S'Mores Macaroons - Feet Fail

Well, they didn't turn out perfectly... but I know what I did wrong! So, I'm going to tell you now: when it says to "fold-in" the egg-whites, don't stir too much! (Yes, it says this in the recipe, but I kept wanting to add more cocoa, in an attempt to make the cookies chocolate-colored, which didn't work anyway, so I kept adding and stirring it in, adding and stirring it in...)Anyway, if you can actually follow directions, you will come out with beautiful s'mores macaroons WITH feet.

I may eventually try doing these again, as they are so simple to whip up, but there are way too many other things on my to-bake list to do it right now.


Without further ado, here's the recipe:
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Preparation time: Not taking into account the amount of time it takes for you to bring your egg whites to room temperature, the whole baking process, including making the batter, piping and baking will probably take you about an hour to an hour and a half. How long it takes to make your filling is dependent on what you choose to make.

Actual baking time: 12 minutes total, plus a few minutes to get your oven from 200°F to 375°F.

Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

**A couple of notes before starting. I used 2 egg whites, so then figured 2/5 of the other ingredients (making it 9/10 C confectioners' sugar, 4/5 C almond flour, and 4/5 T sugar). It's best to leave the egg-whites on the counter for 3 days, so they can come to room-temperature and lose some of their "water-weight." I was skeptical about leaving eggs unrefrigerated, but as long as you're sure no yolk is mixed in (which is important for when you're beating the whites anyway), then they'll be fine. If it's really hot where you are, then you may want to do this in the refrigerator, but as long as the egg whites have NO SMELL to them, you're good to go. Just put them in a cup or jar with a paper towel rubber banded around the top and let 'em sit.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

Sifted sugar and almond flour.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

Stiff egg-whites

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

This was where I failed. As the directions say: be gentle. Don't over-stir!!!

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

Pretty easy to pipe equal-sized ones. But you can do the circles drawn on the opposite side of parchment-paper trick if you find it easier.

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen. Ami's note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.

Additional Information:

David Lebovitz breaks it down: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/09/making_french_macarons.htm... More macaroon 411: http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/10/introduction-to-french-macarons.html Get inspired by our own Tartlette!: http://www.mytartelette.com/search/label/macarons Go behind the scenes of Paulette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXIvX0-CEu0 Watch a pro pipe macaroons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_RfiFoWZKQ&feature=related