pquinene

I made blueberry cheese pie a few days ago -- taking advantage of summer's bounty! No-bake Blueberry Cheese Pie

Yes, I double the baking pans (nest an empty pan under the pan of piped macs) and put them on a baking stone. Above, I actually just meant to say try adding tapioca starch to your egg whites....so I used slightly more than 0.1 oz of tapioca starch per 1.0 oz of aged egg whites.

Try adding tapioca starch. I know, it's a bit different......but I also dry my whites and rest the piped macarons before putting in an electric oven (not a professional/convection oven). Here is my basic recipe so you can see the ratio of whites to powdered sugar to almond flour to tapioca starch to caster sugar. I've used egg white powder before without much success. Using enough tapioca starch, drying the whites, and mixing properly, I've never had a failed batch. I do a lot of extra steps because I don't have a convection oven. Set 1 6.0 to 6.3 ounces egg whites* You will ultimately use only 4 ounces of three-day old whites (4 oz. = 113.40 g / 6.0 oz. = 170.10 g / 6.3 oz = 178.60 g). *If aging the eggs for five days, you’ll need 6.8 ounces, or 192.78 grams, of whites to start with. Set 2 5 ounces almond flour/meal (141.75 grams) 8 ounces powdered sugar (226.80 grams) Set 3 1.5 ounces caster sugar (42.52 grams) 0.5 ounces tapioca starch (14.18 grams) ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar Hope this helps!

Kim, I'm so glad you all enjoyed the macarons! OMG, I was wondering why I was not getting egullet notifications...and realized I had to "follow" again for the new "chapter." Your pies look amazing too!

If all else is the same, then the new pans you used transferred heat either too quickly or too slow. If you went from parchment paper to silpat, the silpat is thicker and the heat gets to your macs slower -- try using your new pans with parchment paper. If heat is getting to your macs too fast, nest two exact pans together -- pipe your batter on one pan then put that pan into a second pan...then put both in your oven. Since your first two trays on your last attempt came out perfect and the third did not, then your batter could be sitting out too long.....could you bake them all at once or fit as much batter onto one pan as possible? Somewhere in this thread, another member changed the brand of parchment used....and the macs come out radically misshapen. The only time something like this happened -- with a handful of macs -- was during one of my experiments. I used the freshest eggs I could get at the store and separated the whites the same day I used them. I've learned that if you use an electric oven without a fan/convection feature, then old egg whites that have sat on the counter a couple of days work best. Chocolate shells using cocoa powder tend to be more stable than plain shells because cocoa powder has starch, hence they tend to be less hollow. The only way I make macarons now is with aged egg whites AND tapioca starch -- via French/basic meringue! I never get hollows and they all come out perfect. I use 5 oz. fine almond flour, 8 oz. powdered sugar, 4 oz. aged whites, 1.5 oz. caster sugar, 0.5 oz. tapioca starch, and 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar.. I whip the meringue on about medium-low for 6 minutes, medium for 9 minutes...then if needed, high for 30 to 60 seconds. Hope this helps!

On Guam, there are many bakeries to buy pies from. But when you see this cheese pie at a party, it's a red flag that it's homemade and you better get a slice ASAP! Some folks also make a cherry flavor. I've apparently been on a macaron roll. I made mint chocolate ganache to go with green macarons. I only use French meringue to make macarons and they have turned out perfect every time. BLUEBERRY CHEESE PIE MINT CHOCOLATE FRENCH MACARONS

I finally got around to making macarons and trying a new filling -- coconut, strawberry, and cream cheese. When tasting out of the mixing bowl, the filling was okay. However, once the macs aged in the fridge overnight, omg, it's a wonderful combination! COCONUT, STRAWBERRY N CREAM FILLING

Your desserts look great! For the almond cream, it may depend on your recipe. Are you doing the typical 1:1:1:1 almond:butter:sugar:egg ratio? One of the problems may be overbeating it. It doesn't have any flour to hold the shape, so it can collapse very easily. For pithiviers and galettes des rois, I normally take the almond cream and mix it with an equal weight of pastry cream. It's much less dense and it stays moist and creamy. Also, to avoid the pithivier puffing up like that, you can use a fork and dock it all over. I used to do that for the galettes, you seriously puncture each one then let it chill overnight and they tend to stay flat during baking. Thank you so much for the tips! I'll puncture the top next time. At any rate, it was so delicious and was gone by the evening!

