A for Effort - Macarons

I don't get to cook or bake very much here. In anticipation of going home, I've been looking at a bunch of recipes online, mainly for desserts of course, which only has increased my desire to whip stuff up in the kitchen. The other day I received a window to do some serious baking, so I decided to try something that would be relatively involved and frustrating to ebb my desire to bake for awhile. I chose to make macarons.

While my macarons didn't end up looking very good/French, I did use a French recipe book and the metric system. Measuring stuff in grams is NOT EASY because you have to use a scale and tare the scale each time you measure something. Twas frustrating and like ninth grade science lab all over again. Anyways, here are some photos.

Whipped egg whites.

Egg whites "gently" folded into batter. Macaron lesson #1: Your almond flour cannot be exposed to humidity or else it becomes grainy. To see what grainy batter looks like please view the above photo.

Macarons ready to go in the oven.

First attempt. Fail. Burned 'em.

Second attempt. Partial fail. Macaron lesson #2: The baking of macarons is a fussy process because the oven has to be hot enough to zap the macarons into a state of cookedness. Therefore, to be successful you have to be really familiar with the cookie sheet you are using and your oven. If the oven is not quite hot enough then the tops of the macarons will crack.

Third attempt. Success! The tops of the cookies should have a smooth surface and pearly sheen.

Macaron lesson #3: Improvise! I figured I'd put Nutella in between the burned cookies in an attempt to disguise the fact that they were burned. I think it worked. Tasted good anyways!

Hahahaha! My ganache. So I wanted to make the macarons lavender flavored, but while I was making the ganache I wasn't really paying attention to the stove and I was a bit tired of the whole process and I was watching Clueless so my lavender ganache turned into stringy purple goop. Oh well! It tasted alright... sort of.

Mini-macaron tower. Nutella, caramel, and lavender macarons.

It was a fun experiment, but I'd much rather shell out some euros and buy my macarons from Pierre Herme (www.pierreherme.com). Yum!