Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Battle Score: Macaron Shells 99 Rebecca 1

We have been making almond macarons in house for more than a year with all kinds of different results.
We started with pink raspberry, then red with rosewater and raspberry, next purple with housemade blueberry jelly, now purple with Lavender and Earl Grey Ganache filling.  I have been able to make them work for the most part but the shells are inconsistent at times.  Today I made the most perfect batch yet:

 
All because I couldn't sleep last night... I was on the internet when I had a "d- oh" moment.  We have been trying to denature the egg whites ourselves when we have the perfect product always in the fridge.  So I did a rift on Pierre Hermes method for shells.  I used carton egg whites with citric acid added and put the food coloring directly into the italian meringue instead of adding it to the almonds. ** If I was a cartoon figure there would have been a giant light bulb over my head. ** PERFECTION!!   or "Dammit Jim, I'm a Dr not a machine."  (as close to perfection as possible)
We are using a Lavender and Earl Grey infused Dark Chocolate Ganache, alone the filling lacks any hint of sweet but it very tasty, when you add it to the shells it lacks nothing. In fact it takes on magical properties, it flies off the pan and dive bombs my face at least a couple of times a batch.
And that my friends is my first total win with the macaron.

Also, I am on forced easy duty for a bit.  Life is kicking my butt.  But on the bright side I have time to catch up on the blog. :)