Wednesday, 20 May 2009

• Macarons vs. Macaroons: Have You Been Caught Up in This Latest Pastry Craze?

  Macarons vs. macaroons: Have you been caught up in this latest pastry craze?  While macaroons are the dry piles of coconut often dipped in chocolate, macarons are a French confection made of almond flour and meringue, baked and then formed into little sandwiches with buttercream filling.

  

  I first had these at Le Goûter Bernardaud in Hong Kong.  While I think most versions are a bit too sweet for my tastes, they are tremendously delicate.  The exterior is just a little chewy, giving way to a cake-like interior.  The flavors are as intense as the colors.  One bakery in San Francisco, Miette, dispenses with the food coloring, which I personally prefer.

  From what I've heard, the macarons are supposed to be one of the most difficult things for a pastry chef to bake.  Of course, that just set my competitive side on fire.  I was very happy when one of Tawn's friends, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and interned at La Nôtre here in Bangkok, offered to conduct a macaron cooking class for us.

  In no time at all, the offer had been turned into a party for ten of their fellow university classmates complete with food and wine.  They say too many cooks spoil the soup.  In this case, I'm not sure about the soup, but the kitchen was definitely crowded!

  
  

  Pat, our teacher, flashes the victory sign in our crowded galley kitchen.  At one point, we had seven people working in there!

  I'm planning on trying another batch of these tasty treats this weekend and will go into more detail on the ingredients and techniques after that.  Instead, I'll just share some of the fun shots form the party.

  Bobby, the only other native English speaker, decided to join me in the kitchen after the Thai gossip got incomprehensibly out of hand.  He did a fantastic job separating eggs.  This was the first time I've baked by measuring the egg whites by weight!

  

  While I was pushing for no food coloring - no adulteration, please! - the other gay boys won out and pastels ruled the day.

   

  Macarons are indeed difficult to make.  So many steps and so many factors that can inhibit success.  One of the biggest challenges is that you have to pipe the darn things onto parchment, trying to get them the same size.  Penciling circles on the back of the sheet helped.

  

  But it took a little practice because the batter, which immediately after piping looks like it will stay nice and pert, slowly begins to spread, until this happens:

  

  D'oh!  After which, you have to scrape the batter back into the bag and start over.

  The other challenge is that you need to let the batter air dry until it forms a skin.  We waited close to an hour but with our humidity, two or three hours would have been better.  Next time I'm getting the air con going full blast well in advance.

  

  After the first batches came out, Pat (with her husband standing over shoulder, eagerly awaiting a sample) started piping raspberry jam between the cookies and sandwiching them together.

  

  Above, Tawn and Pat with the first batch of macarons.  Below, detail of our first plate.

  

  Yeah, they look cute, but they really turned out crap.  Here's what they should look like:

  

  Ignore the color for a moment.  What we're really shooting for are two things: the shiny top and then the "foot" at the base of the cookie.  We didn't get those and I think there are a few factors.  Based on what I've read in several online recipes and my conversation with Pat, I think I didn't incorporate the meringue into the almond flour mixture sufficiently, and I think I didn't let it air dry long enough.

  

  My suspicion is based on what is happening on the underside of the macarons: the centers are sticking to the parchment paper, which I think means the interior is significantly moister than the exterior.  In other words, not dry enough.

  
  

  Left to right: Bim, Ko, Pat, Prince, Tuk, Fluck and Tawn.

  If all goes according to plan, I'll do another batch this weekend.  Let's hope they turn out better.  The good news is, even when they don't look perfect and their texture is a bit off, they still taste good!

  Have you ever had macarons? Are you interested in trying some?
  

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