The Ways of a Sweet Hearts Baker

Today I thought it would be good to go through the making of a macaron. These little guys are tricky because a whole lot of work goes into them. Before we even get to the parts shown in the pictures, The macaron batter (which is at this point only almond flour and powder sugar) must be blended in a food processor then afterwards be sifted so that it is a very very fine powder. Then come the egg whites and thus the little batter all dispersed in the 5 bowls that you see.

Then there comes the food coloring! You have to make sure you don’t put too much or you’ll get too much of a colored product. Also you have to be sure to delicately fold the color in. You don’t want to harshly mix in the color otherwise when you bake them, they will not form a nice smooth circle but will come out deflated and crooked. 

We used the bottom of a food coloring bottle to get the perfect little circle you see in the picture! Before you bake a macaron, you have to let it sit out and dry a little so that it forms a somewhat stiff outer shell. Then you pop them into the oven and watch them carefully so that they don’t over cook and bam, you have a macaron shell. Then filling is a whole ‘nother story which I will save for a different time because there are many different fillings. There is only one macaron shell.

Featuring some of the yumminess that we sell in our shop!

Saturday was a macaroons type of day. The caramel that Kristen made served as the filled for the macaroons featured in the pictures. Friday and Saturday I focused on relearning how to measure ingredients. At the patisserie, we use digital scales to measure our ingredients instead of using cups and such (sometimes we use those but mostly we stick to the scales). I’m finally getting the hang of it which is awesome! 

It’s also exciting that I’m learning to use the different equipment too, like the electric whisker. I found out that whisking heavy cream can make butter though so a word of caution to all my followers and those who are reading this. 

So Friday and Saturday I helped to make sour cream pound cake and devil’s food cake for petit fours. I also helped to make pastry cream.. when making pastry cream, always go the low and slow route, constantly stirring the mixture of cornstarch, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla or else you will get a lumpy mess. :)