Patrick S

Nicole, how much water do you use to make the sugar syrup? We make our macarons at work with beaten egg whites rather than meringue and they are REALLY unreliable, so I'd like to give these ones a try. ← I think you only need enough to get the sugar wet. No matter how much water you start with, by the time you get to soft-ball stage, the solution will be ~85% sugar. If you add too much water, it will just take longer to get to the right temp. I'm going to try a 1/8 batch tomorrow, which unless I've managed to botch the math is: 250g powder sugar 250g almond flour 250g sugar 187g egg whites Any tips on whether the cocoa should replace almond, or sugar, or just be added to the recipe without changing any ingredient quantity?

Dessert last night was tart tatin.

Lochina, The lemon macaroons were made using a recipe from Will Cotton that was published in the NYT. The lemon cream is Pierre Herme's recipe, which you can probably find on this site via the search function (if not, PM me for it). Unfortunately, I can not recommend that recipe -- the macarons were too flat and too crunchy. If you try that recipe, I recommend that you shorten the baking time. The pistachio macaroons were made using the recipe from Ala Cuisine, substituting shelled, unsalted pistachios in place of almonds. Another variation that works great is subbing ground hazelnuts for almonds and filling with either Nutella or Gianduja chocolate or semisweet chocolate mixed with some praline paste. I always bake on parchment placed over an insulated baking sheet. Good luck, and happy New Year's!

Thanks, nicolekaplan! I tried macarons using Italian meringue once, and wasn't convinced that the extra steps were worth it. But yours look so good I'll have to give it at least one more try.

Interesting point, but you have to read THIS to understand why muslims cannot use alcohol. .? ← I apologise wholeheartedly for my ignorance. Would I be right to say that this is a direct application of the exact word from original text, or is it based on later interpretation by scholars? ← What you usually see cited in this context are hadith, as opposed to the Quran. The hadith cited on the page Altaf linked to is part of the hadith collection compiled by Abu-Dawud, who is said to have lived a couple of centuries after Muhammad. Incidentally, though I dont want to go to far off topic, I should mention that many foods and drinks contain trace amounts of alcohol, for instance bread (where it is produced in yeast metabolizing sugars), ripe fruit, and soft drinks.

The cupcake recipecalls for 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 baking powder. Do you mean i should increase the baking powder to 3/4 teaspoon? and in that case do i need to change the amount of baking soda? ← Actually, 125% of 1/4 would be 5/16, but I don't think we need to be that precise about it. I looked at some other cupcake recipes using dutch process cocoa, and the range seems to be around 1/2t to 2t baking powder to 1.5 cups of flour. So, if you want your cupcakes just a little less dense, I'd bump up the baking powder to 1/2t. If you want them a lot less dense, bump up the baking powder to 1-2t.

If the cupcakes with the dutch-process cocoa were more dense than you want, I'd increase the baking powder by maybe 25%.

I certainly could be wrong, but I would assume that if you have macarons in the middle of the sheet looking fine while those at the edges don't look fine, that the problem would somehow be related to the temperature variation on the baking sheet. I've never experienced this much variation on one baking sheet, but I always use an insulated sheet, which might keep temperature variation to a minmum. Of course, the fact that your first sheet turned out fine shoots some pretty big holes in this theory. PS- I removed the "tn_" from the image url so the full-size image will be displayed.

I prefer the taste of alkalized cocoa and have used it in everything, including cake recipes which specify natural cocoa, with no (apparent) texture or leavening problems.

Looks delicious!

Yes, the Hershey's dark cocoa has a distinctive taste in the macaroons. You can tell the difference. I think it tastes like Droste cocoa, but more Droste-acious than Droste. To be brutally honest, I'll probably use up the container of Special Dark Cocoa I bought, but I wont buy any more of it.

