What I’m Making – Dark Tales of Macaron Troubleshooting

Is it possible to absolutely lose your macaron mojo. I wouldn’t have believed it. But its happened. It’s happening to me and I’ve been working on getting it back!

I spent the better part of last week baking, testing, agonizing, and dreaming about macarons. Dare I share how many times I baked up batches of macarons? How many times I hung on to the oven door handle in anticipation of those prized macaron feet… I want feet, that slight dome, smooth pretty shells and that undeniable macaron shell texture of a crisp outer/delicate chewy interior. I’ve been toiling to achieve these must-have characteristics, but to no avail.

It really all started several years ago when I was with the online group, The Daring Bakers. One of the baking projects was French macarons. Up to that point, I had never even heard of macarons (NOT to be confused with macaroons). There were a lot of successes and a lot of frustrated failures in many of the Daring Baker members’ attempts. My very first batch was less than successful but I was so determined not to be undermined that after that initial failure, I never looked back after having early-on successes. As time went on, my macs even started looking prettier with better looking feet, texture, etc.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to revisit my old love, the macaron. I was absolutely flummoxed when my first batch was, to say the least, the worst disaster ever! I had used the same exact recipe (a French meringue method) I had been using with consistent success, until now. Countless failed batches, some tears, and a deflated ego later… It made me think of Katie Quinn Davies’ introduction from “What Katie Ate: Recipes and Other Bits and Pieces” (←affiliate link) when she graphically and brillantly relays the story in four sentences about her experience with macarons. It really does sum it up. Quote from Katie’s book “…macarons. Eeek, dear God, why?!…My tip: leave it to Ladurée. That’s all I’m going to say about that hellish week of my life.”

The voice in my head can sometimes be reminiscent of the story’s narrator gone made in Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” You see, I know my tenacity is partly driven from the fact that, I’ve made them successfully many times before and now…I can not. That is the madness in it all. Jill Colonna titled her book brilliantly, “Mad About Macarons!,” (←affiliate link) because that’s exactly what it is, madness! 🙂

Troubleshooting Macarons

And then, part of the factor to the problem dawned on me (this is by the time I got to the second – or was it the third of many, many batches). I quickly located the receipt and manual to my oven and realized that I have not made macarons since my original oven croaked some years ago. Yes, “years” ago. That’s how long it had been since I whipped up a batch of macarons and I had not made it again since this newer oven has been in place. That “know your oven” thing had inadvertently slipped by me. My handwritten baking notes on the macaron recipe I relied on, was written with my older oven in mind. Okay. Good and important realization!

So it’s at this point (after the first batch and also realizing my oven intimacy was off), I changed the recipe too. Another factor to contend with. Notes. Notes. Notes and more notes. Many days and pages and pages of copious notes from:

• Pan(s) used: baking sheet, air-cushioned or not, doubled or not
• Silicone mat or parchment
• Baking times and depending on placement of rack in the oven
• Consistency of meringue (mixer speed and timing)
• Macronnage details
• Resting duration times per pan (which really can be irrelevant depending on the environment in your kitchen that day.)
• Oven temps and when rotated, how many times rotated
• When and if feet appeared, quality of feet
• How long egg whites aged to not aged at all
• Position of oven rack(s).
• Convection oven or regular oven
• Which macarons on the baking sheet baked lopsided or browned before the others
• What the digital read of the oven temp was vs the two oven thermometers I have hanging inside the oven (even though I calibrated the ovens!)

Aaaagh! You see. Madness. Absolute madness.

The frustration in part of it all is how uneven in temperature my ovens operate. Whether I’m using the convection oven or regular oven. The convection oven blows hot air on to my delicate macs and causes undesirable results (and there’s no way to turn off that freaky fan!). I have a double wall oven (convection on top, regular oven on bottom) and there are times where I want to just rip it out of the wall and throw it out on the yard (without hurting my Corgis, of course!). These things don’t matter when you’re baking up muffins, cookies, cakes and the like, but it sure matters with these little macaron devils.

Although there have been less than perfect macarons out of these batches, there has been some good too. The images in this post, for example, are not what I would call “good form” but still deliciously edible macs!

Still deliciously edible macs!

All-in-all I know its about technique. You have to have the feel and fundamentals of what you’re doing and how to adjust when needed. So, perhaps I didn’t have the basics down like I thought I did, but even more the reason to want to achieve consistent, successful batches. Most importantly the one primal reason of it all – I love to not only marvel at a beautiful macaron, appreciate its flavor combination possibilities, and the art of its making, I love to savor and eat them! Macarons are just better when you’ve made them yourself (says the macaron baker!).

My quest continues as I’m still not there, yet. Perhaps I should change it up and switch from the French Meringue to the Italian Meringue method?

• Macarons with Citronge Orange Liqueured Ganache
• Macarons with Honey & White Chocolate Ganache
• Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache
• Banana Macarons with Coconut Cream Filling

• Brave Tart excellent series on macarons and troubleshooting (French Meringue method)
• Annie’s Eats: How to make macarons – step by step (Italian Meringue method)
• Mardi: Eat. Live. Travel. Write – Macarons (French Meringue method)

Pages and copious notes – troubleshooting these pesky macarons!

Follow my Macaron inspiration board on Pinterest!