Where are the feet?

Macaron attempt #2

My apologies to all of you beautiful macaron makers out there. This post may be a sight for sore eyes, tough to swallow. It is only my second time attempting these tricky little buggers, but I like for things to work the way they are supposed to. As you can probably gather, I have been foiled again by macarons.

Keeping in the holiday spirit (yes, I'm referring to Valentine's Day), I decided my macarons would be pink and chocolate. I know, I know, pink is not a flavor nor chocolate a color, but this was my vision: chocolately hazelnut meringues with a pink white chocolate hazelnut ganache and pink hazelnut meringues with a (brown) chocolate hazelnut ganache. Sounds wonderful, right?

Everything seemed to be going smoothly. My egg whites formed stiff peaks, the nuts appeared to be ground to and ideal texture.

The "macaronage" process resulted in a batter that resembled what is described on so many fellow bakers' blogs. I split the batter in half and added cocoa to one and gave it a few mixes with a spatula, and added a few drops of organic red food coloring to the other half to make them pink. So far, so good.

Then came the piping part. I printed out a template and placed it on my cookie sheet under parchment paper. I proceeded to put my pastry together and filled it up with the chocolately goodness. I need to stop working out or there was a rogue piece of almond or hazelnut that was too big to fit through the tip because was just simply squeezing the bag and the next thing I knew, BAM! my pastry bag was no more. The tip blew out and there was a giant mess. I had only piped 4 circles so it was time for some improv! I left the tip out and kept on trucking. For the pink batter I simply used a spoon to put it on the circles. I had had enough fun with pastry bags for one day!









Into the oven they went. I'll be honest, I thought these were going to be winners. They looked pretty darn good. After 15 minutes I opened the oven door and..... there were NO FEET! I feel defeated, no pun intended, but I will press on. I'm praying that the third time is a charm. Stay tuned.

The MACTWEETS challenge this month was to create macarons influenced by Valentine's Day. This will be my first time participating in the challenge, so no judging! I hope my tasty, but not perfect macarons, are not too offensive to the pros.

Hazelnut and Chocolate Macarons

2 egg whites, aged, room temperature
1/2 c powdered sugar
5 T granulated sugar
1/4 c almonds, ground
1/4 c hazelnuts, ground
3 T cocoa
a few drops organic red food coloring

Pink White Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache

3/4 bar Green & Blacks white chocolate
1/8 c heavy cream
1/2 T hazelnut oil

Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache

3/4 bar Ghiradeli bittersweet baking chocolate
1/8 c heavy cream
1/2 T hazelnut oil


Beat the egg whites into stiff white peaks, and add granulated sugar. Add in ground nuts/powdered sugar mixture. This is the technique sensitive "macaronage" process that I still haven't mastered apparently. This is where I split the batter and added cocoa to one half and red food coloring to the other. Pipe onto parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes at 275.

For the ganaches, which came out wonderfully, melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl, double boiler style, add the cream and the hazelnut oil. Let cool before spooning onto the macarons.