COOKIES

DARING BAKERS MAKE FRENCH MACARONS…YES, TIME FOR FEET AGAIN!

2009/10/27 / 109 Comments
“Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.”
Winston Churchill
MAIN It’s the 27th again, time to post the Daring Bakers challenge, a wonderful & fun group brought together by Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. This month we were led into a merry dance; the challenge was to find ‘FEET’. Hail the great French macaron/macaroon, an elegant French cookie that I find entirely temperamental and fiddly. One that has reduced me to tears in the past, brought me to my knees in the quest for ‘feet’…yet one that gave me untold joy when I finally found them.

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.
9 Unless you’ve been frozen in permafrost for the past five years, you’ve likely noticed that cupcake bakeries have popped up all over like iced mushrooms. Knock one down, and three take its place. Much has been made about not only the cupcake’s popularity, but also its incipient demise as the sweet du jour. Since we seem to be a culture intent on the next sensation, pundits, food enthusiasts and bloggers have all wondered what this sensation might be. More than a few have suggested that French-style macaroons (called macarons in France) might supplant the cupcake. This may or may not come to pass, but the basic premise of the French macaroon is pretty damned tasty.HTIn the United States, the term “macaroon” generally refers to a cookie made primarily of coconut. But European macaroons are based on either ground almonds or almond paste, combined with sugar and egg whites. The texture can run from chewy, crunchy or a combination of the two. Frequently, two macaroons are sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream or jam, which can cause the cookies to become more chewy. The flavor possibilities and combinations are nigh endless, allowing infinitely customizable permutations. 12IMG 9189
French macaroons are notorious for being difficult to master. Type in “macaroon,” “French macaroon” or “macaron” in your search engine of choice, and you will be inundated not only with bakeries offering these tasty little cookies, but scores and even hundreds of blogs all attempting to find the perfect recipe, the perfect technique. Which one is right? Which captures the perfect essence of macaroons? IMG 9131 horzThe answer is all of them and none of them. Macaroons are highly subjective, the subject of passionate, almost Talmudic study and debate. Chewy? Crisp? Age your egg whites? Ground the nuts or use nut meal or nut flour? Cooked sugar syrup, or confectioners’ sugar? In the words of a therapist, what do you think is the ideal macaroon? The answer lies within you…BOTH
A mac obssessed group of us foodie pals on twitter had ventured into mac territory a few months ago, and it took me many attempts before I got it right. ‘Many‘ translate into 6 attempts on a single morning, in a mad frenzy, batch after batch, failure after failure. It was on the 7th attempt that I finally tasted success with David Lebovitz’s French Chocolate Macarons with Pistachio Buttercream. All credit went to a great bunch of tweeples who held my hand. Of them many were Daring Bakers – Meeta, Aparna, Hilda, Jamie, Ria & Barbara! Jamie was crowned the Mac Queen…and boy, am I glad I got all that experience. What worked for me then was a much lower temperature and David Lebovitz’s recipe; I now call him the ‘Mac Mastah‘!!DB+Macs2When the challenge was announced this month I was doing the salsa, the flamenco, the tango, the cha–cha–cha … even the macarona, if there was one! We needed ‘FEET’ here, and I knew just what I had to do; also knew just how to behave if they failed. No more tears, no more panic. Many egg whites lined up, almond meal made from scratch & I was ready to roll. Popped batch one into the oven with the DB recipe, and the first lot at 93C turned out beautifully, with the prettiest feet developing. All was lost at 190C & my tray bubbled over. UGH! I should have known, because that’s just what happened when I tried a David Lebovitz recipe during the mac attack at 190C. 21
Then again, no drama. Calmly wrapped the parchment paper, binned it & began all over again, but this time with my tried & tested 140C variant on the Lebovitz recipe, sans cocoa. Found colour inspiration and sound advice from Trissa @ Trissalicious. One look at her blog, & her beautiful coloured macs, returned me to an uber confident baker, unfazed by failure. Exchanged mails with her, and was back at it in no time, again with a 1 egg white batch. 22I divide the batter into 5 portions and added a drop of neon colour to each. Ended with vanilla sugar flavoured, pretty coloured French macarons, not perfect, but good enough for me. Loved doing the challenge, maybe because it worked for me. I sandwiched them with a vanilla butter cream, and the kids loved them. I’d do this again soon, but for the fact that I find macarons far too sweet. I might try them again in the winter with a bittersweet chocolate filling, or might try them again just because I love the way they look! They really are stunning little creatures!PPS+MacsI did a batch with pumpkin pie spice too, just because I had some pumpkin puree left over from this Praline Pumpkin Pie here, and I wanted to make something pumpkin pie spice flavoured. These turned out delish too, but we finished them sooner because of the pumpkin puree filling, as it had more moisture. I preferred these to the vanilla buttercream ones, as I found them less sweet.4Awesome tasty cookies. I’m including them here for the Great HallowTweet … a Halloween Bloghop by Renee @ Flamingo Musings (refer my post here)!

