I think that today might be the hardest day to get past. The fatigue right
before entering the home straight in a race. Well I will persevere.
Uneven feet and cracked tops |
Today’s macarons were under mixed. Which I have to admit feels like a bit of
a triumph although the produced was a step down from yesterday. Under mixed
macarons can be fixed before piping, over mixed ones can't. So now I'll take
the 30sec test a little more serious, i.e. if the ribbon hasn't melded with the
batter at the end of 30sec then I'll mix a little more. The thing that made the
difference in my batter was the fact that I made a full batch and it is much
easier to whip a strong meringue with a full batch. Not only does it take
longer for a larger quantity of sugar and water to reach 110oC (who knew) but
it is also much easier to whip a larger volume of egg white, so I was able to
get the egg whites to a stiff peak well before 110o and then just maintained
the volume.
Chocolate caramel macarons |
The macarons were still shiny on top, but a lot of them had a little raised
bit in the centre (over mixing) and the feet didn't form evenly. Some of them
didn't have feet at all (now they can't run away, muhaha) and those that did
had a foot on one side and not the other. I'm not certain if this was a factor
related to under mixing or not, I'll have to look that up.
Chocolate ganache filled |
I found a macaron trouble shooting guide on food nouveau, while this guide
is exclusively for French method macarons I think that i can follow Marie's
advice about uneven feet: only rest between 20-40min and when using an oven
with poor circulation (yes!) leave the door ajar with a wedged wooden spoon. So
considering that I have to put my macarons in the oven in two batches I'll let
them sit for 20min, bake 2 trays (15min) and then put in the last two trays.
Pulse