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Tried baking macarons for the first time and my kitchen looked like a crime scene
I figured I'd tackle macarons last Sunday after watching like 10 YouTube videos. Got my almond flour sifted, egg whites aged for 3 days, the whole deal. Everything looked perfect going into the oven then they all cracked and spread into flat little pancakes. My roommate walked in and asked if I was making weird cookies or if something exploded. Turns out I didn't let them rest long enough before baking, only waited 15 minutes instead of 40. Anyone else have a macaron fail that made you question your whole baking setup?
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john_singh23d ago
Wait, you think a 15 minute rest was the issue? I gotta push back on that. I've been making these things for years and I actually get better results with a shorter rest time around 10-15 minutes. The real problem is probably your oven temperature or how you folded the batter. If they spread into pancakes, that sounds like you over-mixed the batter not under-rested them. And honestly that whole "aged egg whites" thing is overhyped too, I use fresh eggs straight from the carton and my macarons turn out perfect with nice feet every time. You probably just need to pay more attention to the macaronage stage, stop folding the second the batter flows like lava. That is where the real magic happens.
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