My hair and I have fought a life long battle against humidity. Now I have another reason to hate on humidity.
On Saturday, with everything I learned in my French Macaron class fresh in my head, I decided to tackle a batch on my very own.
* French patisserie macarons *
My egg whites got to the most perfect stage of stiff peak-i-ness. I folded my flour mixture in with my egg white mixture carefully in three batches. I piped my bright pink (my first time using gel paste - great color!) batter onto parchment, and was even starting to get perfect little circles (I'm not a very good piper). I let them sit for about 30 minutes before baking, so they could get the right matte look before being baked. I turned the oven light on and saw the little crinkly "feet" forming at the bottom.
My macarons were going to fabulous. Really destined for greatness.
Then my oven timer went off. I took them out and looked at my gooey mess. Each macaron was sticky on the paper, and ooey gooey. Nothing like in class. Not to be deterred, I just put them back into the oven for a bit.
Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem. While I was able to save some to make into proper macaron sandwiches, most resulted in bits and pieces. Luckily, the crumbs are still delicious dipped in the orange milk chocolate ganache I made.
The teacher from class had given us her contact info, in case we ever came across a baking catastrophe in our own kitchens. I emailed her to describe my dilemma, and heard back within a few hours. She suggested I try cutting back a bit on the egg whites, but really my main problem was most likely the high humidity, and I should try again on another day.
As Monica cried on Friends, "It's the HUMIDITY!"
Ugh. Next time, I'll be checking the weather report.
* photo credit by Flickr user La tartine gourmande *
