Macaron Class in Session
I’m Kim, and I’m a macaron addict. I’ve been obsessed with macarons for the past few months, researching and studying different techniques and recipes on how to make macarons. Macarons are French meringue confections that resemble a cookie sandwiches and they are all the rage these days. When I first laid my eyes on one, I couldn’t resist these adorably cute and colorful deserts. I was in love. I would come home after a long day of work and make a batch of macarons, and as they bake, press my nose against the oven door searching for any signs of “feet”. In this short time, I baked dozens of batches and experienced all the failures you can possibly imagine: feetless, cracked, hollow, burnt, discolored, you name it— it happened to me. The successful batches were few and far between and I was elated and danced for joy when it did. Crestfallen, intimidated, frustrated, and beatened down, I was ready to quit, but Hong refused to let me, saying, “there’s no quitters in this house.” So I persevered. After more research and practice, I finally got the hang of the intracacies and nuances to get consistent results. I found my macaron mojo. But just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I would make batches of macarons every weekend to make sure I still had it. I can definitely say I enjoy making macarons more then eating them. In fact, Hong does all my taste testing.
I still have much to learn but so far, I still have my macaron mojo and thought it would be fun to teach some friends. Foodbuzz 24X24 gave me the opportunity to host a macaron party this weekend where I taught complete beginners how to make macarons. It was a lot of pressure, but also a lot of fun. I taught them my favorite recipe from Stella at the Bravetart and used Annapet’s templates for piping at The Daily Palette. They both provide great inspiration and taught me so much.
I set up different stations of the macaron process for our students. At the “Mixing station”, we had 3 mixers lined up for a wopping 1400 Watts of mixing power. At the “Flavor Station”, students had an array of flavors and colors to choose from. We had raspberry, pistaccio, amaretto, coffee, rose, lemon, ube, pandan, orange, pear, grape, and even durian to choose from. At the “Macronage station”, we went over how to fold the dry ingredients with the meringue. At the “Piping station”, we had baking pans lined with Silpats with template to pipe out uniform macarons. Look at the concentration on those faces!
Every macaron baker knows that getting proper feet can be the most challenging part of the process. Our bakers couldn’t stay away from the “Feet station” where they waited with baited breath as feet magically appeared on their macarons. I got lucky and everyone of our students had successful feet. Everyone was dancing the Happy Feet dance! But of course feet is not the only thing that makes a perfect macaron, our students all had a great base and a cakey interior inside the crispy shell.
At the filling station, we had a variety of fillers from chocolate ganache, blood orange curd, Meyer lemon curd, mango curd, ube, and nutella. It was fun seeing all the different combination of flavors they came up with.
We ended up making coffee macarons with chocolate ganache, durian macarons, orange macarons with blood orange curd, rose macarons with chocolate ganache, pistachio macarons, lemon macarons with Meyer lemon curd, and ube macarons. I was so proud that all the students had successful batches. It took me countless batches to get it right and it only took them one try!
Since we we spent a good 3 hours baking, we provided some snacks. We had French themed foods, including escargots and a charcuterie plate of head cheese, home made pate, beer mustard, French bread, and cornichons.
My first macaron class was an overwhelming success! Everyone made beautiful and delicious macarons that was shared by all. Thank you again Foodbuzz for making this event possible. I hope this post encourages you to give macarons a shot, whether you’re a complete beginner or a frustated baker, don’t give up!