mac+recipeVanilla Macarons with Vanilla Buttercream
as adapted from David Lebovitz’s recipe
(I made half this recipe )
Macaron Batter
1 cup powdered vanilla sugar
½ cup powdered almonds
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
Liquid neon colours

6

Method:
Preheat oven to 140 degrees C.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2-inch, 2 cm) ready.
Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn’t quite fine enough.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes. (They should stay in the bowl if you hold it upside down. try at your own peril!!)
Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone).
Divide into bowls and gently mix in the colour if you want too. See Trissa’s post here.
Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes.
Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream
Double the ingredients if you are making the whole recipe above.
50gms butter at room temperature
50gms powdered vanilla sugar
1/4 vanilla bean
1 tbsp light cream
Method:
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into a bowl with all the ingredients, & whip together to firm consistency.
Pipe onto cookies & sandwich. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

12IMG 9068

Note: For pumpkin spice macarons, 1 added 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice to almond meal & blended for a few seconds. For pumpkin buttercream, I mixed 1 tbsp of pumpkin puree to a white chocolate ganache. These macs should be consumed faster because the moisture content in the pumpkin buttercream could lead them to be soggy faster than the regular buttercream.

Pumpkin+pie+spice+macs3♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

~
Do stop by and see the other Daring Bakers around the world find their feet HERE!
Thank you Amy @ Baking Without Fear for this wonderful challenge!
Don’t miss a post feed
Posted by Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

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109 Comments

  • MeetaK

    2009/10/27 at 8:20 am Reply

    these macarons are colorful works of art my dear! my fave though is the pumpkin spice ones! gorgeous!

  • Happy cook

    2009/10/27 at 8:32 am Reply

    Looks like someone here was in a playfull and colourfull mood while making the Macarons. I am in love with all the colours.

  • Trissa

    2009/10/27 at 9:09 am Reply

    Deeba – they are gorgeous! Amazing. You did really well. I can't believe you did soooo many batches in one day. That is determination! It really paid off. I am so happy to see them.

  • Divina Pe

    2009/10/27 at 9:12 am Reply

    Wow Deeba, I'm always speechless when you make something, they're always extraordinary. They are absolutely gorgeous and fantastic. I love the different colors of the macaroons as well.

  • Sarah, Maison Cupcake

    2009/10/27 at 9:14 am Reply

    These are truly beautiful macarons and stunning pictures. @berrybushel and @foodfinery and myself @maisoncupcake are planning another mac tweet up on Sunday Nov 1st!

  • Murasaki Shikibu

    2009/10/27 at 9:18 am Reply

    Very beautiful Deeba. I prefer to call the French ones 'Macarons' and the American ones 'Macaroons'. They are very different after all!

  • The Purple Foodie

    2009/10/27 at 9:55 am Reply

    Good to know the david lebovitz recipe worked for you. I'm going to try exactly that the next time. Mine falied big time too. LOL

  • Jamie

    2009/10/27 at 10:33 am Reply

    Fabulous, Deeba, just fabulous! Onward and upward I say and ready to meet the Mac Challenge every month now. I love the colors! Adorable! And I love the pumpkin spice ones with the little eyes. Too much. Hugs to you!!

