As I mentioned in my last learning project post, this week I attempted to make macarons for the first time! I have to say, I knew making these was going to be tedious— but I didn’t realize HOW tedious.
I asked my cousin what she thought might be a good idea for my next blog posts, and she recommended macarons for me. She explained that she had a video for me to watch (one that she used the week before– it worked out well for her). I had very strict instructions: watch the video all the way through at least once before starting, and then follow the steps as you go. I’m glad that I listened and watched it first because chances are– if I didn’t, I would have gotten way too ahead of myself.
I had to run out to Bulk Barn to grab a few things first (eggs, food colouring gel, sugar, ground almond). Caster sugar was listed along with the ingredients— I didn’t know that caster sugar existed or what it was, haha. So, I go on my little shopping trip to look for caster sugar. But I can’t find it anywhere. I walked past (roughly) 1000 different types of sugar, but not the one I needed. Icing sugar, granulated sugar, berry sugar, coarse sugar, etc. So, I googled what caster sugar was…. “also known as berry sugar”; which I walked past at least four times! Smart, hey? Haha.
First I started with whipping up the pastry portion– I bought purple colouring gel instead of blue (that was shown in the video). You can take a closer look at the process by clicking on the hyperlink above. The consistency of my pastry batter was a little bit too runny in the end (I think I should have whipped my egg whites a little longer before transferring the sugar mixture). Once my batter was mixed, I covered it with plastic wrap and set it aside to start making the buttercream filling. It’s pretty similar to the pastry batter: whip your egg yolks, transfer sugar mixture, incorporate room temperature butter and refrigerate.
After I piped my pastry batter on a cookie sheet, I let it sit out for about an hour to form a film on the tops of each cookie. Once you see that dry film on each pastry, they are ready to go in the oven. The instructions said to preheat my oven to 165 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 10-12 minutes. I did exactly that, but they were still raw. I threw them in for another couple minutes and kept an eye on them. Still raw. One more time– no change. I thought maybe they needed to sit out overnight to cool and firm up, so I left them until this morning. They had the film, but were undercooked when I tried to take them off of the cookie sheet. I had two sheets to start, but threw out the one that fell apart. I was feeling a bit discouraged but put the last cookie sheet back in the oven (at 180 degrees for 12 minutes this time) in hopes for a better outcome.
This one worked!!! It’s not perfect, but I’m happy with how they turned out. This recipe was by far the hardest one I’ve tried (to date), so I am glad that I have a final product to show! I think I’m going to give this one another crack in the future for a redemption, though. I’m a bit of a perfectionist sometimes. I’ve completed this recipe once now, so I have an idea of what to expect next time.
This project has been an absolute blast! Thanks for following along!
