So I've been baking a LOT for the past year and I thought I could make Macarons now.
I used preppy kitchen recipe (100g whites, 130g confectioners sugar, 140g almond flour (before sifting, got down to 120-130), 90g granulated sugar)
Here's what I know I got wrong:
1) Gas oven with only low and high temperature settings – I knew this would be a disaster for my macarons, but I thought I could manage by leaving it on low and cracking the door open every now and then to ensure it doesn't get too hot. I couldn't manage, the macarons began cracking after trying to form the tiniest feet, shells never hardened either, and they deflated after baking.
2) High humidity, skin only formed on the second batch (purple ones) after drying then for 2 hours and leaving them in the low temp oven with the door open for around 7 minutes (they didn't get to cooking temperature, just dried). First batch didn't get a skin at all despite over an hour of waiting.
3) Bad almond flour I suppose? The macarons taste a bit milky, and the flour wasn't that fine. I don't have access to other brands where I live though. The flour was clumping like crazy after sieving and processing, but I got it fine enough to have 0 chunks remain the sieve. So I suppose it's way too oily and maybe a bit rancid (hence the milky taste)
4) The pink ones had too much flour and never mixed well.
5) First batch (pink and yellow) where over baked. Second batch was underbaked.
I know for a fact my meringue was perfect, I've used meringue tens of times (and many failures) and by this point I know perfectly when it's done. The purple batter was also I'd say perfectly macaronaged (fluid, could trace 8s with it, took time to absorb them, the batter wasn't "breaking" when poured, just flowing).
So this leads me to believe that I can't really get them good where I live; bad almond flour, no way of controling oven temperature, very high humidity.
But maybe you can help me find some fixes for this? Maybe I can try making my own almond flour?
by yosori
1 Comment
I know that location can play a part, but that doesn’t mean you are “doomed” to never have perfect macarons.
the only things that really seem to throw a wrench in your recipe is that the almond flour does indeed sound like it is rancid, and the oven temperature.
A couple things I can recommend, humidity with definitely affect it a bit, but having a 2 hr drying time is not unheard of by any standards. I usually dry for 30 mins but have switched to an hour because of rising humidity where I live.
Get an oven thermometer, throw it in the oven to help measure what *exactly* you need to do to get the right temp. It will take some experimenting of opening the door at certain times, or baking for longer at lower temps or faster at higher temps. Play around with it!
Last I can say is definitely get some new almond flour. You don’t need fancy brands, I use great value and I don’t run it through a food processor, I just sift it twice, and toss whatever chunks I get.
Also, a lot of your skin problems could be because of the almond flour being ‘rancid’ therefore too oily.
Try these couple things and see what happens?
Also! There are some recipes out there that have no drying time at all! They are a bit different from traditional macarons, but nonetheless look and taste the same! Try to look into some of those and give it a shot.
Macarons are a trial and error for every kitchen, no matter the location, materials, or recipe!