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

“Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.”
Winston Churchill
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.
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.In 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.
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? The 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…
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‘!!When 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.
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. I 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!I 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.Awesome tasty cookies. I’m including them here for the Great HallowTweet … a Halloween Bloghop by Renee @ Flamingo Musings (refer my post here)!

Vanilla 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

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.

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.

♥ 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!
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Posted by Deeba @ PAB

Published 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.

109 thoughts on “DARING BAKERS MAKE FRENCH MACARONS…YES, TIME FOR FEET AGAIN!”

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

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

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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

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

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  12. 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

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  13. 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!!

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  14. 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

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

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  17. 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!!!

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  18. 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.

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  24. 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

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  25. 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

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  26. 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.

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  27. I'm not sure I can eat them with those eyes looking back at me. 🙂 Lovely job, my dear!

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

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

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  32. 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!

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

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  34. 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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  44. 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!

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  46. 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!!!!

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  47. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

    Love your pictures and loved the googly eyes!!

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

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  61. 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 🙂

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  62. I knew this was a challenge you'd knock out of the park! Go on with your bad self! 🙂

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  65. 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?

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

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  69. Gorgeous macarons! I wish I could bite into the pumpkin spice ones. Perfect for the season.

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  70. 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. 🙂

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  71. 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.

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  72. 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!

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

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

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

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  80. 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!!

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  81. 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!

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  83. 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 :)))

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  84. 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!

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

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

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  91. 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 🙂

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  92. 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.

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  93. Your macarons are gorgeous. Love the colors, and the pumpkin ones sound awesome!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  101. 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 🙁

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

    Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go

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  104. 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!

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

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

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

    Reply

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