little things: the fourth (in which macarons were almost made correctly)

I'm not a very good baker. 

I'm certainly an enthusiastic one, but certainly not a good one! I can cook (I think I cook rather well), but where cooking is an art, baking is a science - and like any science, there are rules to be adhered to. Exactly so amount of sugar, this weight of flour. My typical baking style means I will happily substitute this for that and guesstimate the weights and amounts, and sometimes if I don't have an item required, I will forge ahead anyway. As you can guess, this has rather resulted in some inedible foodstuffs. Flat cakes, sour cheesecakes, bitter brownies - the list is endless! My solution? I decided to jump into the deep end and make macarons, famed for it's finicky temperament. I followed The Pink Whisk's recipe and for a first attempt, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did not turn out as badly as I had feared!

Voila! 1, 2 and 3 (green batch), 4 (pink batch).

Foolishly, after whisking the egg whites and sugar, I got it into my mind that I ought to make two different colours. Out came another bowl, in to it went half the meringue. Why not just start with one colour, I hear you ask, why overly complicate things? Well, otherwise it might have gone too well, and that would have been wrong(!). 

My green batch most likely did not have enough almond/icing sugar in it, whereas the pink batch probably had just the right amount, and I did not mix the green batch enough, and mixed the pink batch a little too much (see how my image four macarons are a little flatter than I would prefer?). 

I also had to wait a ridiculously long time for a 'skin' to form on the macarons before I put them in the oven. It was a very damp day when I made them - skin did not form for about three hours! Once the mixture finally stopped sticking to my fingers, I popped them in. I waited anxiously for the frilly foot to appear - no dice on the green ones. See how they appear in image one through three? That is how they turned out after baking. 

A little disheartened, I popped in the pink ones - and within five minutes, behold! Feet formed! A cry was let out, warrior-like in it's glee and triumph. I pulled them out of the oven after thirteen minutes, let them cool on it's baking paper on a kitchen counter and, despite most not being suitably round and not as high as I'd prefer, are very nice indeed! I whipped up a quick chocolate ganache (a little too much cream in mine, I think), and sandwiched them. 

So that was my weekend - I tried my hand at making macarons, and found it to be deeply fun and addictive.