My step into the world of Macarons - part III

by TP Big Brother

Attempt number 3 to gain membership into the macaron making club.

Round 1 and Round 2 have been a great learning experience about these mysterious little french cookies, but I have yet to produce a recognisable macaron I am proud of. Yet.

After watching my favourite episodes of Heston Blumenthal's In Search of Perfection, I decided to forego this round, and take a step back in order to go a few forward. So, in the name of research, part III was dedicated to macaron experiments.

After another failed attempt, I did some research to strategize on how grow some feet on my macarons. The two most common reoccuring themes involved the egg whites and the consistency of the mix before piping. I used these as the foundation for my experiment.

A minor tip I picked up in London, was that there are two main types of baking paper, which can produce differing results. It seems like most baking paper I see in the supermarkets in Melbourne are the "silicon" based ones, which is waxy on the touch (in fact, silicon paper can handle temperatures up to 200 degrees celcius - perfect for making caramel tuiles). There is also the greaseproof paper, of tracing paper texture, which can prevent bottoms of cakes from getting soggy. Curious to see if this could spawn some feet, I used this as a third and final variable for my experiment.

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TEST CASES
So the aim of this baking round was to see what impact different factors along different stages of the process had on the final macaron product. As a simple experiment, I had 3 test factors:

1. Egg whites
a. Beating to soft to medium peaks
b. Beating to stiff peaks

2. Folding
a. Underfolding (soft fold for a short duration)
b. Overfolding (harsher fold for a longer duration)

3. Baking paper
a. Silicon paper
b. Greaseproof (tracing paper)

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RESULTS
Checkpoint 1 - Post piping
- Test case 1 (Egg whites) vs Test case 2 (Folding)
Using two equal batches of egg whites, I whisked away until I achieved soft to medium peaks in one batch and stiff peaks in the other. Then I simply added equal proportions of dry ingredients to each batch and mixed with a spatula with varying intensity and duration, with the aim of eventually ending up with four different batches of macaron mixture.
Using macaron mixture from each of the four different batches, I piped each into groups on the same baking tray. Can you spot which macaron is from which batch?
Now, time for the judges to do their job. Which do you think wins this round?

Judging based on shape, body and most likely to succeed, the stiff peak egg white with under-folded macaron mix proved to be the front runner.

Checkpoint 2 - Post-oven
- Test case 1 (Egg whites) vs Test case 2 (Folding)
Twelve minutes later, the macarons came out of the oven. Fingers crossed, I searched for feet. Unfortunately, yet again, I was left bitter at my lack of ability to grow any feet. But with the task in focus, I consoled the perfectionist in me that this was indeed an experiment, and I was aiming to extract lessons from this batch.

Time for the second round of judging. Which was the best macaron, and which method created it?
I was tempted to say "none" because they were sad little macarons, surely offensive to many, and a crime punishable by the French culinary police. With similar criteria to the previous judging round, being - body, shape and "success of passing as a macaron", the round had to be given to one batch, and in this case, it was again, the stiff peaked under-folded mix.- Test case 3 (Baking paper)
This is a no brainer, so will get straigh to the point. Greaseproof (tracing paper) alone does not work for macarons (perhaps you can try greasing it with butter or oil first). The below pictures should tell you why. Silicon paper is the way to go.
How embarrassing! I again console myself with the thought that this is an experiment. Like the saying goes "an idiot never learns from their mistakes, a smart person learns from their mistakes but a genius learns from the mistakes of others". So I hope you are paying attention!

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CONCLUSION
And the winner is ...
1. Egg whites - b. Stiff peaks
2. Folding - a. Underfolding (soft fold for a short duration)
3. Baking paper - a. Silicon paper

I'm still not an expert, but slowly, I'm getting closer to getting my macarons being platable. Watch this space...