![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the passion of the macaron filling
May. 8th, 2020 03:20 pmSo. To update on my previous entry [link]...
I tried making the caramel again on... Thursday? No. Wednesday. I tried making the caramel again on Wednesday, and it once again did not turn out correctly. I think my sugar crystallized a little in the pan, and after I mixed in the fats (butter and cream), I forgot to turn the heat back on under the pan, which probably didn't help matters. So I gave up on caramel, and did some searching and found a recipe for a lemon white chocolate ganache.
I went to the store, got the ingredients for the ganache, came home, made it. And then it turned out to be exceptionally runny. Not a great consistency for sandwiching between macarons. Even after 24+ hours in the fridge, it flowed a little too easily for my taste. So. Back to the drawing board AGAIN for Thursday.
Did some more searching. I had purchased lemon curd for the failed ganache, so I went looking for buttercream recipes that used lemon curd. A distressing number of these called for lemon zest and fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and going to store more than once a week is not pandemically responsible of me, so I had to reject those out of hand. FINALLY found a recipe for a lemon buttercream that used lemon curd. It was for an entire like four layer cake, so I was going to halve it. And then I got to looking at my powdered sugar reserves, and halved it again and hoped for the best.
I had just enough powdered sugar for the macaron shells and the buttercream. There is still a small smackerel of sugar left, enough to maybe dust on some pancakes. But the buttercream turned out wonderfully--it's sweet but not too sweet, and the tartness of the lemon curd breaks through the sweetness just enough to give it a taste very similar to fresh-squeezed lemonade. I put the buttercream in the fridge and proceeded with the macaron making in earnest.
This involved pressing 200g of almond flour through a sieve. Which is always my least favorite part of making macarons, because you really cannot afford to fudge this particular step. It always takes forever, and it took even longer yesterday because my wrists have been complaining recently about EVERYTHING. The trouble with crocheting too much, I guess. So I took two or three breaks from sifting, but I got it done eventually. I also separated the egg whites. There was nearly a disaster when the weight of one egg pitched my egg separator into the bowl I was putting the whites in, but no yolk got into the whites, thank goodness.
And then today, I made macarons! Other minor problems included the egg whites taking forever to whip up (so much so that I was afraid the sugar syrup I was heating up to mix into said whites would be ready before the whites were); my wrists really not liking the mixing of the whites into the flour-sugar mixture; and the buttercream having hardened into a thick paste in the fridge overnight. These all resolved, more or less--I turned up my mixer and got the whites ready in time, I took some Advil after I was done mixing the batter, and the heat of my hands eventually got the buttercream to loosen up in the piping bag during the sandwiching process.
And now the macarons are resting in the fridge until tomorrow afternoon, when we will be able to EAT THEM. And don't worry, I will post pics on my Instagram [link] when they're ready.
(Though I will say that once again I have not cracked the code on how to get brightly colored macarons like you see everywhere else--I think it's the fact that I use the Italian method. The French method involves just folding the whipped up (and colored) whites into the dry ingredients, whereas with the Italian method, you mix half the whites into the dry ingredients, then whip the other half up and add a hot sugar syrup to them. Then you fold it all together. I've heard the Italian method is a lot more forgiving--I've made macarons five times now and I've only had a few issues. Back to the colors, I think because the whites are so white, that once you add them to the colored dry ingredients mix, it fades the color a lot. And then they seem to fade even more in the oven, but they're very bright inside. Anyway. Enough jargony rambling.)
I tried making the caramel again on... Thursday? No. Wednesday. I tried making the caramel again on Wednesday, and it once again did not turn out correctly. I think my sugar crystallized a little in the pan, and after I mixed in the fats (butter and cream), I forgot to turn the heat back on under the pan, which probably didn't help matters. So I gave up on caramel, and did some searching and found a recipe for a lemon white chocolate ganache.
I went to the store, got the ingredients for the ganache, came home, made it. And then it turned out to be exceptionally runny. Not a great consistency for sandwiching between macarons. Even after 24+ hours in the fridge, it flowed a little too easily for my taste. So. Back to the drawing board AGAIN for Thursday.
Did some more searching. I had purchased lemon curd for the failed ganache, so I went looking for buttercream recipes that used lemon curd. A distressing number of these called for lemon zest and fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and going to store more than once a week is not pandemically responsible of me, so I had to reject those out of hand. FINALLY found a recipe for a lemon buttercream that used lemon curd. It was for an entire like four layer cake, so I was going to halve it. And then I got to looking at my powdered sugar reserves, and halved it again and hoped for the best.
I had just enough powdered sugar for the macaron shells and the buttercream. There is still a small smackerel of sugar left, enough to maybe dust on some pancakes. But the buttercream turned out wonderfully--it's sweet but not too sweet, and the tartness of the lemon curd breaks through the sweetness just enough to give it a taste very similar to fresh-squeezed lemonade. I put the buttercream in the fridge and proceeded with the macaron making in earnest.
This involved pressing 200g of almond flour through a sieve. Which is always my least favorite part of making macarons, because you really cannot afford to fudge this particular step. It always takes forever, and it took even longer yesterday because my wrists have been complaining recently about EVERYTHING. The trouble with crocheting too much, I guess. So I took two or three breaks from sifting, but I got it done eventually. I also separated the egg whites. There was nearly a disaster when the weight of one egg pitched my egg separator into the bowl I was putting the whites in, but no yolk got into the whites, thank goodness.
And then today, I made macarons! Other minor problems included the egg whites taking forever to whip up (so much so that I was afraid the sugar syrup I was heating up to mix into said whites would be ready before the whites were); my wrists really not liking the mixing of the whites into the flour-sugar mixture; and the buttercream having hardened into a thick paste in the fridge overnight. These all resolved, more or less--I turned up my mixer and got the whites ready in time, I took some Advil after I was done mixing the batter, and the heat of my hands eventually got the buttercream to loosen up in the piping bag during the sandwiching process.
And now the macarons are resting in the fridge until tomorrow afternoon, when we will be able to EAT THEM. And don't worry, I will post pics on my Instagram [link] when they're ready.
(Though I will say that once again I have not cracked the code on how to get brightly colored macarons like you see everywhere else--I think it's the fact that I use the Italian method. The French method involves just folding the whipped up (and colored) whites into the dry ingredients, whereas with the Italian method, you mix half the whites into the dry ingredients, then whip the other half up and add a hot sugar syrup to them. Then you fold it all together. I've heard the Italian method is a lot more forgiving--I've made macarons five times now and I've only had a few issues. Back to the colors, I think because the whites are so white, that once you add them to the colored dry ingredients mix, it fades the color a lot. And then they seem to fade even more in the oven, but they're very bright inside. Anyway. Enough jargony rambling.)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
