Daring Bakers: Macarons

Well, that does it. I am officially a lemming. I have made macarons.

You see, you can get away with cupcakes. Sure, they’re faddish, but everyone likes cupcakes. Once you’ve ventured into the territory where average people (in this country) don’t know what it is you are making, however, and you are making something you’ve never really* eaten, something the entire internet seems to shout from its virtual rooftop is THE BEST COOKIE EVER, well, you’ve reached a new level of collective foodie infatuation.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This one was close to perfect

So what’s a macaron? Not to be confused with the American macaroon, the oh-so-French macaron is an exceptionally delicate almond meringue sandwich cookie, which Parisian grand pooh-bahs like Pierre Hermé and Ladurée combine in seemingly infinite combinations. My own kitchen is decidedly more finite, so I made just two different flavors: an orange cookie with white chocolate-strawberry ganache and strawberry jam, and a chocolate cookie with peppermint white chocolate ganache.

Macarons are said to be very well made when they are smooth, puffed but not domed, and have ruffly little feet. I made four batches (two of each flavor), first following the recipe exactly, then experimenting with various technical enhancements. All four batches used egg whites frozen during summertime ice cream making, so the materials were the same.

See those little ruffly bits? Those are the feet.

The results, however, were not the uniform:

• Batch 1 (orange): Followed the recipe exactly as given. Dried in the oven, then baked at 375 F. The resulting cookies had nice little feet but were cracked on top. Highly edible.
• Batch 2 (orange): Dried the piped macarons on the counter for 30 minutes, then in the oven for 5 more. Baked at 340 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Came out perfect, hence all the photos. Definitely edible.
• Batch 3 (chocolate): Used David Lebovitz’ chocolate macaroon recipe, but baked according to the method that produced near-perfect cookies in batch 2. Alas, batch 3 macarons domed, did not have feet, and cracked. Barely even macarons, and yet, quite edible.
• Batch 4 (chocolate): Used Lebovitz’ baking instructions (plus a 30 minute drying period on the counter), baking at 375 for 15-18 minutes. Still domed and no feet, but no major cracks. And super edible.

The chocolate-mint macarons may have cracked, but they were still quite delicious.

So all in all? It’s hard – dare I say a crapshoot – to make picture perfect macarons. I’m not even sure that following the recipe that worked for me on Batch 2 would yield beautiful macarons again. But I’m going to try, because, a. I get to use my pastry bag! and b. even the mistakes are delicious. Effort to deliciousness ratio: highly favorable. And double-bonus for using up egg whites, giving me an excuse to make more ice cream.

I’d share the filling recipes with you at least, but I combined about 3 white chocolate ganache recipes (not wanting to reproduce the viscous goo of the flourless white chocolate cake) and then added flavorings (peppermint extract or minced strawberries and their juices) until I liked how they tasted. You can find the challenge recipe here.

Tagged as: Daring Bakers, ganache, macarons, white chocolate