Le Petit Obsession, Part Deux

More macarons tonight. In color! This is the same Wilton Sky Blue that I used for my son Jakob's birthday bowling party cake.

My go-to recipe so far is the one from Macarons: Authentic French Cookie Recipes from the Macaron Cafe by Cecile Cannone.

These should be easy, right? I mean, it's really pretty basic. It's a meringue plus some other stuff. There shouldn't be any mystery and magic and heartache associated with these maddening little, tarted-up meringue cookies. You make a meringue once and you should then be able to do it in your sleep, yeah? Pffft.

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French Meringue Macarons
Makes 50 to 60 shells, for 25 to 30 filled macarons

• 2¾ cups (8.8 ounces/250 grams) almond flour
• 2¾ cups (12.4 ounces/350 grams) powdered sugar
• 1 cup egg whites (from 7 or 8 eggs), at room temperature
• pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons powdered egg whites, if weather is humid
• ¾ cup (5.3 ounces/150 grams) superfine granulated sugar
• 5 to 7 drops gel paste food coloring (optional)

Step 1: Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Step 2: Blend the almond flour with the powdered sugar in the food processor to make a fine powder (or sift together, discarding any large crumbs and adding a bit more almond flour and powdered sugar as needed to compensate). Then sift the mixture through a strainer until it's as fine as you can get it. This keeps crumbs from forming on the macaron tops as they bake.

Step 3: With the wire whip attachment on the electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt and the powdered egg whites (if you're using them), starting slowly and then increasing speed as the whites start to rise. Add the granulated sugar and the food coloring. Beat until the egg whites form stiff peaks and your meringue is firm and shiny.

Step 4: Pour the beaten egg whites onto your almond flour mixture and gently fold them in, using a rubber spatula. Move your spatula from the bottom of the bowl to the edges with one hand, using your other hand to rotate the bowl. Now hit the spatula against the rim of the bowl until the batter falls in a wide ribbon when you raise the spatula. When you can't see any crumbs of almond flour and the mixture is shiny and flowing, you're ready to start piping.

The French have a special word-macaronner-to describe the physical action of mixing all the ingredients for macarons. This has to be done by hand. You cannot do it with your mixer-you must be able to feel the consistency of the macaron batter.

Step 5: Fit your pastry bag with a number-8 tip and fill with batter. Start by squeezing out a small amount of mix onto a parchment-lined baking sheet to form a 2½-inch circle. Be sure to leave 1 inch of space between macarons so they will not touch each other while they bake.

If the peak that forms on the top of the macaron does not disappear after piping, it means the batter could have been beaten a little more. To eliminate the peaks, tap the baking sheet on the tabletop, making sure to hold the parchment paper in place with your thumbs.

Let the piped macarons rest for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 300°F (325°F for a non-convection oven).

Using a pastry bag requires some practice. It may seem awkward at first, but you'll soon get the hang of it.

Prepare the bag (if it hasn't been used before) by cutting about 2 inches off the narrow end-just enough so that when you insert a number-8 decorating tip, about a third of the tip extends outside the bag. Push the tip firmly in place and spoon in your filling, leaving enough room at the top to twist the bag shut. It's best to fill the bag with half of the batter at a time so it's not too heavy. To make it easier to fill your pastry bag, place it upright in an empty jar or other straight-sided container. This will help steady the bag while you fill it with batter. Squeezing the bag slowly, pipe each macaron shell out in a single dollop. Lift the bag quickly to finish.

Step 6: Bake for 14 minutes. After the first 5 minutes, open the oven door briefly to let the steam out.

Let the macarons cool completely on a rack before taking them off the parchment paper. Press the bottom of a cooled baked macaron shell with your finger; it should be soft. If the bottom of the shell is hard, reduce the baking time for the rest of your macarons from 14 minutes to 13 minutes.
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My poor little oven's obviously different from Cecile's and I'm doing some mad adjusting. Here are the notes that I jotted down from Round Three tonight:

Macaron Notes: 10 April, 2011

Couple drops sky blue gel coloring to make light blue shells. Piped into 1.5 inch rounds. Rested 30 minutes after piping.

First batch: 13 minutes, 325 degrees, 2 pans = too brown (below, left)



Second batch: 12 minutes, 300 degrees, 2 pans = not done enough, back in the oven for 90 seconds

Third batch: 14 minutes, 300 degrees, 2 pans = bottom pan/just right, top pan/back in the oven 90 seconds

Conclusion: one pan at a time using specs from third batch

I'm still concentrating on shells and am not splurging time nor ingredients yet on fillings. I bought a fancy jar of raspberry preserves earlier this week, and slathered a bit on a couple of shells and it was quite tasty. But it was messy and of a consistency that would probably only work if I were going to build the macarons and serve them right away. So instead I whipped together a quick half-batch of Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting."

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"Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting
About 2 cups frosting

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
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Slightly browned ones as well as the acceptable ones are covered in foil and maturing in the fridge.

In other news:



We have baby tomatoes! These are the Yellow Canary, plus the Silver Fir Tree seems to have popped it's head up sometime between the kids' bedtime at 9 p.m. and now. The Snap Peas were the first to come up earlier this week. They are a bit ambitious. I should have started them later than the rest.

Well, 4:20 a.m. seems as good a time as any to end a post, so I bid you adieu. Keep on, macaron.