Guys, I am a culinary student in a pretty prestigious school. I've been struggling with those shiny arrogant cookies for 2 years . I tried for at least 10 times, only 2 batches were decent. Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. It either pops like a volcano, or it cracks straight away, it sometimes refuse to let itself from the paper regardless of cooking time, it sometimes gets rock hard, sometimes it's top gets inflated then deflated without cracking and leaves an ugly texture. I literally tried everything, Italian, French, even Swiss methods, I baked with fan and without fan, I tried temperutes from 120c to 160c, from 8 minutes to 28 Minutes, I used different recipes, changed the merengue's stiffness from hard-stiff peaks to medium peaks, I tried altering macaronage time, I tried first incorporating almond flour with some egg white and then mixing it with the merengue, I even pulverized my almond flour with powdered sugar and left my egg whites to age in fridge overnight. I even used egg white powder and cream tartare for gods sake. The only thing I can blame is the humidity I guess, I live in a pretty humid area. I am open to your suggestions, it became a matter of honor for me from this moment. These are some of my best attempts on the photos
by seriatcireborn123
6 Comments
Have you tried silicone mats instead of paper and switching out your baking sheets?
Are you like doing fancy cookies before getting the basic cookie down? You’ve got three different colours here, idk if you’re just adding food colouring or what. But maybe focus on the most simple form of the cookie, you know? To eliminate variables.
From my understanding, if it’s cracking or popping it’s usually because the skin isn’t dry enough. I live in a very dry climate, so never an issue. But I’ve heard you can dry them in the oven at around 120F to speed up the process and get the proper skin. And you can dry the cookie for much longer than you’d think, like 2+ hours.
You could maybe try sugar beans method on YouTube. She uses an oven drying method..I think it’s good for a humid climate..worked for me!
You say you’ve tried ten times and then list about a million different variables you’ve monkeyed with. No wonder you’re struggling; you’re basically taking random stabs each time.
Pick a method and stick with it. When a batch goes wrong, try again while changing ONE variable (e.g., temperature up/down; fan off/on; etc). *Don’t* ping-pong around between methods and variables or you’ll never gain an understanding of what’s going on.
My two cents to start: ditch the paper and use silpat mats.
Don’t get me wrong, macarons can be a huge PITA. But do yourself a favor and take a more systematic approach if you want to learn how to make them.
gurl dont quit. have you tried the oven drying method? it can take forever to dry outside the oven in humid conditions. even rock hard ones once you fill it and age it in airtight container for 2 days in fridge it softens up so i wouldnt worry it being hard. i use the costco kirkland brand almond flour and this is the recipe i use and it works for me.
https://youtu.be/_15WTg4_Qfg?si=J6YkmXS0tOIb_Ydr
i use this temu mat thats silicone, cheap and works great. i take it out of oven, cool down 2 min so the sugar solidifies and it releases like a charm. not only that but it’s got a dam around each circle to hold in the dough so it keeps it uniform if you not good at piping.
https://www.reddit.com/r/macarons/s/CBgzaLSedW
I feel you, I only do Macarons once a year (holiday season) and I forgot my method everytime, and this year I got too ambitious so I made multiple flavors. I failed A LOT of batches (you don’t want to see how many shells are laying around in our kitchen when I was test batching lol). And once I got the most important parts on the recipe, it’s gonna be a breeze. Sometimes my grams on my recipe goes over and still goes fine. The most important part of the process that I noticed is really the drying part, if it’s not dry then expect it to pop. And luckily I don’t make errors on macaronage. I even remembered I made my last batch of my Macarons last minute lol, like in just 30 minutes those shells are baking in the oven (I rush dry in the oven since it’s cold season). So don’t give up, that’s just what my mom said to me, I won’t be able to get it if I just give up. And here we are, got messages that these are the best presents that they’ve received this Christmas
[Macs] (https://imgur.com/a/15kvcVx)
If you’re curious on my flavors, these are my flavors lol
Life of a showgirl – whiskey sour buttercream (I did not like this lol but for the sake of concept and Taylor Swift XD)
Matcha latte
Chocolate mint
Ube
Blackpink – raspberry and strawberry cream cheese
Pumpkin spice
Cafe mocha
Blueberry cheesecake