CHOCOLATE MACARONS

Hello hello! For today’s post I’m bringing over another macarons recipe from the last issue. I'm into mrcarons and while the momento is still strong in me so let's take a look how you can make this fabulous French dessert. Again I show you the step-by-step process and some tips in getting a great macaron. If you don't really like sweet this would be great for you especially the chocolate lovers.

Ingredients

 58 g Egg wWhites / 58 g putih telur

  38 g Castor sugar / 38 g gula castor

  88 g icing sugar / 88 g gula ising

  63 g ground almond / 63 g serbuk badam

  10 g cocoa powder / 10 g serbuk koko

Fillings Dark Chocolate Ganache

115g non-diary whipping cream / 115 g krim putar

125 g dark chocolate chopped / 125 dark chocolate - 

Heat up whipping cream in double boiler and melt the dark chocolate. Set aside / Panaskan whip cream dan cairkan cokolat dan letak sebelah

Whisk whites with a mixer on medium speed until foamy and whisk until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low, then add superfine sugar. Increase speed to high, and whisk until stiff peaks form (the recipe suggests 8 minutes, for me it took only 3 to 4 minutes, take care not to over-whip). If you’re going to add color, I added food coloring towards the end of whipping my whites. I used gel coloring 

Sift flour mixture over whites, and fold until mixture is smooth and shiny. I found the amount of folding to be crucial. Fold too little, and your macaron shells will have peaks instead of nice rounded caps. Fold too much, and your meringue will drip into a mess of wafer-thin blobs. Tartlette  recommends about 50 folds, until your batter has a magma-like flow. For me about 65 folds was just right. I find the batter has a little of a soft-toffee like sheen when it is ready.You can test a daub on a plate, and if a small beak remains, turn the batter a couple times more. If the batter forms a round cap but doesn’t run, it is just right. When I spooned my batter into the pastry bag, the perfect batter started to just ooze out of the tip once the bag was full. If it stayed stiff inside the bag it was too stiff, if it dripped out too fast the batter was too runny. I found that doubling the recipe made this step very difficult for me, I found I would over fold to incorporate the flour mixture and I would end up with a runny batter.

Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip.

Pipe 3/4-inch rounds 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. I put the tip right in the middle of where I wanted each macaron and let the batter billow up around it, then I drug the tip to the side of the round. (You can pipe 1-inch to 2-inch rounds, but you will need to add cooking time). Tap bottom of each sheet on work surface to release trapped air. Let stand at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes. (Different recipes recommend anywhere from no rest time to 2 hours rest time. I was most happy with 30 to 45 minutes rest time, once the caps looked more dull and had formed a slight skin, so that during baking While they’re resting, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 1 sheet at a time, rotating halfway through, until macarons are crisp and firm, about 10 minutes. After each batch, increase oven temperature to 375 degrees, heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to 325 degrees. Every oven is different, so you may need to play with your oven temperature. The tops of the macaron shells should not brown.

Let macarons cool on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. If macarons stick, spray water underneath parchment on hot sheet. The steam will help release macarons (if this doesn’t work, see below, under “troubleshooting”).

Sandwich 2 same-size macarons with 1 teaspoon jam. Serve immediately, or stack between layers of parchment, wrap in plastic, and freeze for up to 3 months. It takes only 30 minutes out of the freezer for macarons to be ready to serve.

After my day of experimenting with different batches, here are some lessons learned. 

Before you begin:

1. Choose a nice, cool, dry day to make these. Humidity is not your friend. Because whipped whites are mostly air, if the air is too moist it can flatten your macarons. A hot kitchen can also deflate whites.
2. Separate your eggs in advance. Eggs are easier to separate when they’re cold, so separate them at least an hour and up to a day before, then cover with plastic wrap so it touches the surface of the egg, and just leave the whites on the counter.
3. Have everything you need in place so you don’t have anything to slow you down once your eggs are whipped.
4. If you don't have the macaron mat..get the parchment paper ready.
5. To be precise get a digital weighing machine

TROUBLE SHOOTING:

This is great..I got this from Amberlim from - http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1089 and very good insight when you need to troubleshoot your macaron.

