The War of Macaroons

I have yet to conquer Macaroons but I am gonna give a rundown of what happened to MaMa this whole week and how this Macaroon War started since Last Saturday! Honestly, I am already at the verge of retreating, see how!

My mom's maid was clearing the expiry stuffs in the kitchen last Saturday. Yes, my mom and I have this bad habit of buying stuffs and forget about them, our POWER is up to an extent that when maid asked us, 

"Madam, do you still want this? It's already expired." and our response can be "Not Mine! You ask..so and so...". 

Funny enough, none of us SOMETIMES or MOST OF THE TIMES refuse to claim our PURCHASES like flour, teabags, cane sugar, raisin, almonds, cornflakes etc etc etc... I am admitting here that this is a very bad habit, and I have determined to turn it around. BABIES, LEARN the GOOD and discard the BAD! So, I saw packets of ALMOND MEAL & ICING SUGAR, and a beautiful Silicone Mat which I have bought EARLY of the year with the intention to make macaroons for CNY. Obviously, it didn't happen! These ingredients will be due end of the year, and so in order to fully UTILIZE my purchases and show a good example to my girls, I have decided to start the Macaroons Extravaganza! 

Hey, It was never my intention to war my macaroons, matter of fact, I wanted to bake them and appreciate them! That's why I specially prepared a homemade Lemon Curb as their Fillinggggsssss. See, such great treatment! Unfortunately, they failed me. Or the other way around? I failed them! Not just once, 4th failed attempts for the whole long week. Look here (http://chrisyeediary.blogspot.com/2012/07/dessert-class-ecole-de-pastisserie.html), I made all of these in 3 hours in a workshop! I made them all by myself with chef's instruction. But, it was a success!!! So, I didn't expect to fail and go into a war! 

It was all the same recipe that I am using for the whole week. I suspect my over beating of egg whites, or could be the oven's temperature faulty or over mixing the batter????

Let me introduce my BEAUTIFUL silicon mat that cost me around RM50! The best part is it doesn't fit my oven tray, it's way bigger than my oven tray! Well, that's it! It's a WRONG & CARELESS purchase! This photo shown my second attempts, and you must be wondering how bad did the first one go? well, I couldn't even pipe them, and now you can imagine why I didn't even have the mood to SNAP SNAP SNAP! What's the point? I was quite happy after piping these as shown, just too much coloring. However, ALL of them CRACKED badly and I couldn't even lift them off the silicon mat. :( They all went into the bin, TRASH BIN! I refused give up, and I went to buy another packet of almond meal. This shouldn't be happening!!!!! It's just 4 simple ingredients to make macaroons!?? 

This photo shown the special guest for my macaroons - Lemon Curd! 

Yummy Yummy Yummy! Love it. I would reduce the sugar amount if I am going to make it again. Recipe is here with a good video demonstration.

3rd attempt! Consistency is looking good! Shinny and smooth! 

I was so looking forwards to the end product. 

After resting of 40mins, and baking in the oven for 15min at 140 deg C,

Most of them cracked and they didn't grow feet, the cookies' bottom suppose to have a ruffle that rise during the baking process. Some of the cookies are hollow and some with chewy texture. I have to adjust the temperature for sure, the inside is not entirely cooked but the shell is already cracking. 

But my girls are still very happy to bring them to school. 

This is the 4th attempt! Everything was in accordance, the PEAK of the eggwhite, the mixing, the consistency of the batter, all seems ALRIGHT to me! 

Resting was 40mins and I made sure they were not tacky before I sent them for baking. Temperature adjusted to 120 deg C - 130 Deg C. For the first 5 mins, I was thrilled to witness the rise of the cookies with feet! But then, it collapsed after 5 mins, and remain feetless as the picture shown after baking.

It may seem EASY but it is truly not EASY at all. To master the technique is much harder than I thought and because it has a special distinct identified SHAPE and IMPRESSION to the public, it makes it harder to achieve. But the taste, I guess the cookies taste is acceptable since the texture achieve the crunchiness at the shell and chewiness inside, as described by the experts. 

I have no idea why am I going on with the endless war, first, I don't like them at all. I hardly buy them because the sweetness is not to my liking. I was occasionally attracted by the beautiful colours but never the taste nor the texture. Obviously, I don't encourage my girls to savour on these sweet stuffs, but it's ok to have them once in a blue moon, like I always mentioned. So, the battle persists for the intention of SUCCESS AND GLORY (Glory?! Gila Betul!), which i have yet to conquer! 

*sigh* I have been tasting these cookies a lot in order to get the feel of the texture and taste!!!!!!!! I have gained WEIGHT because of you! By looking at this, I am the bigger loser at the end of the war! Hahahaha....Silly MaMa.