The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.
FRENCH MACARONS:
Ingredients:
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.
The above is the original recipe from the Daring Baker's you must visit other Daring Baker's for their tips and methods of baking a good macaron.
My verdict: I did twice, I was not happy with my achievement, I have planed to do it again, as I did not get the feet what they kept saying, I just had to put my feet up and cried my best..., I thought I must quit baking,
For the filling: I did not try any thing, as I was quite upset, as I did not achieve the results, I used
2 tbsp of poppy seeds
4 tbsp of dessicated coconut
1/4 tsp of cardamom powder
2 tbsp of roasted pistachio
1/2 and 1/2 of butter and sugar
I roasted all the ingridients except coconut powdered them and mixed with the butter and sugar cream and filled them.
well, children said it was quite nice and have finished them, that is all I could say.
Devi Meyyappan
wow Macaroons are my fav!.. looks absolutely inviting!! , very nice 🙂
Barbara Bakes
Your filling sounds so exotic and wonderful - who cares if you got feet when the kids loved them!
Aparna
I agree with Audax. If it tasted good, then you're fine.
I didn't get any "feet" either! 🙂
jayasri
hi jayasree, thank you so much for your lovely encouraging words, yes as you said my kids were waiting for me to click the photos as they had already tasted the bits and pieces of it and loved it !!
sanghi they were yummy but macarons (?)!!!
thanks raks as always you are so sweet
Audax I have no words to say, You have always been helping me should I say not only me but most of them with your kind attention to detail when we stuck and offer us help so promptly which helps lot of us budding bakers to take this challenge, I am so happy that you visited my site to leave these lovely comments.
Thanks to you all once again.
Audax
Yes I agree with jayasree "call it by some other name" if the macarons don't have feet or shell. Wonderful effort and I think you are too harsh on yourself after all these are the hardest dessert for a home baker. Cheers from Audax in Australia.
RAKS KITCHEN
looks good,nice entry for the challenge dear 🙂
Sanghi
Yummy macrons.!
jayasree
Forgot to add, feet or no feet, its the taste that matters. Call it by some other name if not macarons. You should be happy that it was delectable and enjoyed by your family.
jayasree
jayasri, you have got almost near macarons.. I am sure in ur next attempt you will get perfect. You can see many failed attempts of the same in other blogs and many of them are accomlished bakers. So don't loose heart.
I feel you have done a good job.