French macarons are hard. Failure is easy. I made marginally passable ones a couple of years ago. The ones I tried to make today were a mess.
The goal was to make red and yellow macarons for the party Sunday. I am so glad I got practice early. I made many fatal errors with these. They came out pink, hollow, chewy, and spread out too far. I thought I had mixed the batter properly. Piping them out was a nightmare. I tore the bag and covered my hands in batter by the time I had 40 or so discs piped out. I think the oven temp was too low. I know for certain that my oven is too small for good air flow. And the marks I drew to attempt to make uniformly sized cookies transferred to the bases of the finished food.
The only positive was that they tasted good. I bought a raspberry emulsion from the cake decorating section of the craft store, and I got the proportions right. They sort of tasted like Frankenberry cereal, if I can remember all the way back to childhood.
I had a handful of them myself, and I saved the rest to give the gaming group (who was here on a Thursday--we are mixing the schedule up during this semester). I told them I named this recipe "raspberry F-ups." (Only I didn't abbreviate.) They answered back, "you mean 'F-arons?'"
I'll try again before Sunday. I will go back and get the right clamps for the piping tip, and maybe a more intense food coloring. If they fail again, maybe I just use the egg yolks I separated and make a lemon custard and forget the cookies.
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