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So on a whim a couple weeks back, I bought some almond flour while grocery shopping for the purpose of making some macarons, i.e., those cute French sandwich cookies. I've made them before, though it's been a while since I made my last batch.
Looking through my French baking cookbook (Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan), I decided I would try to make the Salted Caramel Filling recipe that she recommends for macarons, since I wouldn't need to get a lot of special ingredients to make it. I got the heavy cream and unsalted butter I needed, and we have plenty of sugar, so easy enough, right? As I commented earlier today elsewhere, "I've never made a caramel before, but hopefully it goes well."
Reader?
It did not go well.
And of course now that I've cleaned up the mess I made and done all the dishes and had time to look up what might have gone wrong, I can't figure out exactly what did go wrong. It could have been the humidity, for crissakes! That said... I'm thinking I probably cooked the sugar too long and burned it before I even added the butter and cream to it. It probably didn't help that I didn't really spread the sugar evenly in the pan. I might have to use a smaller pan next time around, I don't know. I used our big 14-inch skillet, but maybe the 12-inch one will work better. I DON'T KNOW. Not having a guide to tell me what, exactly, I did wrong is Very Unhelpful.
SO YEAH. I'm a little frustrated and tetchy right now because I really wanted to get this right the first try. But caramel is apparently only a thing that gets easier with practice. So I guess I will try again at some point this week. I've got enough butter for two more tries, if nothing else. (And failing that, I might just say screw it and make something else.)
On the bright side, I say to myself, look at what happened: I failed at something and the world didn't end.
Looking through my French baking cookbook (Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan), I decided I would try to make the Salted Caramel Filling recipe that she recommends for macarons, since I wouldn't need to get a lot of special ingredients to make it. I got the heavy cream and unsalted butter I needed, and we have plenty of sugar, so easy enough, right? As I commented earlier today elsewhere, "I've never made a caramel before, but hopefully it goes well."
Reader?
It did not go well.
And of course now that I've cleaned up the mess I made and done all the dishes and had time to look up what might have gone wrong, I can't figure out exactly what did go wrong. It could have been the humidity, for crissakes! That said... I'm thinking I probably cooked the sugar too long and burned it before I even added the butter and cream to it. It probably didn't help that I didn't really spread the sugar evenly in the pan. I might have to use a smaller pan next time around, I don't know. I used our big 14-inch skillet, but maybe the 12-inch one will work better. I DON'T KNOW. Not having a guide to tell me what, exactly, I did wrong is Very Unhelpful.
SO YEAH. I'm a little frustrated and tetchy right now because I really wanted to get this right the first try. But caramel is apparently only a thing that gets easier with practice. So I guess I will try again at some point this week. I've got enough butter for two more tries, if nothing else. (And failing that, I might just say screw it and make something else.)
On the bright side, I say to myself, look at what happened: I failed at something and the world didn't end.
