Sunday, September 30, 2012

Macarons....and More Macarons....(I)


Life comes with its challenges, but we are here to overcome them.  Nevertheless, to overcome our challenges, we have to know our weakness.....and I knew that I would need  to put in practice my research background to experiment with macarons....

My friend S. who is French told me two tips for making macarons. First, I need to sift the almond and sugar together at least three time......but....Why?....I needed to know the reason behind, and as you can see without sifting almond and sugar together you end up with macaron full of clumps of almonds and powdered sugar....In any case, they were delicious, but clumpy... 
Clumpy macarons.....but delicious!

Second, I need a copper bowl for making the mix......but....Why?....I needed to know the reason behind the copper because I was not willing to buy an expensive bowl just to make macarons. There must be a reason....Thanks to Google I found the answer!...Egg whites are essentially proteins and water. Copper bowls have an ion which reacts with the protein of egg white, allowing the development of a stable foam and more voluminous. Would I buy a copper bowl just to make macarons? NO!....Therefore, I started to search for alternatives, and they exist. You can add two drops of lemon. or a pinch of cremor tartar in order to have the same effect as the copper bowls. Below, I made macarons with lemon drops (pink), and without lemon drops (white) and there is a difference in their height. In the green macaron, I wanted to try what happens if I put nuts on top.....not a good idea....!!

Although, my first round of macarons were not perfect, they were delicious and we ate them all! The fillings were white chocolate vanilla seeds ganache and pistachio, and mascarpone strawberry filling.

                       
                       


Knowing that the macarons mixture is better with some lemon drops, and that I am TERRIBLE at making round circles, I made a second round of macarons, but I bought a silicone mat with predesigned circles....and the result....much better!!




This time the fillings were blueberry lemon zest white chocolate ganache (yellow macaron), raspberry white chocolate ganache (green macaron),  lavender white chocolate ganache (purple macaron). These three were delicious. The red one has a filling of strawberry dark chocolate ganache, but we didn't like it.



And then.....came more macarons.....this time with saffron cardamom  white chocolate ganache ......SO GOOD!!


And of course....more macarons were made (from left to right)
Saffron cardamom  white chocolate ganache (I repeated it), candied orange peel and dark chocolate, vanilla lavender white chocolate ganache



Blueberry lavender  white chocolate ganache, salted caramel ganache (YUMMY), blueberry vanilla  white chocolate ganache.....


Like everything in life ..... Do not be intimidated by its challenges ...life is always testing us and the kitchen is one test more .... the important thing is to overcome the obstacles!
These delicious pastries are made from simple ingredients that we all know: egg whites, almonds and sugar .... For me it has been a learning process, and I realized that with practice (like everything in life), the technique has improved and the end result is better.

As with anything, you have to learn from your mistakes, weaknesses, and the environment around us. Before starting my learning by macarons, I read 37 recipes macarons (most blogs I follow), and even though many of them are different, they had similar patterns .....

As everything, one size does not fit all.....and we have to find the recipe that fit our oven, our technique, and  our skills.....

In the next post, I will go step by step by my mistakes and achievements in doing these macarons.....


For now...............ENJOY!!




4 comments:

  1. They look awesome! I love the pistachio ones. I am in love with that black macarons tray, very clever.

    Have a wonderful day :)

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  2. Fantástica entrada , gracias por compartirla , de la de cositas que me he enterado y que desconocía.
    Hasta ahora nunca los he hecho pero cualquier dia me animo porque se ven tan bonitos , con esos colores que alegran la vista y por supuesto también el paladar ;)

    Besinos guapa.

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  3. Pour un 1er essai. BRAVO!!!!!
    L'avantage des macarons est que même ratés, ils sont très bons à manger.
    A bientôt

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  4. Que bonitos se ven con tanto color y seguro que están de muerte.
    Yo todavía no me he atrevido porque lo veo muy complicado , pero tengo que hacerlos tarde o temprano.
    Un fuerte abrazo

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