Daring Bakers Make Macarons! (And I try and fail.)

There's a wonderful blogroll called "The Daring Bakers," which hosts an equally wonderful baking challenge. Each month, a particular baking project (sweet or savory, well-known or obscure) is posted, and each of the daring bakers gets a month to complete it. I've done a couple of challenges in the past, but it's been a while now. With my blog recently revived, I thought it was time to step back into things.

But the thing with these challenges is that they're, well, challenging. My macarons don't look like macarons. They don't really taste like macarons (mostly because of texture). I labored for hours and ended up with pretty yummy, pretty chocolatey sandwich cookies. It was fun, and the instructions were good, but I think this is just the sort of thing that requires practice. Will I practice? I don't know. In any case, I'm glad to have given it a shot, and I figure, since I tried, I may as well post.

Blog-checking lines: For the month of October we got to take on one of many bakers’ deepest, darkest kitchen nightmares: macarons. Our talented bakers Korena from Korena in the Kitchen and Rachael from pizzarossa made the intimidating task of mastering these French beauties a breeze.

Ingredients (in grams. This recipe calls for weighed instead of volume-based ingredients)

For the Cookies (I used the recipe from the challenge)

• 140 g ground almonds
• 120 g powdered sugar
• 20 g cocoa powder
• 100 g egg whites (about 3 eggs), divided
• 100 g sugar
• 40 g water

You will also need: parchment paper or silicon mats for baking, a kitchen scale, a piping method (I used a pastry bag and a tip, but I hear that ziplocks with a corner snipped off work well too), a candy thermometer, and a mixer or hand beaters for the egg whites.

For the Filling (I improvised a ganache) 

• 1 bittersweet chocolate bar (I used a 72% dark from trader joe's)
• 1/4 cup half and half, plus 2 TBS milk if the ganache is too thick
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

Procedure

For the Cookies (the daring bakers recipe is in straight text-- my comments are in italics)

• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mats
• Mix the ground almonds and powdered sugar and cocoa powder together in a bowl, then grind in a food processor until you have an extra fine texture. You may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your food processor. I had to do 2 batches in my little guy. I also started with whole almonds, so I ground those pretty fine before mixing them with the sugar and cocoa and grinding them together.

• Sift into a large bowl (I use a mesh strainer and push the mixture through with a spatula), putting any bigger pieces of almond back into the food processor to re-grind. This took quite awhile, maybe because my strainer is pretty little. 

• Add 50g egg whites and mix thoroughly into the almond mixture. This can be pretty tricky to get exactly right. Do your best!

• In another bowl, beat the other 50g egg whites to stiff peaks. 

• Meanwhile, put the granulated sugar and water into a small heavy-based saucepan and heat on medium-low to 118°C / 244°F, without stirring. OK FOLKS! Here's where I screwed up! I'm almost sure of it. And, y'know, there's something to be said for failure. It's disappointing, but it doesn't have to lead to a complete disappointment. I still got reasonably tasty meringue-like cookies with a marvelous ganache filling. And yeah, I'm sad they weren't real macarons, but that's just what happens sometimes. So, I think what happened is that my thermometer wasn't quite accurate, and I pulled the sugar syrup just a little too soon or a little too late, so that when it hit the egg whites it turned them back into mush. To be honest, in that moment I thought of starting over with that part of the process and keeping my almond mix intact, but I felt bad about wasting that many egg whites (I've been trying to be more conscious of the environmental impact of dairy consumption lately), so I decided to go forward and see what would happen. Choices, folks. That's life. Moving on!
• While whisking constantly on low speed (to avoid splashing hot syrup), slowly add the cooked sugar mixture to the beaten egg whites, pouring it down the inside edge of the bowl. You’ll get a bit of it hardening on the side of the bowl, but that’s okay – just leave it there. 
• Whisk at high speed until the mixture is cool, about 3 minutes. The mixture should increase in volume and become firm and shiny, and it should be thick and marshmallowy when you lift the whisk. 
• Scrape the meringue onto the almond mixture and incorporate with a rubber or silicone spatula. You do actually want to get a lot of the air out of the mixture – you do this by folding and squashing the mixture against the side of the bowl, rotating the bowl a quarter turn with each fold. Be sure to firmly scrape the bottom of the bowl with the spatula, so you don’t leave a layer of almond paste there. 

• Mix until you have a homogenous batter that runs from the spatula in a thick ribbon.  
• Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 7 – 9mm / #10 - #12 plain round tip  (this is SO HARD to do! Batter everywhere! Everywhere, I tell you!). Pipe 60 equally sized rounds, about 1 1/2” in diameter, in staggered rows onto the prepared sheets. Hold the piping bag upright with the tip just above the sheet and pipe without pulling upwards or swirling in circles, so the batter comes out in a round blob around the tip, and give a little sideways flick at the end to break the stream. (As you can see, mine were not perfect)
• Tap the baking sheet firmly on the bench several times to release air bubbles and obtain a smooth surface. If you have any tips sticking up, press them gently down with a damp fingertip. 
• Pre-heat the oven to 300°F and leave the tray to rest at room temperature for at least 20 minutes until a slight skin forms. If you touch it, it should be only just tacky. Because mine were messed up, they didn't get tacky and stayed pretty liquidy. 
• Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven for 18 minutes (20 minutes if using cocoa in the shells), one sheet at a time, turning the sheet half-way. 
• Remove from oven and remove the parchment from the tray with the shells still on it and place on a cooling racks for at least 30 minutes, until completely cool, then remove macaron shells carefully from the parchment. 

• If not filling straight away, store in an airtight container at room temperature, separating layers with parchment. Otherwise, fill and store in an airtight container in the fridge to mature for at least 24 hours before eating. 

For the Ganache

• Pour the half and half into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for about 1 minute until the mixture is quite hot but not boiling and a little skin forms on top. (There are people who would say that this is a terrible way to heat milk, but it's always worked for me when it comes to ganache)
• 
• Break the chocolate bar into smallish chunks and add to the hot milk. Let sit undisturbed for a couple minutes, then stir to incorporate all the melty chocolate. If the mix is too thick, add in just a little bit more milk (or you could use cream). Stir in the almond extract.

• Spoon a nice layer of ganache on 30 of the cookies and use the other 30 to make adorable little macaron sandwiches. 

Are these macarons? No! Did I labor for hours and end up with flat cookies? Yes! Are they chewy? Yes! Are they yummy? Yes! Do I regret doing this? No! Am I glad to be back involved with Daring Bakers again? You betcha! Thanks, Rachel and Korena, and Bring on November!