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DEMO: Macarons


nicolekaplan

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the sugar/water thing is only enough to wet and keep it from crystallizing, like a caramel.

the cocoa powder, we add extra, by eye it doesn't take much.

as for the temp, 275 in a convection and they cook about 7-9 minutes usually.  i guess if you are making really large macs you might take it up as high as 325.  the dryness really comes from letting them bake until the insides are really set instead of removing them when they still have a bit of wiggle.  and of course brushing them with some syrup not only flavors but moistureizes them.

i'm a (very) unexperienced baker and am going to give a go at these.

1. i don't have access to a convection oven right now - just a standard conventional oven... any adjustments i should take note of.

2. also, what is "10x"? (1/2 mixed in with the almond flour?)

3. really am unsure as to the water - how will i know if the sugar is "wet enough?" and i'm to use powdered sugar? not regular granulated sugar?

4. any tips on syrups? can i just use store bought chocolate syrups? any way to make them myself?

thanks!

u.e.

“Watermelon - it’s a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face.”

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the sugar/water thing is only enough to wet and keep it from crystallizing, like a caramel.

the cocoa powder, we add extra, by eye it doesn't take much.

as for the temp, 275 in a convection and they cook about 7-9 minutes usually.  i guess if you are making really large macs you might take it up as high as 325.  the dryness really comes from letting them bake until the insides are really set instead of removing them when they still have a bit of wiggle.  and of course brushing them with some syrup not only flavors but moistureizes them.

i'm a (very) unexperienced baker and am going to give a go at these.

1. i don't have access to a convection oven right now - just a standard conventional oven... any adjustments i should take note of.

2. also, what is "10x"? (1/2 mixed in with the almond flour?)

3. really am unsure as to the water - how will i know if the sugar is "wet enough?" and i'm to use powdered sugar? not regular granulated sugar?

4. any tips on syrups? can i just use store bought chocolate syrups? any way to make them myself?

thanks!

u.e.

1. I baked at 325, on an insulated baking sheet, and they took about 18 minutes. I took a batch out at 12 minutes, and they were too soft (they settled on the feet).

2. 10x is just powdered sugar.

3. Try adding 25% the weight in water to the sugar to make the syrup. Trust me, you're not going to mess this up, unless you add way too little water.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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thanks for all the tips egulleters... i was going to make it today for a party of 50 that we're hosting, but, as it turns out, i couldn't find almond flour anywhere... i suppose i could have pulverized blanched almonds, but i just made a couple of cheesecakes and called it a day... will try to find almond flour this week.

u.e.

“Watermelon - it’s a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face.”

Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)

ulteriorepicure.com

My flickr account

ulteriorepicure@gmail.com

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thanks for a great demo, i have tried quite a few times to make these little suckers, but they were never as perfect as yours. i hope you recipe works out for me :-)

can you tell me something about how long they can be stored and if you can put em into a plasticbox, or is there a need to add some silica gel ??

cheers

t.

toertchen toertchen

patissier chocolatier cafe

cologne, germany

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  • 8 months later...

i do the macarons every second day or so, our customers love them. recently i found out that its possible to skip the 20 minute wait after piping, by blowing them dry with the hot air blower i use for chocolate work. i hover about 15 cm over them for just a few seconds, until they loose that "shine" and develop a skin. dont overdo it, or things will start to brown :-)

cheers

t.

toertchen toertchen

patissier chocolatier cafe

cologne, germany

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Thank you schneich for resurrecting this thread! Been reading the other long macaron thread and doing searches for more tips but for whatever reason this thread never came up in my searches. This one has been VERY helpful!! (And so has your tip, not that I have a hot air blower but someone else mentioned the Italian meringue macarons dry very quickly)

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  • 2 years later...

I'm going to revive this thread. I made these yesterday since you can't buy a decent one in Chicago, at least not without buying them in bulk via special order. I used the calculations from upthread (500g TPT, processed and sifted, 250 g sugar, 187 g egg whites, and I added 30g cocoa to the dry ingredients and filled with a dark ganache made from 7 oz 71% valhrona, 2 1/2 tbs butter, and 7 fl. oz of cream)

The cocoa needed to be a better quality, or perhaps more of it, becuase the color wasn't the beautiful chocolate color, it had a grayish tinge to it. But other than that, and the fact that I think I needed to deflate just a bit more becuase the first few were very fluffy, these were pretty good. About 15 minutes at 325, and I found the batch on parchment was much better than the two batches on silpats, the silpat batches didn't quite stick, but required some care to release, the parchment batch was almost sliding around on the parchment. Texture wise, they were just about perfect: crispy, chewy, delicate.

