French Macaron Recipe Calculator & Macarons For Sale!

I'd like to tell myself that I did something cool today...

A few years ago, my obsession with French Macarons made me insane.  I was on a college budget. Ingredients were not cheap (I'm looking at you, almonds), and I lacked patience and finesse.  I made a lot of maca-wrongs in 2010 (.. well from 2010 - now I have made so many macawrongs it's really sad).  I've been making them on and off since... but nothing serious and with very little success (DAMN YOU HOLLOWS).

Recently, this obsession has been rekindled.  Especially after seeing all these macaron shops pop up and seeing them all over the fricken internet.   Now I've got all the tools that should make macaron-baking easier (Kitchenaid, silpats, piping bags, ingredients).

If there's one thing that I wished was easier, it was quickly calculating how much almond flour and powdered sugar I would need depending on how much egg whites I had.

I noticed that 2 eggs whites from various brands and sizes of eggs could vary from weighing approx. 50 grams total, up to 80 grams.  That's quite a bit difference, and will drastically affect the turnout of your recipe if you do not alter the amount of your dry ingredients in turn.

So.... I made a public Google sheet :)

Depending on how much egg white you have on hand, the other amounts for the almond flour, powdered and granulated sugar will self populate.  I honestly don't know why I didn't think of this sooner!

Give it a try, and feel free to share the crap out of it!  CLICK ME AND SHARE ME LOTS

If anything is broken/doesn't work or you just have a comment, don't be shy to email me: lisaHQCD@gmail.com

A good macaron will be smooth on top, with little feet (not too tall, not overly protruding), and most importantly, NOT HOLLOW.

via my Instagram

Ahem. Pix of recent batches of non-hollow, fluffy macs. What a mac should look like on the inside. #success

There are NUMEROUS macarons from professionals and hobbiests alike that look GREAT when photographed, but are hollow.  Hollowness completely takes all the macaron awesomness out of a macaron.

Like this one. This mac looks pretty decent. Was hollow (not entirely hollow, but enough to suck). Fail.

via my Instagram

I am now a firm believer in that if you are going to share mac recipe, provide mac tips, sell macs, you better be able to produce a non-hollow mac.  One can dream.

Troubleshooting your hollows is, unfortunately, a battle you will have to fight on your own because no one, over the internet, can definitively (with 100% confidence) tell you what you're doing wrong.  For me, it was a combination of underfolding the batter, underbaking and too low of a baking temperature.  I would sometimes get overly ambitious, try to flavor my shells too heavily with things like dehydrated strawberries, excess cocao powder... so stick with gel/powdered food coloring for color and depend on your filling and aging the macs for full flavor.   With experience and through trial and error, you'll begin to discover what is making YOUR macarons, macawrongs.

You will need quite a bit of time, patience, $$ (for wasted ingredients.. and your valuable time, sorry) and someone who will hopefully not be too shallow to eat your failed macs.

As of June 2014: Am I selling my macarons?
Short answer: Yes. .. HOWEVER --
I'm located in the Sacramento, California area and would be happy to make some macarons for you to pick up, if you are local.  Follow me on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK for some flash sales of batches that I have extra of/randoms.  If you have a special order request (i.e. party favors or whatever), reach out (lisaHQCD@gmail.com) and we'll see if I can help-- I'm doing this on my down time outside of my day job and currently it's a passion and for fun.  If you get macs from me, you'll be getting macs born of genuine obsession and passion.  (bonus: they will also look adorable and come in a cute clear tube such as the ones picture below)

via my Instagram

Peace! Hopes the calculator helps ya'll out a bit.

Lisa

My continued Macaron fails and semi-triumphs

HI EVERYONE!!

::WAVES::
It's been a while!
Brian and I just moved into our new place and needless to say things are messy (still) and kinda hectic.

Ever since moving into my new house baking and cooking has been a regular thing. I LOVE our new kitchen and plan to use it like crazy.

One of the things I used to bake ever since a few years (omg, it's already been years..) ago are MACARONs. It's been so long and overdue for me to write about my fails and wins with these guys.

