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

Of Meows, Noms and Shinies

This is Loki.

He likes chin scratches and face pets.

He also likes to lay awkwardly.

This is his signature pose... flat on the ground with legs spread. Super attractive, eh? haha

I also made macarons.. 1 batch of batter, with three very different results. It's confusing.

First batch: (same batter)

Ugly and cracked.

Second batch (same batter):

um... the feet pooled out and the shells were super fragile

Third batch:

Perfection. Strange.

And at some point, I went on an earring binge!

Emerald, one of a kind earrings!


These were one of a kind, and out of stock, sorry I'm late in posting :(


Some classy earrings:




Giant SWAROVSKI leaf earrings:


And Faerie Forest collection:






Over the weekend, I made my first batch of lip balms.
I have yet to perfect the recipe-- but I'm giving out samples for you to try :)--- you will have a chance to give your input before the formula is finalized!


Tonight, I had the craving for potato chips... so I put my new mandolin to work and made some!

Frying in olive oil..

Seasoned when hot:

So that the flavoring will stay...

and this is the seasoning I used and it's awesome:


How is everyone's week coming so far?
What are you looking forward to this week?

love,
Lisa
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Macarons and Sparkles PHOTO HEAVY!

Everytime I whip up a batch of good looking macarons, I am ecstatic.
I am so ecstatic I actually squeal a little every time I take a batch out and the top are smooth and the feet are high and pronounced.

... and it happened this time!
And it so happened, that I was entering these into a desert contest at work. A macaron was to sit atop some Tiramisu...

So I aged my egg whites, and 2 days after letting them sit, I whipped up a batch of macs and crossed my fingers.

Here are photos of my progress in case anyone is interested...

I always fail to remember to take photos of me piping them, sorry :( Next time!

THEY LOOK AWESOME.

Nice high feet profile, smooth shell. Bliss.

Ganache...

Happily sandwiched.

And just because this picture is amazing:

I find myself happily admiring the aesthetics of the macarons that I completely forgot about .... how they're actually food....

... so two days later, after they had fully supposedly matured, I took a bite.

(and another photo here because I can't get over how cute they are)

.... the horror. They were hollow. They had extremely strong shells, BUT THEY WERE HOLLOW. They are NOT supposed to be hollow.

So it was, despite being beautiful, a macaron fail in the end. Again, wish I had snapped photos of those darn hollow shells..

But... they still looked good sitting on the tiramisu, and I ended up getting third in the bake off and I am very happy :)

From a jewelry perspective, my hands have been busy these last two weeks!

I also decided to bring back my... "Vampire Desire" series :)

....

You guys overwhelmed yet?
I know it seems like a lot, but seriously, I get times of OMG I HAVE TO MAKE SOMETHING NOW OR ELSE I'LL NEVER RELAX moments.... which generally means that whole night after work will be dedicated to creativity. ...

... but the main reason why this update was so photo heavy is because I've really sucked at blogging as much lately.

.... and I will keep the excuses to myself because in the end, excuses are really just excuses, and who cares? The bottom line: I have not been blogging, I'm sorry. There's so much I would like to share, but finding the time to sit down and convert thoughts into words... I need to work on that.

So I leave you with a life update:
I AM MOVING TO A HOUSE FINALLY WHOWHOOOOHOOOOOOO SO HAPPY.
Ecstatic.
The house is awesome.
I resolve to do a house tour.

We're moving back in with my awesome college roomy and his gf. It's going to be amazing because we've already lived with each other.

... and also, big kitchen.

You know what that means. More delicious food and baked goodies.

Till next time, when I will announce the winner of the He Qi Winter giveaway!

Lisa
heqicrystaldesigns@hotmail.com
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