Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Macaron class

Last week was break week at school, so I went for a macaron-making class at BakinCow. I'm no stranger to macaron-making, but her macs look better than mine (especially the feet) , so I decided to give it a go! 

                         BakinCow's coffee macaron             My chocolate sea-salt macarons

She used the French method and here are my main takeaways:

1. You can use fresh egg whites
2. Fibreglass baking sheets are awesome. They produce better mac bottoms than parchment. Parchment requires longer cooking time for the bottoms to be non-tacky, by which time the tops may have an undesirable tan. So fibreglass baking sheets allow you to concentrate on baking your macs to the right internal texture, without worrying about whether they can come off the sheet.
3. More sugar in the meringue = taller feet

I went home and compared the following ingredient ratios in her recipe and the one I use from Not so Humble Pie, measured by weight: 
- wet ingredients/dry ingredients
- egg white/(almond flour + icing sugar)
- caster sugar/egg white.

The only difference found was for the ratio of caster sugar/egg white. 0.5 (BakinCow) vs 0.3 (mine). I therefore conclude that the shorter feet on my macs result from less sugar in the meringue. Bumping up the sugar should produce more elegant feet!

Not firm enough... keep mixing!
Hollow shells
According to Syrup & Tang, a possible cause of hollow shells is low baking temperature (140 deg c in this case). The macaron batter was concentrated at the bottom of the shell, making it hard on the teeth. 

The class also proved that you can make macs with fresh whites, although I'm not sure if this results in a less desirable texture than when aged whites are used, because of the higher moisture content in fresh whites. Next time, I'll bump up the sugar for the meringue and use fresh whites. Oh, and I need to get my hands on some fibreglass sheets. Stay tuned for the results!


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The BakinCow class is excellent for beginners as it is conducted at home, making the idea and process of macaron-making less daunting. She also makes tofu cheesecakes (which I heard are awesome), and conducts other cooking workshops. Check out her website here.
                                          


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