Macarons 101 : Dianne's Version

It is almost 4am and I'm watching Masterchef Australia while waiting for my oven to cool off before baking my last batch of macarons. I've been baking for the past 4 hours. Hubby was watching TV for the first 2 hours and dozed off in the living room. Nadeem is in our bedroom.

The macarons doesn't look that good, either I overbeat the meringue or that bloody eggs killed it. I don't like the eggs I bought, they were TOO FRESH. I didn't have time to aged it either. I hate to see the low feet! :( and a few actually cracked, or crooked.

Spot the difference?

So let's write this Macarons 101 as reminder of all the mistakes I've done for the past few months. And yes, I'm far from perfect. Gotta learn more! Please take this as a guide, it might not work with you/your kitchen temp/your oven.

1) Some aged the eggwhites, some don't. The method I'm using doesn't require aged eggwhites but I figured if I mixed it with fresh ones, the feet are better looking rather than fresh only or aged only. And please buy normal eggs, no special ones with extra this and that vitamin. No no no. 

2) Meringue : Start slow (speed level 1) then (2) then after finishing all sugar, go (3). Do not overbeat. Helps to check after 2-3 mins just in case. We still want that beak!

3) The texture would be slightly different depends on what type of coloring you use. Ok this, I can't tell how. But I knew that sometimes the batter would be more or less thicker. Adjust the amount of folding during macaronnage.

4) Careful about where you choose to dry your shells. The room temperature has to be right. It should dry in less than one hour (in Malaysia that is). If you need more than that, something is definitely wrong. If you think drying is not important, think again. Hehe. If you haven't bake it after 3 hours though, chances are you'll be getting funny looking macarons.

5) My oven is not big, but not too small. I only bake about 12 pcs of shells at one time per tray. Well, it fits more but since I'm using this cupcake holder (the thick paper with round shapes - see below) below my baking paper to ensure that I don't go out of shape, so.. yeah.. 12pcs at one time. 

This is how I bake my macarons :-

Preheat at 150 degrees, top heat only, 10 mins.

Bake at 140 degrees, top and bottom heat, middle tray, 8 mins.

Then bake at 140 degrees, bottom heat only, middle tray, 2 mins.

FAN-FORCED please. I read that some ppl make it work by not using fan-forced oven though.

The reason why I changed the heat to bottom only after 8 mins is because it needs to cook more but I don't want to brown the top of the macs. Kak Yani uses aluminium foil if she's baking light colored macs but I haven't tried that yet.

6) As if the challenges of making beautiful shells are not enough, you still have the fillings to think about. It is what made your macarons, you. Make sure you make killer fillings ok! 

That's all I can think of right now. Will definitely add more to this list whenever I find new things. 

xoxo