After a few OK attempts, I think I have nice macarons now. These are shamelessly copied from a FABulous mandarin macaron Jeff and I had at Angelina in Paris.There's reduced mandarin juice in the white chocolate ganache, and mandarin zest in the shell.
And I found out the secret of getting the really bright colours.
You use a lot of food colouring. Who knew? This is half a teaspoon or so of orange Wiltons gel food colouring.
And the way to stop the cracking was to turn the oven DOWN. I was using 140 (fan forced) and I dropped it to 120 degrees. I also popped a thermometer into the oven, to see what temperature it was REALLY at. Turns out that 120 on the dial, and fan forced, gives us 140 in the oven. And I baked only one tray at a time (there were 7 trays!). Watched Flash Gordon while I shuffled trays.
Now the issue is the big air pocket under the perfect top of the shell. Look at that top macaron in the stack - some of them you can see right through! So that's not perfect. We're in the right ballpark though.
5 comments:
These look gorgeous! I have been seeing macarons EVERYWHERE since having tried yours (and feeling most privileged to!)
oh God they look delicious!!
I have to say your macarons are the best I have ever eaten :-) Those chocolate ones were delishamont! Well I have just popped on to find out how to poach eggs in the microwave again....
and the secret ingredient for the eggs was boiling water!!!
Just quietly, Gail, "water" is not a secret ingredient in poaching. But yes, I used to cook eggs in the microwave without water, and it's not as good.
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