Last weekend I had some friends over for dinner at a request of my friend Dennis, who was feeling left out of the feastings that were happening at my house. In my defense it was not that I never wanted to invite him, merely that I never knew when he was in town. Dennis is always out playing golf somewhere sunny or partying it up and painting the town red! But I digress....long story short Dennis had requested that I make creme brulee--and I couldn't say no, any dessert that lets me play with fire is always fun! But now I have a bunch of egg whites aging in the fridge. So today i decided to make some macarons.
Trying to get my baking fill in this week as I am starting my yearly health detox this Monday. Seems fitting with my friend Kimlony's Bachelorette party around the corner. Might as well detox my body before I go and fill it full of alcoholic toxins... Hahaha.
So today I will be attempting to make:
Trying to get my baking fill in this week as I am starting my yearly health detox this Monday. Seems fitting with my friend Kimlony's Bachelorette party around the corner. Might as well detox my body before I go and fill it full of alcoholic toxins... Hahaha.
So today I will be attempting to make:
- Banana Coconut Cream macarons
- Red Velvet Cream Cheese macarons
- Raspberry macarons
- Hazaelnut macarons
Though I really wished I had more Kitchen Aid bowls; when baking a lot it gets
annoying to have t stop between to wash the attachment and bowl....then again I
am very lazy....
annoying to have t stop between to wash the attachment and bowl....then again I
am very lazy....
Ok note to self making 4 batches of macaron in one afternoon is a terrible idea....my wrist and forearm hurt from all the folding and "punching" of the shell batter. *sigh*
So today has been a day full of mistake, learnings, and delicious fillings.
My first batch was the hazelnut macarons. which came out slightly overcooked. I ended up taking roasted hazelnuts and sticking them through the food processor to get them to a useable consistency. Then I replaced the almond meal in my recipe with the ground hazelnut powder I created. The shells ended up being a bit hard....but still edible. To go with these I made a delicious Nutella buttercream.
My second batch was so bad they ended up getting thrown out. Which made me really sad because it was the flavor I was most excited about--banana coconut cream. In my defense I was having major issues with my oven. It wouldn't keep a consistent temp so the shells where undercooked when I first pulled them out then 4 checks later they were completely overcook...beyond saving. I actually left them on the counter while I moved on to batch #3.
My third batch was the raspberry macarons. In the middle of piping them on to the bake sheets my friends David and Amber came over.
I warned them not to eat the ones (banana macarons) on the counter since they were a failed batch. Did they listen? No....David went and took a big bite and then announced to everyone that they should not be eaten. DUH...didn't I tell you not to eat them like 5 seconds before you ate them???hahaha
But David did come in handy later on as he explained to me the difference between a convection oven versus a standard home oven. And my oven is convection, but apparently I have been using it as standard which is why I was having so many baking mishaps as of late. Turns out when I'm using my oven as a convection it uses a fan to keep the temp in the over constant. Me being me, completely forgot about the setting and had been using the oven without it which meant the temp in the oven would oscillate (explaining my undercooked/overcooked batch from earlier).
Once I realized this we corrected the problem before putting the raspberry macarons in the oven. They came out way better than my last two batches. To go with these I made a wonderful raspberry buttercream, which I really enjoyed since it tasted a lot like a mamba fruit chew. David on the other hand prefers ganache with his, so he went through my baking supplies and found bakers chocolate and made his own ganache...which I personally thought was too chocolatey (but I also am not a chocolate person). Though it should be noted he made a pretty good ganache, better than any of my own prior attempts.
The last batch I made was supposed to be red velvet. Unfortunately the eggs I used to get the egg whites didn't give me as much egg whites so the batter was drier than it should have been. Add to that, that I made the mistake of putting too much cocoa powder and not enough food coloring so they came out tasting like a brownie. So for this batch I will not call them macarons, but merely cookie shaped brownies.
So today has been a day full of mistake, learnings, and delicious fillings.
My first batch was the hazelnut macarons. which came out slightly overcooked. I ended up taking roasted hazelnuts and sticking them through the food processor to get them to a useable consistency. Then I replaced the almond meal in my recipe with the ground hazelnut powder I created. The shells ended up being a bit hard....but still edible. To go with these I made a delicious Nutella buttercream.
My second batch was so bad they ended up getting thrown out. Which made me really sad because it was the flavor I was most excited about--banana coconut cream. In my defense I was having major issues with my oven. It wouldn't keep a consistent temp so the shells where undercooked when I first pulled them out then 4 checks later they were completely overcook...beyond saving. I actually left them on the counter while I moved on to batch #3.
My third batch was the raspberry macarons. In the middle of piping them on to the bake sheets my friends David and Amber came over.
I warned them not to eat the ones (banana macarons) on the counter since they were a failed batch. Did they listen? No....David went and took a big bite and then announced to everyone that they should not be eaten. DUH...didn't I tell you not to eat them like 5 seconds before you ate them???hahaha
But David did come in handy later on as he explained to me the difference between a convection oven versus a standard home oven. And my oven is convection, but apparently I have been using it as standard which is why I was having so many baking mishaps as of late. Turns out when I'm using my oven as a convection it uses a fan to keep the temp in the over constant. Me being me, completely forgot about the setting and had been using the oven without it which meant the temp in the oven would oscillate (explaining my undercooked/overcooked batch from earlier).
Once I realized this we corrected the problem before putting the raspberry macarons in the oven. They came out way better than my last two batches. To go with these I made a wonderful raspberry buttercream, which I really enjoyed since it tasted a lot like a mamba fruit chew. David on the other hand prefers ganache with his, so he went through my baking supplies and found bakers chocolate and made his own ganache...which I personally thought was too chocolatey (but I also am not a chocolate person). Though it should be noted he made a pretty good ganache, better than any of my own prior attempts.
The last batch I made was supposed to be red velvet. Unfortunately the eggs I used to get the egg whites didn't give me as much egg whites so the batter was drier than it should have been. Add to that, that I made the mistake of putting too much cocoa powder and not enough food coloring so they came out tasting like a brownie. So for this batch I will not call them macarons, but merely cookie shaped brownies.
Three good things came out of today:
- I made a really good raspberry buttercream
- I made a delicious hazelnut buttercream
- I learned to use my oven<---that pretty terrible that I have been baking as much as I have and I am just now learning to use the other settings on it.