Next time I'm going to make a template and shoot for 2" macs, these were about 2 3/4 to 3", which is a touch too big. And I'm going to process the dry ingredients longer, there were still some almond chunks, even after sifting... Maybe a finer sifter. But not bad for a 2nd attempt, my first batch was undercooked, irregular, and ugly. And since I made them without a stand mixer, I rememberd the meringue being a PITA. With a stand mixer, it's easy. :wub:

gallery_22976_6319_59134.jpg

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I'm going to revive this thread.  I made these yesterday since you can't buy a decent one in Chicago, at least not without buying them in bulk via special order.  I used the calculations from upthread (500g TPT, processed and sifted, 250 g sugar, 187 g egg whites, and I added 30g cocoa to the dry ingredients and filled with a dark ganache made from 7 oz 71% valhrona, 2 1/2 tbs butter, and 7 fl. oz of cream)

The cocoa needed to be a better quality, or perhaps more of it, becuase the color wasn't the beautiful chocolate color, it had a grayish tinge to it.  But other than that, and the fact that I think I needed to deflate just a bit more becuase the first few were very fluffy, these were pretty good.  About 15 minutes at 325, and I found the batch on parchment was much better than the two batches on silpats, the silpat batches didn't quite stick, but required some care to release, the parchment batch was almost sliding around on the parchment.  Texture wise, they were just about perfect: crispy, chewy, delicate.

Next time I'm going to make a template and shoot for 2" macs, these were about 2 3/4 to 3", which is a touch too big.  And I'm going to process the dry ingredients longer, there were still some almond chunks, even after sifting...  Maybe a finer sifter.  But not bad for a 2nd attempt, my first batch was undercooked, irregular, and ugly.  And since I made them without a stand mixer, I rememberd the meringue being a PITA.  With a stand mixer, it's easy. :wub:

gallery_22976_6319_59134.jpg

Lookin' good! A very standard trick for improving the color of a chocolate mac is to add a few drops of red food color to the batter. Perks the brown right up.

Last week I asked my local market to order Bob's Red Mill almond flour for me, so I'll be mac-ing soon, too, I hope!

Edited by RuthWells (log)
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Lookin' good!  A very standard trick for improving the color of a chocolate mac is to add a few drops of red food color to the batter.  Perks the brown right up.

Last week I asked my local market to order Bob's Red Mill almond flour for me, so I'll be mac-ing soon, too, I hope!

That is the flour that I used. It's a little coarser than would be ideal, I put the almond meal & powdered sugar into a food processor and hit it with 6-8 5 second pulses. Next time I'm going to do even more, and try a finer sifter, because it still came out a little chunky, and after the batter gets to the point where everything is incorporated, I'm goign to intentionally stir it a bit more, these don't have the right shine and weren't quite flat enough. But night and day over my last attempt, and they had feet and texture.

The food coloring idea is not a bad one, although I prefer not to add any. Just moving to a better cocoa would probably get me there, this was the hershey's "special dark" which was all I could find at the regular market where I bought all the ingredients except the almond flour, which I bought ahead of time at whole foods (I made these at a friend's house as my contribution to several different cookie types that we made). I wish hershey's still made their european style, which was actually quite good.

Once I have a bigger kitchen and a stand mixer (< 3 months) I'll try this again. I've made italian meringues and even buttercream before with a hand mixer but a stand mixer certainly makes it easier.

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thanks for a great demo, i have tried quite a few times to make these little suckers, but they were never as perfect as yours. i hope you recipe works out for me :-)

can you tell me something about how long they can be stored and if you can put em into a plasticbox, or is there a need to add some silica gel ??

cheers

t.

I think silica gel will do no good for them, they will dry out.