Macarons are tricky.
I am no photography pro so pleas excuse these extremely amateur and quite awful shots.

Since I've moved, I have seriously tried well over a dozen batches (sometimes 2 tries a day) and it's been failure after failure... until today.

I present to you-- 3 batches of macs.  My obsession has been taken over by the scientific side of me and I have started documenting the macaron process for last 5 batches I've attempted.

These macs were from 3 batches, 3 days.

From here on forth, they shall be called purple, white and pink.

{Aesthetics}

Close-up of purple.

Notice the large (very high) and bubbly feet.  These have been resting a few days so they are getting quite soft during the photo session and the tops are starting to sink in a the bottom. 

White.

Very "domed" on top.  Feet formed, perfect size but almost concaves in a bit??  Decided to make mini ones this time around. 

Pink

If I may say so myself, these look pretty good.  Good feet, doesn't like.. spill out and smooth, beautiful shell that's not too fragile.

 {CROSS-SECTION}

Purple - Fragile ish tops, VERY fricken hollow. Before leaving them to mature with the filling these guys were very hard, and shells would shatter when I bit into them.  It was like eating a puff of air. In addition, the insides were pooled at the bottom and were terribly chewy :\

Purple - Tops came right off with a gentle tug.  Huge hollow between overly chewy top and gummy bottom.

White - This attempt much better.  Shape was good, feet good, texture, BETTER. The innards filled up more of the macaron space, but still left a hollow.  I could still (with some effort) lift the shell from the bottom. This time, shells were a lot stronger. 

White - me lifting shell.

WHAT'S THIS?!

Almost perfect. Beautiful texture, slight hollows, probably a TAD undercooked!

Oops, squeezed this one a bit too hard and the bottom shell cracked. Great feet profile though!

Another innard shot. I love it. Still small hollows but really almost perfect.

My recent 3 batches, stacked together :)

Macaron graveyard!

Here's my successful recipe to make the PINK batch --
PLEASE NOTE: Everyone's oven behaves differently.  What works for me in my kitchen may not work for you in yours. You may have a bunch of fail batches before you discover what's right for you. (sorry).  I suggest investing in an oven thermometer to find out how accurate your oven is.  

INGREDIENTS:

1. 2 large egg whites -- I left the egg whites on the counter at room temperature for 24 hrs before using them, I honestly can't say if this makes a huge difference

2. 3/4 Cup ground almonds - I used THIS

3. 3.5 Tablespoons granulated sugar

4. 2/3 Cup powdered sugar

-- This recipe makes approx. 2 trays of mac shells.

I do no recommend whipping egg whites by hand, unless if you have extremely strong forearms.  I use my handy Kitchenaid.

METHOD:

- Sift together powerdered sugar and ground almost, set aside

- Whip egg whites on medium (kitchenaid 4) until frothy, gradually add granulated sugar, increase speed a little ( to kitchenaid 8) and continue to whip.  Sugar will become incorporated at this point.  Beat to stiff peaks, and meringue will have a shaving cream like consistency and clump in the whisk but NOT be clumpy or appear to break apart.  Do not overbeat.

- Incorporate the sifted sugar/almond meal mixture into the egg whites with a rubber spatula.  Do this by adding 1/3 of the dry ingredients at a time, mixing gently until all incorporated.  To create an even consistency, I use what I call a "scratch" and "fold" technique.  I would kinda scratch the surface of the mixture, then bring my spatula under the mixture and bring the mix up onto itself.  I will create a video of this later if this technique is consistent.  You don't need to be too gently, knocking some air out is good.

- Continue folding mixture until mixture is still a bit thick and lava like.  When you pick up the batter with your rubber spatula, it should drop back down in very thick ribbons.  Mixture should be shiny and NOT runny.  If mixture is runny, you may have overfolded.  Take your time, evaluate one fold at a time.  This will take practice and getting a feel for the right texture.  

