Kat's Notebook

In this article I will write about another technique of making macarons. The Italian/Hot Meringue technique is not a popular method of baking macarons. The extra step of boiling the syrup to a certain temperature and mixing the egg whites with it…it seemed daunting. So why did I look for this alternative method of making my macarons? Because I had a difficult time succeeding with the French/Cold Technique. I couldn’t get the right consistency of the beaten egg white and the almond mixture.

I got the recipe from this site. His pictures were more explanatory than mine. The quantity of the ingredients were slightly varied. I put a food coloring this time (red) to make my macarons look prettier. Having the recipe in front of me and all my ingredients and tools prepared, it was actually easy to use this technique than the French one. Note: words in red are my notes and experiences with this baking.

Basic Almond Macarons

(Italian/Hot Technique)

For the Macarons:
120g egg whites, divided
35g sugar
150g finely ground almonds
150g powdered sugar

For the sugar syrup:
150g sugar and 50g water

1. Process the ground almonds and powdered sugar in the work bowl of a food processor. Most recipes call for sifting, but I think this works better and gets everything combined.

2. Whip 60g egg whites to soft peaks, add 35g sugar. At this stage, I put a dab of red food coloring into the mix. (Only use powder or gel food coloring  because we don’t want to introduce any extra moisture into the mix. Experiment with only a little bit till you’re satisfied with the color.)

3. In the meantime, in a saucepan on high heat bring the water and sugar for the syrup to 230 F. on a candy thermometer.

4. Slowly add the boiling syrup to the egg whites and continue to whip on medium – high speed until they are completely cooled and you have a shiny meringue (10-15 minutes). Sorry for the yellow picture there…basically it showed that it was shiny.

5. Mix the remaining 60g of egg whites and the sifted almond/sugar and carefully fold into the meringue. I folded shiny meringue into three parts and I was careful not to overmix this time (folding only 10-15 times) because I don’t want a very runny mix. I got a thicker mix this time compared to the French/Cold method.

  

6. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the mixture and pipe macarons about 3 inches in diameter on silpat lined baking sheet.

7. Whack the table once or twice to release any bubbles from the piped circles. Let it dry for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the room temperature. If the surface of the circles doesn’t stick to your finger then it’s ready to be baked. I got nicer circles this time and more height than previous batch.

8. Bake at 320 for 15-25 minutes. Check to see if macarons are done by grabbing the top of one macaron and trying to shake it. They are done when the top barely slides against the skirt. If they are not done, extend baking time by two minutes intervals, checking after each extension. I had trouble with this temperature and baking time. I got overheated tops but undercooked insides. It was also more difficult to peel off the macaron from the baking sheet. So I guess next time I’ll try to leave my oven door slightly open as advised by other macaron bakers.

  

I put strawberry jam in between two shells as my filling. I didn’t have the energy to experiment with fillings yet. I  bought this cheap Trader Joes jam which wasn’t to  my liking. It was supposed to be raspberry but I grabbed the wrong flavor. Grr. So just add a pea size amount because the filling would ooze out and be messy if you put too many.

So from the picture it looked ok. But it was far from ok. My macarons weren’t successful…again. My mom called it this childhood biscuits we had back in the Philippines, “pacencia” or “egg nog”. It was crunchy which wasn’t how it supposed to be. Macaron should be chewy. The shell must be slightly hollow but have thickness. Mine was thin and crunchy. It didn’t have the hollow part. It looked toasted because of the oven baking problems. It also crumbled instantly when bite on. A good one must retain its shape. Despite all these failed characteristics, my mom was ecstatic and satisfied that I had discovered how to make “pacencia” and I should do it more often. I told her that “pacencia” was not my goal it was supposed to be a macaron. Waaahhhh!!!!

  

If I were to do the macaron for the Nth time, I would use the Hot/Italian Technique because I got better consistency than the French/Cold Technique. It could be a bit time consuming though because of the extra step.

This was a good macaron I got when I was in Kyoto.

For troubleshooting the macarons, click the following links:

Vivian Macaron

Food Nouveau

Miso Hungry

Related posts:

1. The Macaron Project part 1
2. You say macaroon, I say macaron
3. The Red Velvet Cupcake Project
4. Japan Food Blog part 4
5. Project Runway Finale