  • diva

    2009/10/27 at 10:52 am Reply

    oh deeba! congrats! u've got feet 🙂 and they're so beautiful i'm jealous. could i have a bag of em sent to me hun? they look delicious. love the pic of the macs with eyes. lol. xx

  • Dharm

    2009/10/27 at 11:01 am Reply

    so colourful…so lovely… so fantastic! These are truly what macarons should look like. Love the feet you got on them!

  • RJ Flamingo

    2009/10/27 at 11:35 am Reply

    Deeba, those pastel ones are soooo pretty!!! And the pumpkin-filled with the little eyes that you did for #GreatHallowTweet, are so cute and funny! LOL!!!

  • Jo

    2009/10/27 at 12:06 pm Reply

    Oh wow, I can't believe you've come up with so many creations and each is as beautiful as the last. The pastel coloured ones are especially eye catching.

  • AmyRuth

    2009/10/27 at 12:54 pm Reply

    Beautiful Post and its going to my google docs. :-0 I have to try making Macarons really soon. Thanks for clarification on the French/American spellings, as I had a convo some months back with another blogger and believe it or not, I was actually spot on. hehe. Thanks again for a lovely blog among the "blogbaker's " world.
    AmyRuth

  • Tangled Noodle

    2009/10/27 at 1:07 pm Reply

    Happy feet indeed! Macarons are one item that I'm still working up the nerve to try – after all, if someone as accomplished as you had some setbacks when you first started, I'm liable to make a disaster! Still, I'm reading and learning, and hopefully, I'll try it myself soon. 😎

    Your photos, as always, are simply so beautiful and your macarons looks so serene . . . except for the ones with goggly eyes! 8-D

  • Lori

    2009/10/27 at 1:17 pm Reply

    Very impressive Deeba.I love all the colors and I just love the pumpkin one! I have never tried David's recipe. I always use Tartelette's.

  • Jen @ My Kitchen Addiction

    2009/10/27 at 1:50 pm Reply

    Your macarons look amazing… I'm so impressed! Love all of your beautiful pictures.

  • Rosa's Yummy Yums

    2009/10/27 at 1:56 pm Reply

    Your macarons are so pretty and delicious looking! I love that choice of filling an your pictures!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

  • The Cooking Ninja

    2009/10/27 at 1:56 pm Reply

    I simply love your colour macs ! They are gorgeous!

    I truly admire your determination to get feet – 7 attempts in 1 morning! wow! U shld get a medal for that. I would have gone crying to hubs shoulder by the 4th failure and say 'macaron, be damned' lol!

  • Tartelette

    2009/10/27 at 2:05 pm Reply

    They all look fabulous Deeba! I love the colored ones. Fun!
    P.S: wondering if you've ever received my email back re-questionnaire.

  • Bread and Jam

    2009/10/27 at 2:09 pm Reply

    Wow, so beautiful and fancy! I would like to try using the coloring in mine next time around. Love the praline flavor idea. Great job!

  • Gloria

    2009/10/27 at 2:23 pm Reply

    Oh my God!!! Deeba these are absolutely adorables! Really belle!
    and I love yor winston Churchill words!! besoos, and huggs! gloria

  • Rochelle

    2009/10/27 at 3:04 pm Reply

    Pretty macaroons! Love all the colors and then the pumpkin spice macaroons sound so good with the pumpkin butter cream 🙂

  • Ambika

    2009/10/27 at 3:15 pm Reply

    I don't even know what to say ! The macaroons look like they are too good to be true..awesome!!

  • Barbara Bakes

    2009/10/27 at 3:36 pm Reply

    I love the pictures with the macs and the chest. Like beautiful little jewels in a treasure box!

  • Judy@nofearentertaining

    2009/10/27 at 3:51 pm Reply

    Beautiful colors on these Deeba! I love how you have become such a confident and knowledgeable macaroon maker! I will try them I promise!!!

  • Chez Us

    2009/10/27 at 4:56 pm Reply

    Deeba – YOU GOT FEET! They are wonderful and I love the colors and the flavors. Great job!!

