Chocolate macaroons
Friday morning, a hot Friday morning, yuck. Humidity is high, the macaroon shells I made yesterday are very soft. Humidity has eaten 'em up. In fact, I was in a macaroon funk yesterday. The macaroon Bermuda Triangle. I'm trying to make chocolate macaroons. Truth is, I've never been happy with my chocolate macaroons. I always think other peoples chocolate macaroons are nicer. To make Parisian macaroons, we blend almond flour, powdered sugar, and a little egg white. We add either a little colour i.e. green for pistachio, pink for raspberry or cocoa powder for chocolate. We also add add a little red colour to the chocolate mix. In a separate kettle, we whip egg whites and thread in boiled sugar, to make an Italian meringue. The two stages get folded together and piped out. Macaroons are the devil's work. I mean it. Of all the things we make, nothing is as temperamental as macaroons. A true, true measure of a baker's skill.
Yesterday, I made two batches, only because I had to exercise my father's belief about a dependable scavenger service, if ya know what I mean. In the first batch I used a new red colour. I think it was oil based and my macaroons cracked open on top, in the oven. The second mix baked better, I mean we can use them, but they are not perfect. I was on the phone with another baker and I forgot about the macaroons and they got really dry before they were baked and in the oven they rolled to one side, instead of coming straight up. Problem is that every time I make the chocolate ones, I keep trying to improve them. Sometimes I make progress, sometimes I go backwards. Unique to baking as apposed to cooking, you can't judge an item until it's finished. When you are cooking soup, you can taste it and make adjustment. If you make changes in a cookie recipe, you have to bake it before you can decide on it.
Incidentally, I'm very pleased with our filled macaroons, pistachio, raspberry, mocha, caramel and rose. I gotta say they are spot on. I'll get the chocolate ones figured out.
Gotta get upstairs. My ganache is probably melted enough, so I can pipe it. The tricky part is gonna be gettin' the macaroons shells off the baking paper.
Yesterday, I made two batches, only because I had to exercise my father's belief about a dependable scavenger service, if ya know what I mean. In the first batch I used a new red colour. I think it was oil based and my macaroons cracked open on top, in the oven. The second mix baked better, I mean we can use them, but they are not perfect. I was on the phone with another baker and I forgot about the macaroons and they got really dry before they were baked and in the oven they rolled to one side, instead of coming straight up. Problem is that every time I make the chocolate ones, I keep trying to improve them. Sometimes I make progress, sometimes I go backwards. Unique to baking as apposed to cooking, you can't judge an item until it's finished. When you are cooking soup, you can taste it and make adjustment. If you make changes in a cookie recipe, you have to bake it before you can decide on it.
Incidentally, I'm very pleased with our filled macaroons, pistachio, raspberry, mocha, caramel and rose. I gotta say they are spot on. I'll get the chocolate ones figured out.
Gotta get upstairs. My ganache is probably melted enough, so I can pipe it. The tricky part is gonna be gettin' the macaroons shells off the baking paper.
posted by Jory Downer at
7:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home