Pomegranate Lavender Macarons: with and without KitchenAid

ulya — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:43:48 +0000

Throughout my 3 years of cooking experience, I didn’t need to use any electrical equipment for mixing, whisking, beating, blending or kneading. Instead, I used my hands and my beater. Actually, if you’re making cakes, muffins or cookies, you don’t really need an electrical mixer. But when it comes to beating egg whites, it ca become a painful job for your hands. And why the egg whites are so important? Because of the macarons of course!! I am quite obsessed with making macarons. Couple of months ago, I had a disappointing macaron trial, and only 5 out of a batch came out clean. Only 5! Why? Because I whisked the egg whites using my hands! And as far as I observed, making perfect macarons moves you to the next level in cooking:) So, I decided to buy a KitchenAid stand mixer, and move to that next level.

I was also hoping that it will help me save a lot of time making cakes and other pastry. But, I was such a fool to assume that KitchenAid will solve all my problems. Well, here’s the result:

What is that? I mean, they are as bad as my first macarons. I couldn’t create the “perfect foot”, although the consistency is okay. I managed not to crack them by resting the meringues for 1.5 hours to harden its shells, but what about the foot? It is not evenly distributed. The macarons were also stuck on the baking tray, and I couldn’t pick the macarons off. I thought I didn’t bake them enough, but when I rebaked them, they started to crack, so I stopped. And the baking temperature was OK too, it was 160 degrees C (325 degrees C).

Anyways, I’m done with all this drama.. Let’s move on to the good news. 10 out of 25 macarons came out clean this time. What a success! Well, it’s at least better than the last time. And what’s more, these macarons taste SUPERB!!

Kitchen Impromptu » lavender

Pomegranate Lavender Macarons: with and without KitchenAid