Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
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Recipe Review
Zosia from Toronto, ON
My first attempt at making French macarons has met with success – sort of ;)! They had a crispy outer shell, a chewy interior and were filled with a rich, bittersweet chocolate ganache. They were delicious.
I followed the general method on page 246, which was quite easy, but how far to take the beaten meringue wasn’t very clear. I took “thick, aerated…firm but not too dry” to mean stiff, glossy peaks. The biggest challenge was piping the batter out evenly as it was much runnier than I expected and it took quite a few attempts before I was able to regulate the amount per cookie.
I baked the first pan of cookies as per the instructions. They seemed done after 12 minutes but there was a hollow beneath the shell and the interior wasn’t quite cooked. I baked the second sheet, which by this time had sat for ~40 minutes, at 150C for 14 minutes. These cookies rose higher than the first batch and they were properly cooked inside and out.
Now that I’ve figured out what works best in my oven, I can’t wait to try more flavours!
Comments
southerncooker - 5th April 2013
Looks like a success from the photo. They are beautiful and look like they're just waiting for someone to take a bite. I haven't tried making macarons yet but after seeing these I'm tempted.
Zosia - 6th April 2013
I hope you do make them...they're a lot of fun to make (and eat) and much more forgiving than I expected. Even the under-baked batch looked good and tasted as delicious as the batch that worked.
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