Mac Attack!!!

Macarons and I went back a long way... we 1st "met" each other at a taiwanese blog last year. I was really intrigued by this dessert and back then, there wasn't a macaron craze in sg yet. So I absolutely had no idea how to go abt baking these except for the instructions on the blog. Well, I thot to myself, it shdn't be that difficult rite? After all, the ingredients are pretty straightforward and I had all the ingredients needed on hand. So one nite, I set abt making these macs... and needless to say, I FAILED big-time! The macs turned out very soft and had surfaces to rival the moon's. So i told myself, "ok... macs and me dun have the chemistry ".
Until this year when macs suddenly appeared in almost every local blog! Many ppl were baking and of course some succeeded, some failed. And it's only till then that I came to know that it's actually called macarons! (the taiwanese blog is in chinese mah!). And armed with this info, I started searching the internet for mac recipes. Still I can't make myself bake a batch of these... I duno why, maybe it's the fear of failure? maybe it's just plain laziness....

Images of macarons appeared everywhere I turned... so much so that it came to a point where I felt I must really give it a try again.

Based on what I've gathered, there's 2 ways of making this tooth-achingly sweet dessert. There's the usual whip-the-egg-white way and then there's the italian meringue way, which produces a very stable batter and some even commented that it's a fail-proof method. I decided to try the italian meringue method... (no prizes for guessing why). But then I realised that it means I need a candy thermometer! After asking ard and Elyn highlighted to me that the thermometer will turn into a white elephant 'coz there's no much use of it besides making candies, I did not get one. So how would I know if the sugar syrup had reached a certain temperature, u may ask.... well, I just eye-ball it! haha.... What I did was to let the syrup come to a boil and continue to let it boil for ard 1 min. Then I added it into the egg whites. Well, it worked! Then came to the part where I started mixing the grounded nuts and sugar into the egg white. I din know how to gaudge if it's to the correct texture. I read that the batter had to be like magma! Ermm... tat's a BIG problem to me 'coz the only time I see magma was on Discovery channel! *laughs*.... so again I had to trust my instincts.... Finally I piped the batter onto the baking trays, gave it a few raps to get rid of air bubbles and left it facing a fan blowing at full speed. When the surfaces no longer feels sticky, I sent it into the oven....

You can't imagine how happy I was when I spotted the "feets"! I was so happy that I was yelping away in the kitchen! and that was 11pm at nite. DD got up from her bed, all beary-eyed and came into the kitchen and asked "Mommy, what are u doing? why are u so happy?" *LOL*
After sending 2 trays of the plain hazelnut and almond (I ran out of almonds, so I added hazelnuts to it) macs into the oven, I decided to be more adventureous and added green tea powder to the remaining batter. Topped it with white sesame seeds as I din have any black ones at home.

Here's the results of my MONTHS of research and proscrastination.....These chocolate ones tasted just like (i hope!) what a macaroon shd taste (Read somewhere that the surface shd be crisp while the insides are chewy).... I used 62% bittersweet chocolate as the filling.
The green tea ones turned out softer in texture. But I love the pastel colour.... maybe I din add enough green tea powder, the geen tea taste was not distinct. However, I liked these more than the chocolate ones!