A Wolf, a Viking, and a French macaron walk into a bar...

[pastrygirl]

I'm frustrated!  The restaurant kitchen has two gas convection ovens, a Wolf with a 6-burner top and a Viking with a French flat top top.  The Wolf has long been the pastry oven and I've baked approximately a zillion things in it, including a few thousand French macarons.  Unfortunately the Wolf has been out of commission and I'm left with the Viking.  The cream puffs, brownies, and shortbread have been baking fine, but I've had two batches of French macaron with really poor foot development and some cracking on top.  I made a batch today and gave at least a third of the shells to staff because of poor rise.  I don't think I rushed the drying, they seemed appropriately skinned-over before baking.  It's a nice sunny day and I've made plenty of macarons in the rain so I don't think it's the weather.  The Viking seems like a moister heat when I open the oven, is it possible that one make of oven would create a more humid heat, or have I simply lost my macaron mojo?  Help!

[Deryn]

pastrygirl .. I am by no means an expert macaron maker but have you checked the temp in that Viking oven vs what you used to make consistently good macarons in the Wolf? Sounds to me as though the temp may have been too high (causing the meringue to rise and bake before it settled back again). Each oven is different - to that I can attest - and that affects delicate things like macarons much more than it will say a layer cake or other sturdier mixes. The only other thing that might cause what you are talking about (that I can think of - unless you are suddenly using a different ingredient ... ie the sugars or have increased the ph somehow) might be the macronage itself but I gather you are very practiced at that so I doubt that is your problem. The macronage issue could be causing the cracking though but again, you sound much better at macaron mastery than I am so I am sure that is not the problem.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[pastrygirl]

Deryn, I haven't gotten to know this oven yet, I think it does run a little hot.  Maybe I need to make a sacrificial batch of macaron to test bake and find the right temp and rack.  'Cause I doubt the Wolf is getting fixed any time soon   Today's batter was a little looser than usual otherwise no changes in ingredients.