'Tis the season for giving. So here you go. 100 grams (about 1/2C or 3 1/3 large) whites, room temp or a little warmer. 140 grams (1 1/3C) almond meal or blanched almonds 250 grams (2 1/8C) powdered sugar 25 grams (4T) dutch process cocoa Grind the almonds, sugar and cocoa powder together in a food processor until powder consistency, about 3-4 minutes. This mixture needs to be finely ground if you want a glossy, smooth surface. If you don't have a food processoor, sieve the almond meal so the larger particles are removed, and combine thoroughly with the sugar and cocoa using a wisk. Whip the whites to semi-firm peaks (the book says the peaks should droop just a little). Fold the whites into the almond/sugar/cocoa mixture until completely combined. No streaks should remain. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment. Load a pastry bag with a big round tip. Put the batter in the bag. Pipe out 1-2" rounds onto the baking sheets. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, if desired. Preheat the oven to 425F. After the macaroons have set for at least 25 minutes, put one sheet in the oven. Reduce temp to 350F, and prop the oven door barely open with a wooden spoon. Bake for about 12 minutes. Once cool, use a thin spatula and carefully scrape the macaroons off the parchment. If you underbake, they can be a pain to remove. Good luck!

After trying so many other macaron recipes lately I wanted to see if Herme's was still my favorite. It is.

Alright, here's what macarons look like with Special Dark cocoa. I know I just said I thought the taste was fine, but after some more tasting, I'm not sold on it. It does taste a little but like Oreo cookies, like Cook's said. Its not horrible by any means, and I'm sure there are people who will love its taste, but I've decided its a step backwards from the Hershey's "European Style Cocoa" it replaces.

"Feet" are the little ruffly-looking bottom edges of macarons that form when the macarons rise in the oven. You see a bunch of examples on the macaron thread.

Funny you should mention that -- I just tried it for the first time last night, in a macaron recipe. It is indeed very dark, as you'll see when I post pictures later tonight. Taste-wise, I don't find it unacceptable at all, though I've only tried it in one recipe.

A "burrito as big as your head" from La Bamba is not bad, whether baked, drunken, or both.

350F should be fine. Time will probably be somewhere around 20-30 minutes at 350. Start checking with a toothpick at 15, unless you can see they still look liquidy, in which case you should hold off. Pull them out when you get a a toothpick with a few tiny crumbs but no liquid. If you use an unlined muffin tin, definitely grease them, or better yet use an oil+flour spray. Nothing is more frustrating than beatiful muffins that cantr be extricated from a baking pan deathgrip. Paper liners will work fine, and you're certain not to have any release problems. Fill them about 2/3 full. You may want to bake a few test muffins to see how full you can fill the liners or muffin tins without them overflowing.

The Pave and daqouise are keepers for me too. In addition, I still love Herme's macaroon recipe, sweet tart dough, Nutella tart and variations on that, chocolate-caramel truffles, chocolate ice cream (especially when semi-frozen), and the lemon cream.

Kinda, but it is not as sweet, and it is much more delicate than Herme's sweet tart dough.

I tend to agree. But someone's bound to ask: What about poor little Timmy, who happened to flip over to that channel at the moment of truth?

Thanks, CB, Altaf, and Shelly. I hadn't actually eaten any of the Mozart before I posted the pictures, though I had tried some of the leftover mousse. In fact, I held off for a day trying to get some decent pictures before I started cutting it. Overall it is very good, but not something I'll be making on a regular basis, as I do with several of Hermes other recipes. The combination of chocolate, cinnamon and apple works better than I would have expected.

How true. Its almost as bad as that cruise line commericial that uses Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" of the Pepsi commerical that uses the Stones' "Brown Sugar," which were two of the winners in Slate's "worst ad songs ever" contest.

I tried the Mozart from Desserts by Pierre Herme. It is made with 3 discs of Herme's cinnamon dough, sandwiching two layers of chocolate-apple-cinnamon mousse. The mousse is made with a cinnamon-infused ganache, into which is folded whipped whites and about a cup of finely diced caramelized apples. For the chocolate, I used Valrhona Le Noir Gastronomie 61%.

I tried the classic hot chocolate and the caramelized cinnamon hot chocolate. Both were great, though I used a bit more sugar than the recipe called for.