macarons

[courton]

Emeraldsue, the nozzle was the problem! You solved the mystery! I was so disappointed when I had to bin them...cooked them for  45 mins and it still stuck firmly to the baking sheet. I am going to try them again after buying a the correct nozzle. Told dd I will make her some choc custard mini tarts instead to take to school for her birthday. I can't afford (the time) if it flops again ...50 macarons before we'd when I am also working is pressure...

[Wonder]

Courton sorry i didn't get back to you on this. I had a similar problem with the them sticking and not cooking. in the end I turned the oven up slightly then on recommendation from someone on the Taste forum, as soon as they were out of the oven I slipped the macarons (still on the baking paper) from the trays onto my stone bench tops, it is meant to shock them. I still found I had trouble getting many of them off and had the best results leaving them to cool completely before lifting off the paper. My daughter bought some macarons yesterday and while they looked higher than mine she declared the texture and taste not nearly as nice!!

[AliRo]

Just trying to make these right now as I was going to give these to my DH for valentines day.   So, I don’t know what I did wrong as I followed the instructions to a tee, but I’m pretty sure mine are not right. I used hazelnuts instead of almonds and added some cocoa, but that was the only difference. My batter is very thick and seems gritty but the hazelnut seemed well ground up when I did that. 

The mixture was so thick that I basically had to just pipe the outside of the circle and then use a spoon to spread it to the inside.  Also, because it's so thick I think I’ll be lucky to get 24 halves made. Just about to put them in the oven now and hoping that they’ll at least taste nice once they’re done, but guessing they’re not going to have that same nice texture.

Any thoughts on what went wrong?  I'm guessing it's something to do with the hazelnut?

[dede]

I followed Mara's Macaron recipe to make my very first batch of Macarons today. I have never even tried them before today. I wouldn't say mine are perfect but at least they were not a failure. I think my mixture was a little too thick. But pretty easy to make really.

[judydawn]

Well, you are one up on me Mandi - I've yet to try these.  Good to hear they are easy to make though.

[dede]

Lol Judy. And I thought I was the only one.
To tell you the truth I'm not sure why people pay so much for them . Although they are nice I don't think they are worth what people pay, a friend of mine pays $3 each for them

[judydawn]

The latest fads are always expensive Mandi.

[Wonder]

Dede they look good for a first effort. I don't know why people pay so much for them either, but then again I'm not a sweets eater.

[cookie1]

Well done dede, they look good. Mara's recipe is really good. I think the reason they are so expensive is that they are not easy to make. They must have a firm outer shell and be soft on the inside. They must also have a 'foot' like dede's. it is usually the filling that gives the flavour, not the macaron itself.

[*suzanne*]

they look great mandi I just bought a macaron mat so I'm going to give them a go
I'll admit to buying 10 pink ones for Lily's birthday party:-[

[LauraTO]

Had a frustrating day yesterday attempting these. 6 big trays and none of them are decent. All totally hollow! I followed the recipe exactly, but am wondering if I didn't need to beat the egg whites so long. Mine were shiny and past the stiff peaks stage onto dry looking after 3 min. I did one batch only beating 3 min and still totally hollow.


I also experimented with cooking times and temps. Anywhere from 15 min to 25 ( even the 15 min ones peeled off ok) but they were browning at 25 and didn't taste good at all (and were still hollow).


Ready to give up that's for sure! So sick of washing my thermomix extra well.

[cookie1]

Laura these are particularly hard to master. I even have troubles when not using the thermomix. To get the foot, smooth tops etc etc is not easy. Did you use Mara's recipe? Did you let them dry before baking? Did you drop them to release air bubbles?
I went to a class when I was inSydney a couple of years ago and that confused me even more. 
Good luck.

[Nikkit]

Miss 12 and I made macarons (not a recipe off here) and they didn't spin our back wheels.

They turned out just like the picture, so looked fantastic, but we decided they were a lot of effort for a lot of sugar.

I can't see what the fuss is about, but that's my opinion.

[judydawn]

I went to a class when I was in Sydney a couple of years ago and that confused me even more. 

I thought cookery classes were supposed to help you Cookie.  I've never tried making these and I doubt I ever will.  We were told they were on their way out of fashion now on our tour of the Adelaide Central Market during the forumfest last year.

[LauraTO]

Laura these are particularly hard to master. I even have troubles when not using the thermomix. To get the foot, smooth tops etc etc is not easy. Did you use Mara's recipe? Did you let them dry before baking? Did you drop them to release air bubbles?
I went to a class when I was inSydney a couple of years ago and that confused me even more. 
Good luck.

I let them dry until the tops weren't tacky.  I dropped the trays on the counter with GUSTO.  The sad part is they look absolutely PERFECT but they have completely the wrong texture, and the hollow thing of course.  I think all the comments after Mara's recipe saying "I've never baked a thing in my life and these turned out perfect on my first try!" gave me false hopes.