Macarons!

I'm normally not a fan of baking, particularly because I can't be bothered to precisely measure ingredients, and in baking, sometimes measuring in volume (rather than mass) is not even good enough. Suffice it to say, this blog post is not a story about a major transformation in my attitude towards measuring, and perhaps that is the reason why this story is about many, many failures before I had a mini-success.

I don't believe I've ever tried a macaron before I embarked on this journey, but something about the way it looked all glossy, plump, and burger-like made me want to try it. That, and everyone else's rants online about how difficult it was to make a successful batch. So I logically started looking online for the most concise recipe, and with the prettiest accompanying pictures!

My first attempt was based on this one. Short and sweet. But my macarons ended up cracked, feetless, and hollow. These terms do make sense once you start experimenting with macaron-baking.

Then I started looking online for why my macarons were malformed. Not a large amount of effort is needed to pull up pages and pages of "troubleshooting guides". Guys and gals, these are serious guides not for the faint-hearted, and the number of possible symptoms is far greater than the number you might find in a household appliance manual. Seriously!

I ultimately stumbled upon this Youtube video by Honeysuckle Catering. (By the way, if Ms. Honeysuckle ever reads this post, I applaud your videos -- they are so enjoyable to watch because you have this laid-back attitude that makes learning a new recipe less stressful!) The video told me what I was doing wrong--not beating my egg whites long enough! Follow the 3/3/3 method to really get the right amount of whipping! 3 minutes (low) before adding the sugar, 3 minutes (medium) before adding the food coloring, and finally 3 minutes (high) to get it all together.

Finally, I got a good batch below:

To be honest, some of the batch were still cracked, so I think I do need to dry my macarons for longer before baking, but I am really happy that I've finally got some that were just right!