October 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge #33: MACAROONS

As usual, I always have a little problem^ ^. The last two months, I had a lot of things to do, so I just couldn't make any challenge (and I'm so disappointed because I want to make all of them.

Anyway, this month, I plan ahead, just to make sure that I can complete this challenge, I made this macaron on the first week of this month. But everything didn't turn out to be great.

This was my first macaron from this recipe >*< , you can see that it turned out to be a nightmare. I think it because of the heat of my oven, I just couldn't set the temperature to 90°C, so my macaron cooked than dry. So, I just tried again, but before trying, I read the forum, to see how other people were. And I got another tip, the amount of the egg white is another key. So I adjust the amount of it, and use my small oven ( and use the lowest setting that usually use for yeast fermentation), to dry the macaron, and yes I can do it by now. I think this recipe is good for the people who love to make the macaron with the French meringue but don 't want to wait for the surface to dry or live in the humidity place. Because drying it in the oven save a load of time.

My macaron at last.

I made four batches of it (small batches, haha, each of them are 1/4 of the recipe), two coffee and two plain. The coffee macaron made by adding 1 tsp of the instant coffee powder into the almond (if you make the almond powder by yourself, just put it with the almond).

recipe comes from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern

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.

THE DARING COOKS OCTOBER 2009 CHALLENGE: MACAROONS

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

This is the recipe that I use (1/4 of the large recipe)

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 60g
Almond flour: 48g
Granulated sugar: 7g
Egg whites: 35g
For coffee macaron use 1tsp instant coffee powder

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

dailydelicious note: I use 150°C for 10 minutes

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Crème Pâtissière buttercream

200 ml	whole milk
2	egg yolks
1/2	Vanilla bean
50 g	Sugar
10 g	cornstarch, sifted
10 g	Cake flour, sifted
100 g	unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar , seeds from vanilla bean, cake flour and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth. Let the pastry cream cooled completely, stirring occasionally. Stir in the butter in three or four installments.

Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe the filling into the macorons

Sandwich macarons together.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour for filling to firm.

October 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge #33: MACAROONS