DIY Chocolate

Part 2 of Quel désastre Granted they look right. They taste GREAT! But...

This time I got the measuring and mixing of the almond batter right (sort of).

The Macaronage I screwed up first go-round reached the 'MAGMA' (Tartelette's description) stage nicely I thought... First time macaronage was too liquidy...

I used M. Mercotte's trick (Also Jill's) of using a clothes pin to close off the pastry bag tip to prevent leakage when filling with the 'magma'. (Watch her video in French - the Eng. one doesn't work - you'll get it anyway). And I found my lovely Parisian special scraper - it was stuck to the bottom of the almond flour bag in the fridge.

Go figure :)

Rick asked, "Where is BEAR?"

BEAR was busy testing out the 'skin' of the piped macs after 30 minutes.

Voila! Tout va bien.

Inside the oven after 10 minutes = I got Feettttttttttt!

Yay

*A neat trick I found in the comments of the recipe I followed in the Huffington Post for these chocolate macarons - put them onto a rack and stick inside the freezer for 5-10 minutes. They practically pop off the parchment paper! Yahoo.

And look!

Beautiful flat bottoms and shiny tops!

I forgot to taste though...uh oh

Regarding the ganache filling. This I found the easiest step. I looked at a lot of recipes and then improvised.

Basic proportions: 1/3 cup boiled heavy cream to 1 bar of 3.50 gr of dark chocolate is standard, plus throw in 1 tbsp of softened UNsalted butter at the end for a glossy look. I used SALTED butter to cut the sweetness and extra lashings of salt + 1 lash of Ceylon cinnamon to give some mystery. I planned on using McCormick's Extract of Raspberry but when I saw the Red Dye #40 I got their Almond Extract instead. Also I used a bar of Perugina dark chocolate w/ almonds bar for more almondy hints. Once it's chopped up fine in the Cuisineart you won't bite on any chunks of almond - so not to worry. I would love to try an infusion next time... Looks good no? Tasted even better. By the way I softened the chopped up chocolate bar in the microwave at 20 second on low heat 5-6 x. Worked like a dream and less pots to clean. The ganache will easily resoften after taken out of the fridge and left at room temperature for a bit. Can I freeze it though? So much leftovers...

Still looking very good and they taste yummy. I had 4 for breakfast, but...

I baked my meringue cookies TOO LONG!

25 minutes in MY oven is just too long and I forgot to taste them once they were cool :(

So in the end I made a really nice HARD cookie, but not a merinque.

Was it from overbaking?

Was it from overbeating?

Was it from NOT 'aging' the egg whites as some will tell you?

The mystery continues until I get back from Maine.

Will I solve this conundrum?
I must!

Remember there's still 5 pounds of almond flour in my fridge.

By the way I used Valrhona cocoa in with the almond flour and lashings of salt to cut the cookies sweetness. Je le deteste the overly sweet macarons I find here.

Just my 2 cents.

Stay tuned dear PBers and I LOVE all your helpful hints!

BONJOUR CHOCOLAT MACARONS!