piping tips

French Macarons (Rookie Attempt!)

/ Susie / Leave a comment
“macaronage” with the figure-8
feet!
yum

I had some leftover egg whites, so I decided to try something I’ve had my eye on for a while: French Macarons. It’s another one of those things, like choux pastry, that the Great British Baking Show makes you want to try. The contestants on that show knock these out like they’re nothing!

I liked this recipe from Preppy Kitchen, and followed it completely. I appreciated all the supporting advice, photos, and video. I also appreciated having a chance to break out my carefully curated piping kit (this tip set, these tips for the range of sizes, these bags, these couplers), which I basically haven’t used since I acquired it all during the pandemic (because of the eclair project). I was only piping one thing, so I didn’t use a coupler, and I was happy to have the larger plain tube tips that I bought. I’m definitely a piping bag noob, but I could tell as I went that it was a technique/familiarity thing, and it did get easier and better as I went.

I am also not an expert at what the final result is supposed to look, taste, and feel like, but I did achieve the necessary fringe-y “foot”, and for the most part I think I avoided the big gap/bubble at the top. I flavored these with a little almond extract and colored them a pale pink. I opted not to take it to the buttercream filling sandwich step. These seemed quite sweet enough already. I already had red food coloring on had because of my Christmas Cookie Candy Canes (see header photo), so pink is what we got.

Oh, also: The almond flour that I bought was the Whole Foods brand. It seemed to be less finely ground than was ideal for this, but in the end I think it was OK. I did follow the instructions to put the flour through a fine mesh sieve, but this was actually quite difficult to do. In the end I gave up on forcing about 1/4 cup of it through. I dumped that last pile of flour out of the sieve (saved for some other use, I guess?) and put some more flour through the sieve to yield the right amount. Anyway, it took a long time.

My last thought on this rookie attempt: There’s something that feels weird about going through all the steps to yield stiffly whipped egg whites only to then deflate them almost entirely. Getting to the point where I could even draw the “figure 8” with the egg+flour+sugar batter took quite a bit of deflating. Since the “feet” on my macarons were not very high, I’m guessing I over-did the macaronage, but honestly, I have no idea. More investigation and experimentation needed!

I saw this recipe for lemon macarons that looked very interesting. Maybe next time?

Choux Buns, Eclairs

/ Susie / 1 Comment
Pate a choux (profiteroles)
Pastry cream
Ganache
Eclair

It’s really just not possible to watch the Great British Baking Show at any length and not want to make choux buns. Especially in the earlier seasons, one could easily conclude that choux pastry held the keys to the kingdom. On TV, the stuff really does look magical. It goes into the oven looking like little kiss-shaped things, but it come out looking like big, puffy balloons. Pastry magic!

Also, Cook’s Illustrated ran an article about Choux au Craquelin that pushed me over the edge. Choux had to happen.

I’ve made choux before, and have even taken a one-day pastry class from the queen herself (Joanne Chang) which included choux. It never struck me as that difficult, but it seems that the GBBS contestants are often asked to make choux without the benefit of an actual recipe. For me, and for pretty much any typical home cook, this would not be possible.

I forgot to take notes on these, but I did take pictures (not usually this careless!). I hazily recall being irked that whatever recipe I used called for a 1″ piping tip, but I found that there really is no such thing for the home baker. I have since managed to find one, but it can’t be used with most couplers. This launched a whole piping tip buying project that I won’t bore you with. Another project that I wouldn’t normally have time for.

I note that my eclair looks “informal”, as Prue Leith might say. Paul Hollywood would say that it looks like it’s been dropped on the floor. Nonetheless, I do remember that it was very satisfying to eat.