Macaroons - Learning from my mistakes.
I decided this afternoon to make macaroons - In my usual style, no real prior planning or preparation, no real background reading into techniques. Predictably, this meant that they were a disaster, but a disaster that I want to document so I don’t make the same mistakes again next time.
I followed this recipe: http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/baking/cakes/strawberry-macaroons-recipe_p_1.html
Results (fairly mortified to be posting this, but I figure it can help me learn):
Well - here’s what I learned:
- Don’t overmix the meringue mixture - although apparently you can afford to be a little rough with it.
- I suck at piping - need to practise!
- When a recipe says to leave for 10 minutes before putting in the oven, it probably knows what it’s talking about more than I do. Leave for 10 minutes Liv, you impatient woman.
- leave them for a few minutes before flipping them to do the other side - I flipped too early and they splodged everywhere.
- Be really strict to the shorter time limit after flipping - I burned the batch I tried after, sadly after I’d learned to wait after flipping.
I had some leftover mixture that wouldn’t fit on the baking sheets, so had a second go:
K, so this is where I wasn’t strict to the second time limit; I ended up burning them a bit.
They still taste good though, but I’m not going to bother with filling them, since I think I’d only end up with about 3!
Since messing up, I did a little research online and found this online magazine which has really good advice from the woman who writes Tartlette:
http://www.dessertsmag.com/desserts-magazine/issue2/#/38/
This whole process shows how much of a teacher I am; I can’t help but want to learn and improve after making mistakes. Tee hee.
