Revision on making macarons 馬卡龍の复習

Just a very quick and somewhat hasty post. Tis been slightly more than a week since the macaron class at Palate Sensations. I thought it would be good for me to do a quick “revision” on macaron making to recap what I’ll learnt during the class before my memory starts failing. Next time I step into the kitchen would be 2 weeks’ time. So its really now or never!

I used the recipe ratio from here, which is very similar to the one taught by Chef Lynn during the class. For a dozen of macarons, use 60g of extra fine almond meal from Phoon Huat.

The almond meal was mixed throughly with icing sugar while egg white powder was meshed into granulated vanilla sugar. When all of this was done, it was time to beat the egg whites!

It was for a dozen of macarons, i.e. 24-28 shells, instead of the half dozen we practised during the class, so the egg white proportion also increased. Hence, I first give the egg whites a good mix with a hand whisk to blend in the food colouring, before using a cake mixer whisk to beat it up to soft peaks, upon which the granulated sugar and dry egg white mix was slowly added and beaten to a glorious shiny pink meringue. The french meringue method was still used as I’m still not bold enough to try the italian meringue method. maybe next time. Waiting for Jess from J3ss Kitch3n to try it first. I hope you are reading this, Jess!!!  🙂

Macaronage began with incoporating the almond meal- icing sugar mixture in batches with thorough folding and flattening the meringue. When the batter is just mixed, it is filled up and piped onto a anti-stick baking sheet and allowed to rest and dry for about 20 min. This is the time to check for any oddities and macaron “ailments” . When the shells are properly dried, they are baked at 170 degrees for 10 mins with a rotation of the pan at the mid-way mark.

Meanwhile, I made the lemon curd filling while keeping tabs on the macarons in the oven. 1tsp lemon zest, 1/4 cup granulated vanilla sugar, 1 tbsp corn starch and 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice was all it took for a delicious tangy mess! Yes, I ended up licking the spatula if you must know! lol

I didn’t assemble the curd with the shells immediately though. As what ms not so humble pie had suggested, I left the shells to mature overnight in an air-tight container in the fridge and piped in the filling only the next day. Yes, it made a helluva difference.

Remember to use the least cool part of your fridge. Chef Lynn shared many tips on macaron making during the class, one of which was storage. According to her, the best temperature to keep an assembled macaron is to use a wine chiller. But since that’s not a readily available commodity, I used the highest shelf of my fridge instead. Since cold air sinks, the top should maintain the highest temperature relatively… I think… haha

For the kick of it, I piped some heart-shaped macarons, for this month’s Love in the Air theme at Aspiring Bakers. The idea was sparked off from High Tea @ TCC when Cathy and I were deliberating on making heart-shaped ones in conjunction with this month’s theme! So here they are, Cathy! Was kinda skeptical at first when I saw how it batter looked like after it was piped. But they turned out better than I thought. But definitely more room for improvement! Must learn from Nancy and Cathy on macaron making and piping!

I’m submitting this for this month’s Aspiring Bakers “Love in the Air“, generously hosted for Ellena from Cuisine Paradise.

Like I’d said, this is a hasty post. Not only because today’s the last day of this month’s Aspiring Bakers submission but also I should be packing my luggage instead of typing this! Leaving for Kansai for a holiday in less than 12 hours’ time and I’m not packed! We’ll be doing Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. Never been to Kansai region before, so wish us luck!

See you guys in two weeks’ time!!!