Macaron attempt Take 3

With my recent baking of pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year, I am left with quite a number of egg whites. I can use them for egg white omelettes, meringues or other what-nots, but usually I would just slapped them all over my face for a quick-fix "facial". That is the fastest - no extra effort needed, no messy clean-ups to manage.

But there was a nudging feeling in me to revisit my failed macaron attempt. Ok, it should be my failed macaron attemptS. Alright I know, half the world now can make macarons with their eyes closed and I am still failing.

Macarons Part II - Another failed attempt

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The holidays and 2-day workweeks sure left me feeling lazy. I had to drag myself to turn on the laptop otherwise my overdue posts will just grow more and more.

The past year has been a very fruitful year for me, especially with my baking skills. I have learnt a lot, improved a lot, and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who drops by this little blog of mine. I have had a lot of encouragement, and I cannot stress enough, how much I have learnt through this blog. I have to thank all my guinea pigs who try everything I bake and give me feedback. Without them, I would not even have baked much if I do not know where to throw my baked stuff to. In the next 12 months, I hope to go even further, to try lots more new recipes and to step into boundaries I have never, or was afraid to step in before. Macarons is one of them.

Ok, so I have been trying to make macarons since last year! Sounds like a long time doesn't it! No, it was only from the end of December till now. So how is my second attempt at macarons?

This time, the batter seems like it was going to work. When I piped them out, they formed round circles and I made left a tray of them to set, while I tried adding colours to the rest of the batter. It was a wrong move. Adding the colours at the end made me meddle more with the batter and it soon became too liquid.

To make the story short, here is what I gathered out of this attempt:

1) The macrons still cracked, though a lot less. There were 2 totally without cracks.

2) After my first attempt, I am glad I will never waste time drawing circles on the parchment paper again.

3) There was still no feet!!

4) Leaving the trays to aside for at least 30 minutes before baking seem to help, though many bloggers have tested and said it made no effect. I need to experiment more.

At least this attempt resulted in edible macarons, with a crispy shell and a light and hollow inside, just like how a macaron should taste like (unlike my chewy maca-wrongs from my first attempt).

It was still disappointing though, because I could not make anything else in time as christmas gifts for my colleagues. So, I got them simple, small gifts at the very last minute.

Now, let's take the egg whites I have collected and start again....

Macarons Macarons

Last year, I baked Christmas cookies and gave to my colleagues and a handful of relatives as christmas gifts.

This year, I came up with the idea of giving macarons in Christmas colours. I've always liked the way they look, really cute and enticing. Most macarons come in pastel colours, which make them appear even more resistable irresistable.

A couple of days back, I tried a supposedly reliable macaron recipe, armed with aged egg whites (which are to work better) and a whole lot of enthusiasm and apprehension.

Other than women, I think macarons are probably the next most temperamental things on earth. I read up quite a lot before I experimented. I remember reading on someone else's blog that she has never known of anyone who has successfully made a macaron on his/her first attempt. She is probably right. Unfortunately, in this case, I proved her right.

I attempted chocolate macarons. The cocoa smell was wonderful and filled the whole kitchen. However, a couple of things did not go right.

Firstly, my piping was not up to mark. There were little twirls which I did not know how to get rid off despite rapping the baking tray on the table top a few times before baking.

Secondly, the feet. What's a macaron without feet? My first tray of macarons did not have feet, not even little toes. I kept my eyes glued to the oven for the second tray, and I swear I almost hit the ceiling when I saw FEET!! Yes! Not all of them had feet, but I saw 2 of them with feet. My excitement was short-lived, because I'm not sure what happened, but they later seemed to succumb to their weight and the feet disappeared.

I swear I saw feet!

Thirdly, I had the common problem of having the little rascals sticking to the baking paper.

My fourth problem was the taste. Mine was chewy, and it definitely was not how macarons should taste like.

Fifth problem....they cracked. Period.

As with every flop, my heart sank for a little while. Looking at my trays of maca-wrongs, I wondered what to do with them.

I did more research, and I think I'm ready to give it another attempt soon. I'm running out of time!!! I need a backup plan!