Hi everyone, With all the postings about macarons, i feel like i am not alone! I have been working on macarons for quite sometime, even joined a macaron class. The class's approach was with Italian Meringue. However, lots of pastry chefs i talked to they use French Meringue. I have been to France and visited almost all macaron shops, unfortunately not PH's. I would say i like Paul's, the small not fancy shop. Since I have tried the macaron from Laduree, Fuchon, Paul, Le notre etc. and since I have faced problems and found some corrections, I would like to make briefs here incase they might help any of you: 1. The crust of the macaron is not thin, if yours came out thin...you have not dried them long enough. ( Mine took 5 - 7 hours, 3 hours...still wrinkle and crack). 2. If you dried them long enough, At any temperature of the oven ..be it very high and then reduce or starting at 160C is fine, the feet will defintely show. 3. The almond is to be ground into powder. I used slivered almond and ground in Coffee grinder. If yours have teeny tiny dots of almond on the crust, yours almonds were not fine enough. The curst should be smooth with a texture of baked meringue. 4. Do not bake them until the crust is crisp to your desire, it will be dry up a little bit more when you leave it overnight. I hope this helps. For ellencho's: Mine once came out like yours. You can improve this by checking the consistency of the batter. It seems like the batter did not smooth out by itself after piping. And the crust looks quite thin, try leaving them dry longer. Good luck!