If you’re wringing your hands in frustration because you can’t get these little desserts to come out right, either they are hollow inside or have no feet or they crack, you are in good company. Me included. Here are a few things you can try to get that first perfect batch that will get you addicted to making macarons.

1. Use an oven thermometer: Chances are, your oven is different than mine, which is different from many other friends and bloggers who have attempted macarons. Pay a couple dollars for a decent oven thermometer and you can know for certain that your oven temp is right. Undercooked macarons will end up hollow or deflate after cooking.
2. Use a good baking sheet: If your baking sheet is too thin, the macarons won’t bake evenly or correctly. You can even try doubling up two thin baking sheets if that’s all you have.
3. Use old eggs: I know this may sound wrong, just wrong, but it makes a difference. Use eggs that are not too fresh and leave them on the counter at room temp for a day or two.
4. Make sure you have prime egg-whipping conditions. Trust me, a humid day or one streak of grease in your bowl can make what could have been a beautiful batch of macarons into a disappointment.
5. If your macarons have no feet, make sure they had their time on the counter (after piping and before baking) to create a skin. I love what Evelyn said below: “NO skin No feet… ” When your macarons form a skin before you bake them, the skin traps the air under the dome so that the air’s only way to escape is through the bottom, creating feet as it goes.
6. Don’t over or under fold your batter. I know, I know, we’ve been through this. But if you let your macarons sit on the counter for 45 minutes to form a skin and you’re still asking yourself, “why don’t my macarons have feet?” the answer is probably that you underfolded so the batter is too stiff or overfolded so it is too loose. And if you come up with a different reason, I’d love to hear.
7. Increase cooking time for bigger macarons: I’ve undercooked my macarons before and had them come out hollow. Pretty still but very disappointing in texture. Make sure that if your macarons are bigger circles, you bake longer.
8. Keep an eye on your macarons to avoid browning them or letting them crack: I love these notes note from Beth and Zach (thanks you two!!): “I bake mine with the light on in the oven so I can monitor what’s going on in there. If it seems a little hot, crack the door and stick a wooden spoon in to hold it slightly ajar. I believe the cracking happens when the oven it too hot.” “The steam produced is escaping too fast to exit out only the bottom; thus the top (even with that “skin”) has no option but to break and crack the top. If this happens consistently, turn down the heat a few degrees (no more than 10 degress 5 preferable). “
9. If you macarons won’t unstick, try water (and cook longer next time). Here’s a great tip from a reader whose macaron shells stuck to the paper. (Thank you, Jennifer!!) “The steam did not work for me, I think because my paper is fairly thick. So I rested the paper (with the Macarons stuck to it) on a thin layer of water. I counted to 15 which is just enough to soften the paper without getting the Macarons wet. They pulled off flawlessly! You may have to adjust how long you let it sit depending on the type of paper you use, so as not to wet your Macarons!” And it’s also likely, if your macarons stick, that you didn’t cook quite long enough.
10. What about a confection oven? Thanks to Zach for this note!: A convection oven should work just fine. But you should reduce cooking time becasue of the moving air, which will help prevent the cracking. If your convection oven is too hot or the air flow setting is on “high” (if apliccable), then then extra drying might make cracking more possible.

Saya memang sudah jadi ketagih dengan macaron..etalah berjaya membuatnya dengan bimbingan Puan Nuraine Tan..saya tidak berhenti di situ malah terus mencuba sehingga saya merasa puas hati dan sehingga hasil kerja boleh mencapai tahap boleh diniagakan.

Macaron Cokolat ini mungkin digemari kerana ia kurang manis jika dibandingkan dengan macaron lain dan menarik mengenai macaron chocolate ini ia tidak menggunakan serbuk merigue...tetapi proses penyediaanya adalah sama dengan membuat macaron yang lain. Seperti biasa saya selalu ingatkan ikut peraturanya..jangan sesekali derhaka kerana kuih ini memang banyak ragam.....silap-silap hari bulan boleh menyirap darah dibuatnya. Saya terus mencari tips-tips untuk mendapatkan macaron yang baik dan kali ini saya berkesempatan untuk mengambil tips dari AmandaLee..cukup hebat pesananya..memang menyeluruh bagi kita yang pernah dan selalu gagal. So baca dengan teliti dan terus mencuba.

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