia @ Mélanger has a beautiful description of the Italian method
Mecotte has a long descripton of the Italian method.
My Food Geek has a great Italian recipe with lots of photos.
The Spanish method is detailed in this article
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) My blog
Thank you SO much Audax! I attempted the French method last night. It started well and ended up being quite disasterous, involving some curses with the batter being flung into the trash can! Those resources are extremely helpful!
I have tried a few recipes, and I have had the best luck with the Desserts Magazine (referenced in earlier post above) recipe, which uses Italian merangue.
I have had varying luck with the feet, sometimes they came out and existed, other times not. I have yet to understand the best way to get reliable results. It will be interesting to see how this month's challenge comes out.
I was in France in this year and read several French cookbooks while there. They seemed to use both the raw merangue and the Italian cooked methods. I covet the new book by Pierre Herme, but it was too heavy to carry and I have not found it here!!
Hopefully we will all learn more as so many bakers make this month's challenge.
Shelley
Blogging at Riverlea Foods
Dear Ideco,
Greetings from the land of Macarons. I started making macarons a month or so back, and believe me it was so tough. i did a few classes with the school of Alain Ducasse, which really helped me understand what the technique is all about.
You can have a look at my blog: http://frostedenvy.blogspot.com/ where I have explained a bit about the process. I am in the process of outlining every single step and basically a step by step process of what to do and what not to do.
When I am done, I will definately keep you posted.
I hope you are successfull in making crunchy delicious macarons..
Bon appetit!
Whisking imagination into frosted divinity
Now that the macaron challenge is over, I have a few questions. First, I would like to make these possibly for a xmas party I'm catering in December.
Can they be frozen? For how long, filled or unfilled?
How can I can more intense colors. I'm using a Williams Sonoma gel coloring which seems really intense but they fade.
What is the best temp anyone has tried? My last ones I baked at 375 for 30 minutes. But Ihave read where someone started at 400 something and lowered it a few times every so many minutes.
Thanks.
Sherry
Now that the macaron challenge is over, I have a few questions. First, I would like to make these possibly for a xmas party I'm catering in December.
Can they be frozen? For how long, filled or unfilled?
How can I can more intense colors. I'm using a Williams Sonoma gel coloring which seems really intense but they fade.
What is the best temp anyone has tried? My last ones I baked at 375 for 30 minutes. But Ihave read where someone started at 400 something and lowered it a few times every so many minutes.
Thanks.
Sherry
Freeze the unfilled shells up to 6 weeks. Filled shells last about 5-6 days in the fridge best after 4 days. Unfilled shells in the fridge last about 7 days.
For the best colour use powdered colours but they are very expensive try powdered tea (test a few in small batches).
About the temperature try a few test batches and see what works best. I preheat to 160C then 150C for the rest of the baking time 12-15 mins. Everybody has a different technique, see my blog here for a long list of tips and hints about macarons - hope they help you can email me if you have any problems.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) My blog
I've heard a lot of people talk about powdered food coloring being expensive. I found these two sites that have it and it is less than $2.00. I'm going to try some of it for future macarons.
www.bakedeco.com and www.sugarcraft.com
Wonderful to know
This range only costs $1.60 each
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) My blog
Look forward to seeing all your tips and tricks. I made macaron's a while back and while they weren't a spectacular failure, they weren't that great (there is a sad picture of my footless macaron on my blog ). I am currently doing a heap of macaron related reading so that I will be up to speed once I get the nerve to try them again.
Cheers
"...It pleases us": Eating, drinking, cooking, friendship and family.