Yes it does. I definitely wasn't knocking anything about that pie. It looks awesome (his work always does) and I have no doubt it tastes awesome as well. The fault in what I said belongs entirely to me, I'm kinda picky when it comes to coconut. I like the flavor but I'm not a big fan of the texture in creamy settings. Entirely my weirdness, not a commentary on whether or not it should be used. Oh no, no, no...I didn't interpret it as anything negative. I just wanted to share the love of coconut.....I love coconut :-)

The pithivier I baked yesterday was so delish. I used the recipe in Jacques Torres's book, Dessert Circus. My only problem is that the almond cream deflated. Any tips on how to prevent this? At any rate, it was still awesome!

I was thinking "that looks great but I don't want coconut on my banana cream pie". But that doesn't change the fact that it does indeed look and sound tasty... or the fact that it's not my banana cream pie. Coconut really does go well with bananas. I made a coconut banana cream pudding using freshly grated coconut -- it was out-of-this-world! It's a bit hard to tell in the pic below, but I added the coconut to the pudding mixture. Coconut Banana Cream Pudding

That looks great! Coconut makes many things delish too!!

I made latiya -- a Guam cinnamon and custard cake a few days ago. I also made crepes for breakfast yesterday. Pithivier is baking right now...looks wonderful and smells delicious! Latiya Nutella crepes

It's been snowing and freezing here in Holly Springs, NC. I made half a batch of champulado -- Guam chocolate rice pudding -- since I'm the only one in my family who loves it. Low and behold, my husband and daughter had a change of heart. We're all out now, but it was good while it lasted. Champulado

Oh, I so want some!

I think I want to try these. Do they really fry for 30 minutes as stated in the recipe? Yes, they do take between 25 and 30 minutes, 27 minutes on average. With my stove here, I fry just under medium heat with the dial between the 7 and 8 on the face of the clock (as opposed to medium to medium-high in recipe...a different stove). The key is to test one cookie first. It should not brown much in the first 5 to 10 minutes of frying. By the 25-minute mark, it is a golden brown -- not too light, not too dark. I actually use the timer in the microwave above my stove. Once I have loaded an entire batch into the oil, I start the timer to count down from 30 minutes. Once I see the timer at 5 minutes, I look at the color of the cookies. If it's dark enough, I take them out. If not, I keep frying. This ensures the dough is crispy all the way through the cookie. It takes me about 3 to 3.5 hours to make and shape all of the dough, but then it takes another 1.5 to 2 hours to finish frying the dough. Finally, it's another three hours to coat and dry the sugar. I'm going to enjoy some in just a few minutes -- a lot of work, but so worth it. One year, I hid some in the cabinets -- out of sight, out of mind -- and found them many months later. The guyuria were still crisp and delish -- I usually store them in three layers of Ziploc gallon bags.

I spent most of my day yesterday making guyuria. Guyuria is a Guam cookie with possible roots in Oaxaca, Mexico. The dough is just flour, butter, and coconut milk. Once all the dough is fried and cooled, a sugar coating is applied, dried, and applied again. The photos below are from two different batches. GUYURIA

My son kept asking me to make walnut sandies. After breakfast this morning, I had a couple of them, and remembered why they are so dangerous to have in the house -- it was hard to stop at just a few. Walnut sandies

Those are beautiful macarons!

I had to use up a couple of cans of coconut milk and solid pack pumpkin which are necessary for making buchi buchi -- Guam's version of fried pumpkin turnover. I ran out of filling so I opted to use whatever I had on hand -- cream cheese with jam, and ricotta cheese with ham-egg-and-cheddar. I don't know how the cream cheese and ricotta will hold up in the fryer, but I guess I'll see whenever I cook them -- maybe today. The fried pumpkin turnover picture is from a previous batch: Guam buchi buchi Miscellaneous pies -- jam and cream cheese Ricotta with ham, cheddar cheese, and eggs

That looks sooo cool!

I made custard pie a few days ago. It is the most popular pie on Guam. There are so many bakeries on the island. It's really interesting how my father-in-law, husband and son all love custard pie. Guam custard pie

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