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thanks for a great demo, i have tried quite a few times to make these little suckers, but they were never as perfect as yours. i hope you recipe works out for me :-)

can you tell me something about how long they can be stored and if you can put em into a plasticbox, or is there a need to add some silica gel ??

cheers

t.

i realize this was like three years ago, but i thought i'd respond: it's possible to freeze macs (unfilled) and then just defrost and fill. at least that's what they did at payard patisserie in nyc a couple of years ago.

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I've frozen them for up to two weeks filled and they're fine (post two weeks they become a little chewy). I actually think they're better after being frozen for three days. (I thaw for 24 hours in the fridge)

  • Thanks 1
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After doing countless hours of research on macarons, I finally decided to make some. Happy to say, I got lil' feet on my first attempt. Here's a picture. I got lazy to make the ganache and instead filled it with staight NUTELLA! I darn near needed an insulin shot! It was delicious though... only filled three with Nutella. Naked the others sit in a plastic tub until I settle upon a filling.

gallery_32276_1455_48054.jpg

Extra pictures are posted in a Facebook album:

Macaron Monster

Diva
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  • 3 months later...

am re-re-resurrecting this thread as my copy of the pierre herme macaron book arrived just the other day, and i'm itching to make some! first i need to spend some quality time with Google Translator & figure out some of the recipes - i'm just dying to try the ketchup flavor :smile:

some quick questions:

* i've ordered some blanched fine almond powder from Mandelin - have heard that it's excellent for making macarons; anyone have personal experience with this brand? also, is it overkill to process this flour with the sugar a time or two? - it's meant to be quite fine, and i don't know if more is good in this case, or if it would be too much!

* i had planned to bake these at home, where i have only a conventional oven. PH uses convection - do you think this makes a major difference? if necessary, i can bake the macarons at work & use their ovens (drawback: i will have to share with the staff :hmmm: ). would the standard 'increase by 25 degrees' conversion from convection to conventional be the way to go?

and finally -

* PH calls for opening and closing the oven door rapidly 2x during baking - what is the purpose of that, anyone know?

kerry

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some quick questions:

*  i've ordered some blanched fine almond powder from Mandelin - have heard that it's excellent for making macarons; anyone have personal experience with this brand? also, is it overkill to process this flour with the sugar a time or two? - it's meant to be quite fine, and i don't know if more is good in this case, or if it would be too much!

kerry

i've used the mandelin almond paste and it is absolutely awesome. amazing almond flavor.

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

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Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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am re-re-resurrecting this thread as my copy of the pierre herme macaron book arrived just the other day, and i'm itching to make some!  first i need to spend some quality time with Google Translator & figure out some of the recipes - i'm just dying to try the ketchup flavor  :smile:

some quick questions:

*  i've ordered some blanched fine almond powder from Mandelin - have heard that it's excellent for making macarons; anyone have personal experience with this brand? also, is it overkill to process this flour with the sugar a time or two? - it's meant to be quite fine, and i don't know if more is good in this case, or if it would be too much!

* i had planned to bake these at home, where i have only a conventional oven. PH uses convection - do you think this makes a major difference? if necessary, i can bake the macarons at work & use their ovens (drawback:  i will have to share with the staff  :hmmm: ). would the standard 'increase by 25 degrees' conversion from convection to conventional be the way to go?

and finally -

* PH calls for opening and closing the oven door rapidly 2x during baking - what is the purpose of that, anyone know?

kerry

i think overprocessing could result in undesired oiliness. but if you're processing with the sugar, it might be protected a bit. if the almond meal is very fine, i wouldn't worry about it. i might sift the tpt to get out any big bits of almonds.

i think the oven conversion would depend on if your home oven is calibrated or not. convection might be better because of the circulating DRY air. i think that's also the point of opening and closing the oven...to let out moisture.

i would also go with a lower temp rather than a higher temp...but that's just me :wink:

good luck and let us know how they turn out based on PH's recipe!

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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

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There are lots of useful tips over in the main macaron thread in France: Cooking and Baking, here.

-- lamington a.k.a. Duncan Markham

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  • 4 years later...

Just tried this recipe and it was looking so good until the cooking. I've ended up with the feet spreading too much and the shells being thin and completely hollow. Cooked on a variety of surfaces, all steel baking sheets one with a silicon liner, one parchment and one a teflon sheet. Oven temp was 150C and cooked for approx 12 minutes. Any tips?

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