You can tell I'm on holiday - firstly I have time to make and bake things and secondly, I have time to blog about it! And you may wonder where all these are going once baked? Well the big advantage of macarons is that they can be stored in the fridge for a few days or frozen for 3 months. This is great because I never seem to have the time to produce home cooked when we have people round or when we want something special. But now I can have a selection of macarons ready for visitors or special occassions anytime. Yesterday I tested the powdered food colours I bought from Deco Relief - Santa Claus Red and Yellow. They deliver a very intense colour from only a very few grains, easily much less than 1/8th of a teaspoon. Setting up and ready to go!
It didn't! Wow these colours really ping! But they suited what I wanted and I've finally got my oven temp and timing right. The macaron shells were cooked through completely for the first time. My first attempts left a pile of goo from the centre of each shell when lifted from the tray but these are spot on.
Once today's work in the kitchen is finished (I'm hoping to have shelves by the end of today) I can make the filling for the Rose Macarons so perhaps there will be a pic of those later.
As well as testing the colours, I wanted to try and improve my piping skills but I probably undermixed this batter because the mix was quite thick which made it easier to pipe but you can see the blobs hold their shape too well instead of gently slumping into low rise little mounds. In fact they look like smurf hats. Ooops. I wasn't sure if the intensity of the colour would reduce during baking....
The tops stayed like hats and have risen more than normal but the little frill underneath, the "pied" is better than I normally achieve. I've read that people struggle to get that effect but right from my first attempts using the Mad About Macarons book and following the instructions to the letter this hasn't been a problem.
The red came out a stronger pink than I'd wanted, I was thinking pastel rose but it's still pretty.
Well cooked bases but slightly wonky tops again!
The (very tall!) finished result below - passion fruit, mango and coconut macarons - or a shorter title is Tropical Macarons!
Great to see your macarons, Deb! Just back from holidays so a lovely surprise to pop in here and see your first macaron attempts - bravo! Yes, the powdered colourings are great, aren't they? Now you've got the recipe sussed, there's no stopping you now. You're right: just needs a bit more mixing and they're picture perfect. I bet your rose macarons were fabulous, too.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the autumn and plenty more flavours!
Thanks for stopping by Jill and for the encouragement too, you are soooo right about the rose macarons but all your recipes are delish and they all work beautifully. I'm hoping you won't stop at one book and will write a follow up! I've got ambitions to create an autumn appley, cinnamony macaron but it might be an excuse to use up some Calvados left over from our last nip to Normandy. I'm not sure how I'm going to squeeze work in with all these variations to try :)
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