    Also your halloween theme on your site is adorable. I love the little spooky eyes on your treats, very clever!

  • Rachael

    2009/10/27 at 4:57 pm Reply

    Oh my goodness! You have a whole gaggle of gorgeous macs!! You amaze me!!! I love the thought of a "macarona"…. I here the pitter patter of little mac feet dancing the macarona!!!!

  • Hilda

    2009/10/27 at 5:12 pm Reply

    OMG! I love the eyes! Those totally made me laugh. Look at you! it just took twice this time, from now on I expect to see perfect macs on the first go around every time! And I would love to have a pumpkin spice one, sounds de-licious.

  • Lauren

    2009/10/27 at 5:45 pm Reply

    So very pretty, and fun photos! All of your macs look fabulous – Love the colours & flavours!!

  • Julie @ Willow Bird Baking

    2009/10/27 at 5:50 pm Reply

    Goooorrrrgeous colors, Deeba!! And I want one of those pumpkin spice ones — oh my goodness! They look delicious!

  • Engineer Baker

    2009/10/27 at 5:56 pm Reply

    Not perfect?!? Are you kidding? Those are just about the prettiest little macs I've seen all day! Love the colors!

  • Audax

    2009/10/27 at 6:58 pm Reply

    Perfect photos, perfect shape, perfect feet and perfect colours/flavours. Perfection. Bravo bravo bravo. Cheers from Audax in Australia.

  • Peggy Bourjaily

    2009/10/27 at 8:49 pm Reply

    Wow! You made so many different kinds!!! I only made one:)

    Love your pictures and loved the googly eyes!!

  • Dawn

    2009/10/27 at 11:38 pm Reply

    It is so obvious how hard you worked on these. Simply amazing my friend. I appreciate your hard work.

  • Simon

    2009/10/28 at 2:03 am Reply

    Nice work with the post!

    Glad to see that I'm not the only one with a fair amount of failures under my belt before ahh, finding your feet 😛

    Love the eyes on the macarons. Reminds me of the McDonald's character Mayor McCheese 🙂

  • Beth

    2009/10/28 at 2:38 am Reply

    Great colors! Your macs look lovely, which is a testament to your dedication earlier this year. Doesn't it feel great to master a recipe?

  • maybelle's mom

    2009/10/28 at 2:56 am Reply

    obviously great job, didn't expect anything else from you. we went with pumpkin too for some, and ours also went quickly.

  • KMDuff

    2009/10/28 at 3:23 am Reply

    Awesome! Yummy! Pumpkin pie flavored sounds good! How cool that you knew what to do and how to fix problems, I will be trying again. 🙂

  • Cakelaw

    2009/10/28 at 3:41 am Reply

    I love, love, love the pretty coloured ones – they appeal to my girly heart. They make me think of brightly coloured balloons set aloft in the sky.

  • Liliana

    2009/10/28 at 3:41 am Reply

    Wonderful post. Your 'macs' look amazing. My favourite is also the pumpkin spice.

    I didn't get a chance to participate this month, but definitely have to try to make these – at least once.

    Beautiful photos!

  • Susan @ SGCC

    2009/10/28 at 4:06 am Reply

    Your macarons are gorgeous,
    Deeba! Very well done! I ended up tossing my first 4 batches in the bin!

  • anna

    2009/10/28 at 5:11 am Reply

    Eek! They're adorable Deeba! And the pumpkin pie ones sound so tasty right about now. You're a pro at this by now!

  • Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella

    2009/10/28 at 5:34 am Reply

    These are absolute perfection Deeba! There's no doubt about it, you definitely have the macaron gift! 🙂

  • Purnima

    2009/10/28 at 6:43 am Reply

    Blast of colors, great great efforts, a post is what I need to pour my adjectives for each beauty here! Fab pics..loved the pum. macs..also the smiley n eyes look out of this world! Way too PERRRFECCT!!

  • Junglefrog

    2009/10/28 at 8:35 am Reply

    Ooo Deeba! How gorgeous they all look! I am also glad to know that you also didn't master them in one try… 🙂 I have got to check out David's recipes!

