lennyk

Lemme add my macarons to the mix, orange flavoured using Angostura Orange bitters, Italian meringue for me, being lazy I made a whipped up vanilla cream cheese filling. The coconut powder is a good idea, its used a lot with curries etc and is natural. I'm gonna try it soon.

Is this remainder all the same size or a variety ? I usually get about a teaspoon or so about 1-2mm which I just dump or eat. You can try sharpening your food processor blades, it might help a little.

congrats, your food processor might be able to grind regular white sugar into powdered form. or use a blade coffee grinder which will work for sure. where are you getting almond flour or are you making your own ?

Those who still have difficulty with Italian method can try using a higher temp syrup, eg about 245f this should make the batter set faster, also imho chocolate tends to set easier due to the cocoa powder dryness.

I too use Duncan's ratios, they roughly work out for me to: 3 large egg whites 300g of almond flour + icing sugar 150g sugar in pan to make the syrup for italian meringue (3 tbsp cocoa powder if making chocs) I grind the almonds myself along with the icing sugar so they are premixed. I used to have similar problems using the French method, they would not "set" properly. The Italian method works because it cheats by partially cooking the mixture. The key thing with macarons is that they must dry to touch before going in the oven and the heat of the oven makes the crust dry and crispy which then forces the inside to expand and form the "feet" I have no problems at all using silpats and they sit perfectly flat in the sheets, plus I put dabs of red silicone on the underside of the silpat to mark where to pipe the circles.

nice results, I also grind the almonds myself with the icing sugar. Its a little work as you have to sift them and then put back the large pieces back in the processor and make sure it has enough sugar so they don't bind. Dry them in the oven first before grinding by turning on the oven at 300 and then put them in on a sheet and turn off the oven and leave for a couple hours. You will get the hang of how much to fold and your preference on how tall, the thicker(less fold) the more likely for them to be taller.

[Note: this topic has been split off from the Grilled Beef Tenderloin topic.] I like this topic and want to go slightly off, Anybody else do a similar technique of "presmoking" for other meats to be finished by grilling such as chicken ? Also if the serving time is hours later what is the recommended safety storage ? Should they be quick chilled then brought back up to temp ? This may affect the physical aspect of the skin etc.

Have you read Duncan's website ? Italian with syrup at 240 is the only way to go your batter has to be folded to a smooth flowing consistency. it should be loose enough so that if you rap the sheet below with your hand they will smooth out the tops, even the little tail from when the piping tip is pulled away. They should dry to touch within 20 mins and spring back when touched with a finger, if not dried to touch then results will be unpredictable. I dont use double sheets, single sheet with silpat. The rack height makes a difference, I used to do 2 sheets in the middle 2 racks and would have to rotate after 5 mins otherwise one would cook a lot faster I now use the top 2 racks and do not have to rotate at all. good luck

macarons are indeed very temperature sensitive in the oven, you should try different rack heights and figure out the best for your oven it is a pain but worth the trouble I used to do mine for 18mins in the middle 2 racks and rotate the sheets around 8mins otherwise the higher rack would be overcooked I later found that using the topmost and second rack was fine and didn't even require rotating except that the ones on the edges might be overcooked but that was the only reason to rotate

Much better results using HeartSurgeon's ratios. I was able to handle it exactly like how the authors do on those videos and stretch the top and tuck in below, same grapefruit size also. I would prefer bigger though. What is the biggest size most people do ? Obviously bigger will be harder to handle It would be a real challenge to make a large bread like those famous Poilane. My slashes weren't deep enough though and I wonder if it is better to slash a little later than earlier since somehow the slashes got absorbed as the dough rose to room temp.

Ok, I just mixed a batch using the 1000/750/20/12 will try baking tonight and post results.

After reading about this "miracle" method for almost a year I decided to try last night, mixed up the 1 1/2 each salt/yeast 3 cups water 7 cups flour(I added a little more after so many comments about wet dough) Lo and behold it was impossible to handle the dough this morning I gave up and poured it out onto the sheet. I looked at the many youtube videos of the authors demonstrating their recipe clearly I must be doing something wrong.

