Raspberry Chocolate Macarons
Jul 17, 2019
Okay, so I'm in the middle of compiling a whole list of dos-and-dont's of macarons just because I'm tired of seeing all these "advice" online that doesn't really help anyone at all. It's just guesswork.
Macarons are hard to make the first time around. Know why? There's only four ingredients to make it, so method and technique are king. There's no much room for improvisation so if you don't understand why some things happen and why you need to follow certain steps, it's almost certain it's going to fail.
When in culinary school, all the chefs wanted us to understand the why behind all processes and techniques as "if we haven't had any equipment, we'd still be able to do the recipes", like one chef said once. Sugar syrup? Dip your hand in cold water, grab a bit of boiling syrup quickly and test if it can turn into a small ball (it's frightening but it works). Pate a bombe or swiss meringue? Test the temperature with your pinky finger. And macarons? Know the consistency of the meringue AND the macaronage just so 95% of your macaron problems will be gone.
This way, regardless of the method you use (French, Italian or Swiss), the only things that really matter when making macarons are your oven temperature and how it reaches the tray (fan/convection or parchment paper/silicone mat), the consistency of your batter (the so called macaronage) and humidity of the shell (drying the shells before baking or not). There's no need to blend the almond flour with the icing sugar on the food processor or mature your egg whites or pray for the macarons gods to be on your side when you bake them. As long as you know what to expect with each method and understand that even if you make everything right you may get one batch or two that are not as you'd expect, you should be fine.
Having said that, here's my current favorite macaron recipe, with the Swiss method. I highly recommend you to follow it to the dot, specially in regards to measurements. More details on how to NEVER EVER fail a macaron recipe again (well, maybe at least not failing 99% of the time, because sometimes it happens) even with a crappy oven like mine, coming up soon at ya!
For now, enjoy these raspberry chocolate macarons!