  • zurin

    2009/10/28 at 10:22 am Reply

    Hi Deeba, Just want to tell u that this post's quote is the best ive come across. what a great quote to say that strength and intelligence alone won't get you far. its quite obvious when we think about it but we often dont, do we? its a continuous effort in itself to remember that 🙂 im typing n printing n sticking that up on the wall to remind myself n the family. tq :)))

  • madeinthepresenceofnut

    2009/10/28 at 10:26 am Reply

    Thank you so much for the wonderful words of encouragement! Your macarons look delightfully tasty and have such elegant feet. I hope my next batch look this good!

  • dollydoesdesserts

    2009/10/28 at 12:22 pm Reply

    Omg, your macarons are really beautiful! I love the halloween ones! 😀 I'm they tasted great.

  • George@CulinaryTravels

    2009/10/28 at 2:02 pm Reply

    Wow those macs are perfect!! I love all the different colours too. GOrgeous.

  • Manggy

    2009/10/28 at 2:27 pm Reply

    Love the eyes! Sorry to hear about the macaron mishaps– that 190C oven sounded like a disaster in the making! Glad to see you pulled through anyway 🙂

  • lisaiscooking

    2009/10/28 at 2:31 pm Reply

    You're a mac pro now! They all look lovely. I think I'd like the pumpkin ones best too. The pumpkin-white-chocolate-ganache filling sounds incredible.

  • sweetakery

    2009/10/28 at 3:57 pm Reply

    Oh wow! AWESOME! Great colors! Your macs look beautiful..Pumpkin pie flavored sounds good! im going to try some! =)

  • Prasukitchen.blogspot.com

    2009/10/28 at 5:58 pm Reply

    Iam in love with all your coor … your macarons looks great Deeba …
    absolutely gorgeous dear!!

  • Prasukitchen.blogspot.com

    2009/10/28 at 6:03 pm Reply

    Iam in love with all your colors … your macarons looks great Deeba …
    absolutely gorgeous dear!!

  • Jenny Tan

    2009/10/29 at 7:19 am Reply

    Thanks for your encouragement Deeba! 🙂 I will give it another try, someday…with a different recipe perhaps. Your macs looks fantastic! 🙂

  • Jenny Tan

    2009/10/29 at 7:19 am Reply

    Thanks for your encouragement Deeba! 🙂 I will give it another try, someday…with a different recipe perhaps. Your macs looks fantastic! 🙂

  • steph- whisk/spoon

    2009/10/29 at 2:30 pm Reply

    always best to go with what you know will work, right! they are fantastic and beautiful!!

  • lisa @ dandysugar

    2009/10/29 at 6:44 pm Reply

    Gorgeous macarons Deeba! Such beautiful lovely colors- they are so perfect and with wonderful feet too!!

  • Thao Phan

    2009/10/29 at 9:07 pm Reply

    Your macaron came out great!!!!!! min never looks that good. I have to try David L recipe soon. I love making them, just never can get the correct consitancy 🙁

  • Natalie, aka "Sheltie Girl"

    2009/10/30 at 1:09 am Reply

    Fabulous job on your macarons! I love all the different colors.

    Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go

  • Lisa

    2009/10/30 at 4:18 am Reply

    Deeba, Deeba, Deeba!! I knew your macarons would be gorgeous! I love the pastel colors, and the chocolate with pistachio filling looks and sounds delectable! I also used David's recipe for chocolate macs, but Helen's for the rest, as the DB recipe didn't work well for my Ispahans 🙁 Regardless, as always..I"M AWED…beautiful everything!

  • Amy I.

    2009/10/30 at 5:52 am Reply

    Deeba! Looking at your colors makes me so happy. Definitely some of my very favorites that I've seen this week. Hugs to you!

  • MaryMoh

    2009/10/30 at 1:21 pm Reply

    Awesome macaroons! I want a bite of each. Looks like you will end up with a lot of half eaten macaroons….LOL

  • Namratha

    2009/11/01 at 10:39 pm Reply

    Pretty colors Deeba! I think a lot of us had to redo macs to get them right….a mighty challenge eh?!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.

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