Pistachio Macarons

So these pistachio macarons turned out nicely. Though there was no time to fill them as they all disappeared before I was able to figure out what ti fill them with :). The last photo just shows the texture difference of the plain vs. pistachio flour.

More failed macarons

What happened here!!!!? Well, simple; the macarons didn't get a chance to grow feet because I used wax paper instead of parchment paper. They also got stuck to the paper :( Admittedly, they still tasted good, but were un-servable as they broke up as they were being lifted from the paper and the bottoms stuck. Oh well. Yet another lesson learned.

French Macaron Recipe

Macaron Recipe: For main ideas I have used http://www.amazon.com/Les-Petits-Macarons-Confections-ebook/dp/B005QBKXQO#reader_B005QBKXQO Les Petits Macarons book. I have since simplified and developed my own recipe. You will need: sugar: 165grams of powdered sugar and 150 grams of granulated sugar 165 grams of nut flour 4 egg whites That's it and that's all. Some recipes call for more ingredients, but this is all that is needed to begin with. Preheat the oven to 200F/105C Set up the cookie sheet and pan. 1. Sift together nut flour and confectioner's sugar. Set aside. 2. Beat the egg white until peaks form. 3. Stir in the granulated sugar. 4. Pour in the flour mix. 5. Pipe the macarons through a piping bag onto the trays leaving room for them to grow (maybe 1 inch in-between in a grid). 6. Let them sit 20-45 mins so that they have time to develop a skin or a shell. BAKE: 1. At 200F for 15 minutes 2. Up the temp to 350F for another 6 or so minutes (depending on your oven). 3. Open the oven door for 30 seconds and remove the macarons slowly. Let the macarons cool before removing them from the sheet. Voila! They're ready to be filled with any filling of choice

Angry Birds Macarons

For the Holiday break I had more time to experiment. Since I feel pretty confident making a typical macaron, I wanted to try using a different combination of nut flour. So I ground up some pistachios and mixed 100 grams of pistachio flour and 65grams of almond flour. It baked just the same as the traditional almond flour did. I did add a little green food coloring as the pistachio by itself did not provide much color in themselves. I have been shown a macaron in the shape of a pig from the Angry Birds game and decided to try making one myself. Well, my first try was a traditional fail as I added the ears and the snout right onto the macaron. The trick was to make the macaron then let it sit for about 20 minutes until it developed a skin. After the shell was slightly hardened, I then added the snout and ears. I had to be careful not to break them off after baking. Then I added the eyes (I used drop candy) and painted the mouth and eyebrows with an edible marker. Not so hard to make. I'd like to make bears next :)

Smore Macaron

Made some plain macarons and set them aside. Meanwhile decided to have a fire in the backyard and make some smores. The idea popped up to have a macaron smore. It turned out surprisingly DELICIOUS! The hot melted marshmellow beat any filling the macaron could've had!

Pistachio Macarons

After making so many almond based macarons with different colors, I wanted to try making macarons using a different ingredient. I have read that it is possible to make macarons using any nut. So I got organic, non-salted pistachios and wanted to grind the whole box to make as much as I needed for my batch. Unfortunately, some little mouths had gotten to the box of pistachios and I had only half left. So I took the ones that had been left, took the nut out of the shells, got rid of as much of the hard brownish skin as possible and ground the rest. It came to total almost half of the 165 grams that I needed. So I added almond flour to make up for the rest and proceeded to make my regular batch. The mix turned out much better than I anticipated. There was a pistachio taste to the macarons, but not overwhelming. There were just enough pistachio nuts to make the macarons as delicate as always, but with a hint of another nut. (This is also true when I added some green tea to the mix. Just a recognizable hint.) It took me a while to figure out what to put in between the cookies, so the photos are just of plain macarons out of the oven. YUM!

Berry Tea Macarons

For these macarons I mixed four bags of berry tea into the almond flour and proceeded as usual.