- Dump batter into a piping bag, I use a size 12 tip, some prefer size 11 or even a bit larger (1/4 - 1/2 inch) and pipe circles of your size choice.  Mixture spreads a bit, so please leave at least 1 inch inbetween macs.

- When done piping 1 tray, bang it on the counter a few times to release large air bubble. Rotate and bang some more.

- Allow tray to rest at least 15 min before baking

- Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-17 min. Check them each minute after 13.  They're done with you try to gently grab a shell and the top and feet are secured together.

Hope that helps, and best of luck to anyone who tries it out.  Would love to hear your macaron stories!!
If you have any questions, please ask and I'll try my best to answer!

In addition, please check out these lovely new bracelets in our shop:

CLICK the photo to visit the listing!!

As well as a new statement ring:

Love,
Lisa

www.shopheqi.com

FACEBOOK

lisaHQCD@gmail.com

Giveaway Winner, Kittens and Food :)

Congrats to Joanne for winning the Summer 2011 giveaway! Please EMAIL ME your full name and shipping info! There are many giveaways to come!

In unrelated news, I bought a sewing machine, and have been sewing collars for my kitties and little pouches (for my computer mouse), and another pouch. I want to make some diaper bags in the future, and maybe get into quilting... we'll have to see :) I also want to make brush rolls! We'll see if they'll ever go up for sale, as I'm a complete noob to sewing! Here's what I have so far:
They look fine on the outside, awful on the inside -_-... it will be a long learning process!

I promised that I will post more about my adventures with food, so here comes the beginning!

Fridays at work are Snack Fridays, and one person in the area brings in snacks for others. Last Friday was my turn, and I made a simple Napoleon-esque dessert. 



The puff pastry was from the frozen dessert area of the grocery store, easy to use. I cut them into squares, and then baked them. I let them cool on a wire rack, and then tore them in half. The filling is made up of whipped cream (whipped from scratch, this is important because of the texture and taste), powdered sugar, and a pack of gelatin to help the whipped cream retain shape. There are frozen berries folded into the whipped cream. I also spread some Nutella onto one underside of the pastry dough. 


The pastry is very light and fluffy-- I know it looks kinda dense in the photo-- I NEED BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS!

I had more pastry dough left, and had to do something about that...
.... so.. I took so hash brown, mixed in some leftover wild rice, sausage, veges... and stuffed it inside the puff pastry.

Surprisingly delicious

Simple, delicious things you can create with leftovers :)

Tonight, I made some Spicy Tuna Rolls... which I will also bring for lunch tomorrow :)

I started out with some Ahi Tuna steaks (this is sashimi grade)



Cut it up into cubes, tossed it in the food processor, pulsed a couple times to get a mash:


... I gave some tidbits to my kittens...

Loki REALLY wants more:... he's begging for it!


.. anyway, and then mixed the tuna mash with Sriracha, Kewpie Mayo and Green Onions (to taste)


Cook the sushi rice, mix it with the Sushi Seasoning (follow directions on bottle regarding proportion), and then let it cool to room temperature, covered with a wet paper towel (to prevent rice from drying out), about half hour:


Spread a THIN, EVEN layer of rice using plastic spatula (works better than wooden, I've noticed):


Add your filling:

Here, I used my Spicy Tuna mix, avocado (my fav.), and some oven baked panko shrimp (frozen, from the supermarket, baked in oven).

Rolled it using my hands (I don't use a roller, and it comes out fine if I don't mind the seaweed being on the outside)


Cut them up into pieces with a sharp knife.

The trick is to keep wetting the knife after every two cuts or so to prevent the rice from sticking to the blade, making it harder to make clean cuts. -- then you're done! ENJOY :)

And of course, I can't help sharing:



The boys curled up. Happy, content.

Aside from that, I've been trying to get back into working out. I've been trying some of ZUZANA's workouts from bodyrock.tv-- does anyone else on here follow her?


Have a wonderful night! I'm off to bed :)
love,
Lisa
heqicrystaldesigns@hotmail.com
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