fashion.gardening.Banking on the success of my very first batch of macarons, I got too cocky and impulsive yesterday.
Without aging egg whites, I decided I wanted to whip up some black sesame macarons.
FAIL.
Macaron Massacre!
They looked perfect out of the oven but started deflating and cracking as they were cooling in the rack. WHY????
Oh, right. Impatience. Of course!
I don’t know exactly which step really did me in but as I retraced my steps, I realized that I did this! My ego caused this disaster!
First, I just winged it. I decided to add black sesame seeds to the tant pour tant. 20 grams seemed to be just right. I think this would have been okay if i hadn’t toasted them. Why did I do that? Force of habit, I guess.
Probably not the best idea.
And then, I tried to grind them. So I’m thinking that heating them had awaken the oils inside and then I made it worse by grinding them!
How else can I add this to my tant pour tant?
Then, I didn’t have the patience to grind long enough to get a fine powder. I just dumped this into the food processor and pulsed more.
The result is a sticky, heavy macaronner, that I nearly over worked and still wouldn’t flow like a ribbon!
Totally wrong consistency.
I knew at macaronnage stage that this was bad macaron day. But I was determined to finish what I so stubbornly started.
On to piping…
These aren’t “nipples”. They refused to spread out even after violent bangs on the table.
I still got “feet” though! Seeing them always makes me happy!
“Rustic” looking macaron shells.
I found the “rustic” texture of these macarons rather interesting. Much more character than the smooth-skinned ones. I wouldn’t mind these at all if they didn’t start cracking. There’s a void under the crisp thin skin. I don’t know what exactly caused it. Not knowing is driving me mad!
Could it be the fresh egg whites?
Could it be the toasting of the seeds?
Could it be over-processing the tant pour tant? I did pulse many more times than my first successful batch. Those seeds didn’t really grind down to fine powder so I was concerned that they wouldn’t possibly pass thru my fine mesh sieve.
It can only be anything that happened before macaronnage. The consistency was just off. It didn’t feel like my successful strawberry tant pour tant.
I don’t think I will stop trying to make black sesame macarons. It’s on my list for the next bag of almond meal!
However, I will change a few things:
- Egg whites will be aged 2 to 5 days.
- Seeds will not be toasted.
- Seeds will be ground until it becomes a fine powder using my spice/nut grinder, before adding to almond meal and powdered sugar in the food processor.
And if all of these fail, I will start adjusting measurements of my base recipe. I hope I won’t have to.
Nevertheless, nothing is wasted. I now have yummy black sesame infused almond cookies!
Yummy, but not macarons!
I expected this humbling experience to ruin my day but no. I learned a lot from it and I gained a bowl of yummy cookies!
At the end of the day, it’s all about perspective. Yes, it was a bad macaron day … but still a good day!
Up next… Green Tea Macarons!
Rica Rants & Raves 