Mines came out pretty good, I sliced off a bit fat with some meat attached and browned it in a pan to make a mushroom sauce separately.

my oven works best at 425 for 1 hour silicone heat transfer will definitely be much slower than a metal mold try higher temps, might have to cover the tops with foil early to avoid burning the tops also more sugar to speed up the caramelization which forms the crust another wild shot might be to use a pizza stone and preheat the over very hot so that the molds get hit quickly with a hot blast from the stone how thin is the crust on a "real" copper mold cannele ?

Angostura Orange bitters http://thespiritworld.net/2007/06/25/angos...orange-bitters/

silicon molds can work, I have red ones and they work fine for me after some minor experimenting I do not use a solid sheet below and just a grill to get the heat hitting the molds faster getting them crispy is a matter of the right temp(hot) and time to make the exterior caramelize whilst at the same time not overcooking the interior if the tops are get too black then just cover with a sheet of foil near to the end of time

I have never done without buttering my silicone molds, do you get any burnt flakes stuck in the molds and have to clean them out after if you dont lube the molds ? If you figure out the timing for your oven you can cover them with a piece of foil 10 mins before so the tops dont overburn compared to the sides. One thing with silicone molds is that if they aren't standing straightup the canneles can expand unevenly and hook on the side so double check that they are all upright proper after you fill them

maybe you should try drying them some more before going in the oven I think the theory with macarons is that the crust should bake and get stiff fast in the oven so that it wont expand/crack and any expansion will creep out from below which is what forms the "foot" if the crust doesnt bake hard enough then the expansion inside will cause it to open up and erupt thru

you're welcome, there is a definite difference between solid sheet vs grill. I did another set this morning and at 425F after 1 hour they were perfect for me maybe for others another 15mins would have gotten darker but I prefer not all black. There is obviously a balance with timing since going too long will result in the interior getting too dry/cooked My mother does not like them with any darkness so worst case you can just take them out earlier and them put them in a hot oven for a few mins to crisp them, so the silicone/soft issue is not as difficult as people make it out to be. how are you gonna lift the filled silicone molds to put inside the oven ? it will be very floppy. I think amaretto would also make a nice flavour complement to vanilla.

I've also been trying them, using the Paula Wolfert recipe did first time with metal muffin pans and they came out fine got silicone molds and there is obvious less crispiness I am using a conventional oven and I believe the problem with the silicone molds is that silicone is a poor conductor of heat and hence it will not get the exterior caramelized and crispy enough. In an attempt to get more heat directly on the silicone molds I have used a metal grill below my molds instead of a cookie sheet. There is a definite improvement. With cookie sheet I had to go at 400f for almost 2 hours to get nice brown exterior, but insides started getting overcooked/dry With grill I went for 1:30 and got the same brown but much better interior. Might try higher temp and less time.

Are there any other pastry/cooking items which carry the same kind of challenge/failure rate like macarons ? I spent a lot of time and efforts on getting macarons right, and believe it or not I am interested to find other similar things to make. L

Did some short ribs in a bulgogi marinade for both 24 hours and 36 at 140f stir fried them in a hot wok to sear them afterwards Perfect, tender, flavorful and good sauce. I need to figure out how to strain out the little protein clumps from the bag sauce I will probably do a few bags next time and then quick cool and freeze so I can just put them in the wok next time.

there is a common misconception that jerk food is supposed to be chili hot, this is false, I've been to Jamaica and had jerk in a number of places and it was not insanely hot as many assume it to be, however they typically have hot sauces to sprinkle on Jerk is more about the process which is not much different than bbq smoking. a typical jerk centre has a charcol grill which is then entirely covered with the pimento sticks so that you can even see the coals from above and then the meat is placed on the sticks which will smoke from the coals below, then entire grill is then covered with sheets of metal the sides are fries, buttered bread, roasted breadfruit and festival which is basically a fried torpedo shaped slightly sweet cornbread about 4 inches long for me the best jerk item was the sausages

thanks for the headstart so I can follow your lead. Will prolly start it Thursday

this is tempting me to try some pork belly sous vide and then broil to crisp the skin