Macarons

I have a love/hate relationship with macarons. Usually, with the right recipe, I don't have a problem, and I am the first to cut corners on overly verbose steps. They say that if you make the batter right, you don't have to bang the trays very hard, you don't have to wait for the shells to dry, and you shouldn't have to keep the oven door open while they bake. I agree that there are too many myths in baking, but every once in a while, I'll forget that a certain step of the recipe simply can not be skipped or glossed over. And macarons are my downfall in such cases. I once spent 2 days making 25 (yes, twenty-five) batches of macarons, trying to figure out why they were cracking. I hope that this post will help you make your own perfect macarons, with minimal hassle.

Firstly, macarons simply can't be made without a piping bag and a pastry tip. I have a piping bag fitted with a tip solely dedicated to macaron piping. Since there is no fat in the batter, I rarely have to use soap to clean it, and a simple rinse is enough.

Secondly, you can't have ANY water in your water. This means that all utensils must be dry. I pat the piping bag with a dry paper towel pretty thoroughly, even if it hasn't been touched in a while, just in case. Mixer bowls, whisks, sifters, and rubber spatulas have all been guilty of water drippage at one point or another.

Thirdly, make sure that you have a scale for measuring out ingredients. This is my most common downfall. Most bakers know that one egg white is approximately 1 ounce. This is common knowledge, and bakers never think twice about subbing out recipe measurements, because it's mostly true. Maybe because the macaron batter batch is so small, maybe because moisture level is crucial in the batter, you simply can't convert the ounces to eggs in this recipe. Don't assume that one ounce of egg white is the white of one egg. Measure it out, save the extras if you have any for the next batch.

Lastly, it's important to not let your macarons toast in the oven. An extra minute in the oven can be the difference between an airy texture and a crunchy shell that shatters when bitten into. If you do happen to hold it in the oven a little too long, which is sadly all too easy to do, you can resurrect the shell by filling the cookies and refrigerating for about 2 days. It delays the indulgence, but at least you won't be vacuuming macaron shells all day.

Ok, here's the recipe:

Here's an image of the colored, beaten egg whites just after they are added to the almond mixture:

As you see, at first it doesn't look like they will come together:

But slowly, you see that they do:

But you're not done until the mixture looks like liquid taffy:

Add to the piping bag:

Here is an image of the macarons just after piping, but before banging:

Here's what they look like after banging. You see that they are flatter and they no longer have little tails:

And here's the final product:

I generally fill my macarons with whipped cream or jam. Here they are with some jam:

[Tartine] Chocolate-Oatmeal-Walnut Cookies

Let the first post on this blog be a modest one. The intention of this post is to convince you that I'm, in fact, ernest in my mission to review pastry recipes... not pastries. What can be more simple than a chocolate chip cookie, you say? While that is a popular opinion among bakers like you and me, not all chocolate chip cookie recipes are equally usable.

To avoid turning this blog into a plain list of re-typed recipes, I offer you... photos of recipes!

The first page seems fairly straightforward, but around the shaping of the cookies is where things get a little more interesting. The Tartine authors list two of the three ways I baked the cookies. The first way directs to form and bake the cookies immediately after mixing the dough. The formation of the cookies requires you to press down on the cookie lump after doling out the lumps onto your baking sheet with a wet hand. The second way requires forming a narrow log with the cookie dough, freezing, cutting and baking.

I was pretty skeptical of the first way, because I tend to like my cookies thick and chewy. In fact, it seems most of the internet bakers I've consulted tend to list tips to achieve the soft thick cookie. Tartine, however, declares at the start that the thin, delicate cookie is the desired result. While half of me knows that I ought to first assert the recipe yields the results it promises, the other half of me wants to see if this recipe has the potential to be my favorite cookie recipe. Luckily, the recipe allowed for more than enough trial batches to test both theories.

I should say that my way (sans patting down the dough) took relatively longer to bake than the other ones did. A whole 6 minutes longer than the suggested time, but the oven shelves may have been at different temperatures, so it only goes to show that it's more important to watch what's in the oven than to strictly adhere to the specified time.

patted down:

not patted down:

The third way, freezer cookies, were probably the best, but sadly, the longest way. The recipe claims that 6-10 minutes would be enough, but after peeking into the oven at 8 minutes, I realized that it just wasn't going to happen. At 350F, all three batches looked like they were melting and spreading, making the freezing process moot, so I increased the temperature to 375F, lest the cookies spread even more.

freezer log cookies, frozen, baked the following morning:

NOTES:

- I thought there was an unusually large amount of baking soda and baking powder. Hindsight, I think that this caused the cookie to rise and deflate very quickly in the oven. Had there been no oatmeal, this might have resulted in a paper thin cookie. If oatmeal is not your thing, I would halve the baking soda and powder.
- The recipe instructed to store the chocolate in the freezer while preparing the dough. I didn't do this, but I wonder if it would have made any difference.
- To me, the recipe reads like you're supposed to transfer the cookies from the baking to the cooling rack immediately after the cookies are out of the oven. In practice, this is impossible, since the cookies are liquid and bubbly in the middle when they come out of the oven. After assessing the situation, I opted for leaving the cookies on the sheet until they were completely cool. After that, I safely transferred them to the rack.


NEXT TIME:

- I won't pat down the dough... I'd go for the freezing technique
- I will skip the oatmeal and the walnuts and halve the baking soda and baking powder
- I might add some more spices, like coriander or nutmeg
- I'll add some almond extract
- Increasing oven temperature to 375F would likely yield thicker cookies


TO SUM UP:

This cookie recipe is easy and reliable. I hit a few snags along the way, but the cookies were very worth it. This is NOT a "thick chewy" cookie. This is its delicate, sophisticated cousin.



IMPORTANT UPDATE:

In a follow-up post, I mentioned that after experimenting with different bake times, turns out, these cookies do a lot better for a shorter time in a hotter oven. So try baking them at 450F for 6 minutes. You'll love them!

A New Beginning

I've started like a million blogs, but I think none of them really stuck, because I've never really had a good topic. Lately I've been finding myself circling around the same theme, however. I've been trying different cookbooks, and I've been left having a lot to say. So without any promises of longevity, I invite you to criticize my literary commitment in a shiny new blog... I promise to be concise and generous with photos.