Pecan Caramel and Pistacchio Cranberry Macaron Balloons

Pecan Macarons with Caramel Pecan Filling

Oh, macarons, why, why? I made another batch of macarons this weekend by measuring by weight, sifting, proper (I think) folding and nice piping. I let them dry then popped them in the oven. They grew feet and were happy like little children playing next to the bonfire. But when I took them out of the oven, I found that they had huge air pockets and sticky fallen insides. Even though my last batch was finicky in a totally different (wrinkled shell) way, they didn't have air pockets.

After extensive research I think this may have been due to the oven temperature (too low - I knew I should have taken out those baking tiles!) and maybe me not baking them for long enough. I don't know. I can only eat these macarons with my eyes closed so I don't see the gigantic hole the middle of the shells. They still taste great. I'm just gonna pretend that this is a 'variation' of macaron, the balloon macaron, which is widely received in the smaller states such as Delaware and Rhode Island.

Pistachio Macarons with Pistachio Cranberry White Chocolate Ganache

Macarons investigation

I successfully ignored these cookies that I saw popping up in so many blogs for a long time because I was avoiding eggs. But I found myself with a dozen and thought I would give Tartlette's gingerbread macarons a try.

I foolishly did sooooo many things "wrong" but they came out great. Then the second time, I followed the recipe to a T and they came out a bit flat, the skin was wrinkled and they seemed too moist.

So the things I thought I did wrong the first time:
1. Left the egg whites out for 3 days! Hey it was Christmas and I was busy.
2. Beat in the powdered sugar along with the granulated for the meringue instead of folding it in with the ground almonds at the end.
3. Used less powdered sugar than called for. Probably only used 1.3 cups.

I piped one sheet of shells by piping in a circular motion. These turned out cracked on top. I piped a second sheet by holding the tip in one place and just squeezing out the batter so that it spread out into a circle on it's own. These turned out wonderfully, no cracking, smooth shell. I let them sit for an hour and a half and then baked at 280 for 20 mins. These macaron shells turned out very white with nice sturdy skins and very delineated feet. They popped off the parchment with no sticking whatsoever. The cookies were delicious the second day. The shell was airy and almost crunchy with a chewy center (of sweetened butter.... mmm.. butter).


The things I probably did wrong the second time:
1. Left the powdered sugar unsifted when I folded it in. This made lumps in the shells.
2. Maybe I didn't beat the meringue enough?

I also let these sit for 1.5 hours then baked at 280 for 20 mins. These macaron shells were brown looking instead of the nice smooth white of the last batch and they felt overly moist. They plumped nicely in the oven with a good amount of feet but then started to fall during the last two minutes resulting in a wrinkled skin. They stuck to the parchment a lot. I felt like they were too sticky - maybe too much powdered sugar and not enough sifting?

The recipe from trial 1:

3 egg whites (let sit out 3 days in fridge, back of car, cooler, then fridge)
2 T + 1 t superfine sugar
~1.5 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
1.3 cups ground almonds (sift, sift, sift)

Beat egg whites till foamy (I supposed that to mean that 75% of the egg whites were foamed but that was a completely arbitrary assumption). Add in both sugars. Here I had panicked and realized my mistake but then I just beat the hell out of it until all the sugars were incorporated and I had a pretty flowy meringue. By "flowy" I mean that it didn't really form peaks but I could drizzle ribbons of it on top that would hold its shape. Then I folded in the ground almonds until a drop of the batter from a spoon would flatten out.

The recipe from trial 2:
3 egg whites (let sit out 1 day on counter)
2 T + 1 t superfine sugar
1 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1.3 cups ground almonds

Beat egg whites till foamy. Gradually add in superfine sugar and beat to a meringue. I beat it to a meringue that held a pointy but droopy beak when I lifted the beaters out. Then I dumped in the powdered sugar and ground almonds without sifting (oops) and gave it a swish to incorporate (which it didn't). The I started folding. I probably did 30 turns before stopping.

I haven't really done too much research so I'll have to do more blog hunting and baking to fine tune these cookies. I really loved the first batch and will have to see how to recreate those. For now I'm going to concentrate on using up those yolks.