Why is macarons cake empty inside. Important subtleties of baking macaroons from Maria Peasant. Low oven temperature

08.02.2022

French President Macron, macarons, macaroons….sometimes it seems to me that all French words are very similar. But let's make it clear: macarons are still cookies, and macarons are the same cakes of two crispy halves with cream filling that we will bake today and that you see in the main photo.

This is a small French pastry that consists of egg white, sugar, powdered sugar, almond flour and often food coloring. The lids of the cake are baked separately, and then assembled according to the “sandwich” principle with the help of ganache or cream.

I ask you not to be afraid of the difficulties that are written about on the Internet. The complexity of making pasta is greatly exaggerated! What they don’t offer is: sift the almond flour two hundred times, and then dry it with a thin layer in the oven, age the proteins (or freeze them), and it’s generally scary to read about the kneading process: undermixed is bad, mixed is even worse ... Today I’ll tell you about my how to make these cakes, check out the step-by-step recipe with photos and make sure everything is much easier than it seems at first.

Ingredients for the filling (we will cook it first, because it needs to brew and thicken):

Berry puree - 80 g (I used red currant, you can have absolutely anything)
Fatty cream - 80 ml (I have 30%) What to replace? Fatty fresh sour cream without sourness.
White chocolate - 180 g (I used two chocolate bars without additives)

Lids Ingredients:

Powdered sugar - 150 g
Almond flour - 150 g (I grinded almonds myself, I talk about the process in detail)
Proteins - 50 g
Sugar - 150 g
Water - 100 ml
Proteins - 50 g (this is two proteins from small eggs or 1.5 proteins from eggs of category C O)
Gel thick dye (optional) - 0.5 tsp. You can make a replacement for dry dye, but it is forbidden to use liquid dye, since it gives a lot of excess moisture.

We use a total of 4 egg whites in our Macaron Hats recipe (two for the almond flour and two for the Italian meringue).

How to cook pasta filling (recipe with photo step by step):

If you have ready-made berry puree, feel free to use it and skip my explanations. I use frozen redcurrants to make a smooth puree. I spread the berries (by weight, about 200 grams of frozen berries) in a saucepan with a thick bottom and turn on medium heat.

Frozen berries release moisture and juice, turning into gruel. It will take approximately 10-12 minutes. Stir the mixture from time to time so that the berries do not burn.

If you use fresh currants (or other berries), you should add a little water (about 2 tablespoons), otherwise they may burn.

Puree is heterogeneous, so it is better to pass it through a metal sieve. Then measure out 80 g for the recipe.

In a bowl with berry puree, add pieces of white chocolate (180 g), as well as 80 ml. fat cream.

Mix all ingredients until completely combined. The chocolate will quickly melt into the hot puree.

It turns out a berry cream based on white chocolate. You can wait until it cools to room temperature, and then transfer it to a pastry bag and put it in the refrigerator. The filling should become thick.

How to make pasta hats

Sift icing sugar (150 g) into a bowl to get rid of lumps.

In the same bowl, add almond flour (150 g). If you buy it in a store and you have a choice, give preference to fine flour. If grinding almonds yourself, try to make the flour as fine as possible. The surface of pasta cakes depends on how small the almond grains are. The smaller, the smoother the hats.

Mix the almond flour with powdered sugar (if desired, you can sift them together).

Now add 50 g of proteins at room temperature. Mix again.

It turns out a thick viscous porridge, which is called "marzipan". If you try to lift part of the mixture on the spatula, it will fall off in pieces (that is, the density is such that the mixture does not flow). Many recipes recommend adding coloring at this point. But I do it differently: I add it when cooking syrup. In my opinion, it is easier to dissolve and mix it. In thick marzipan, this is much more difficult to do.

Italian meringue for pasta

These coveted cakes can be made with both French meringue and Italian meringue. I love the second option for the stability of the result. And, it seems to me, Italian meringue cakes are more tender and airy. Italian meringue (in which proteins are boiled with sugar syrup) is easy to make, the most important thing is to have a pastry thermometer on hand. For those who do not have a thermometer, I will tell you how to determine the readiness of the syrup without one.

Combine sugar (150 g) and water (100 ml) in a saucepan and put on fire.

Stir the mixture and add food coloring. I use Ameri Color super red gel color. It is necessary that the syrup turns bright red, after combining with marzipan, the color will not be so intense. It takes me 0.5 tsp. dye. Stir it into the syrup and continue to cook.

Periodically insert a thermometer to check the temperature of the syrup. After waiting for 114 C, we begin to beat the whites in a separate bowl into a lush foam. When the syrup reaches 118-120 C, we will pour it into whipped proteins.

Of course, experienced confectioners can do without a thermometer. It is enough to look at how slowly the bubbles in the syrup inflate. That is, at the very beginning of its preparation, the bubbles burst, practically without inflating, and by the time the syrup is ready, they begin to slowly stretch and inflate, forming round balls. If you have not yet developed such a skill, prepare the syrup until the test for a soft ball (a drop of syrup should be dipped in a glass of cold water and rolled into a ball). If the ball rolls, then the syrup is ready.

By the time the syrup is cooked, the proteins should be whipped into a fluffy white foam. We begin to pour in the syrup in a thin stream, without ceasing to work with a mixer. In the photo I have it stopped, but do not pay attention to this fact - I have not yet learned how to just take pictures while holding the camera in my mouth (although, oh, how convenient it would be)).

After pouring in the syrup, continue to beat the mixture until stable peaks. At first, the mass will be liquid and shiny, then it will begin to thicken before our eyes, leaving more and more clear marks on the surface.

The process can be considered complete if the mixture holds its shape. Build a "snowdrift" on the surface, it should not fall off. Another test for readiness is to turn the bowl with the contents upside down: the mass should not fall off. If the mixer is powerful, it takes 7-10 minutes to whip the mixture after adding the syrup, in a stationary mixer this process is even faster.

Combine marzipan and protein mixture, mix. It turns out "dough" for pasta, which is called "pasta". Don't be careful! Many recipes on the Internet prescribe: you need to mix very carefully, carefully, from top to bottom, from bottom to top, clockwise and other nonsense. But believe me, these actions will not affect the result at all, so mix as you like. The most important thing is that the meringue and almond mass are well connected so that there are no dry lumps.

The consistency of the finished dough for pasta should be viscous, flowing off the shoulder blade with an uninterrupted tape.

What to bake pasta on: on a silicone mat, parchment or teflon sheet?

Opt for Teflon. It is perfectly smooth and slippery, thanks to which the hats do not cling to the surface when baking. My experiments with ordinary baking paper and a silicone mat showed that the lids are uneven, crooked. When I got a Teflon mat, the cakes turned out smoother, with a beautiful skirt.

So, we transfer the pastry dough into a pastry bag with a round nozzle and place the lids in a checkerboard pattern (for better ventilation during baking). Hold the pastry bag perpendicular to the baking sheet, at a 90-degree angle as you pipe (this will make the shape smoother). You can not use nozzles, but simply cut off the corner of the desired size. If you want to make perfect-sized pasta, you can draw even circles (2.5-3 cm in diameter) on the back of the baking paper and extrude the mass along the contour. If you use a Teflon sheet, draw them on a sheet of paper and place them under the baking sheet, after jigging, remove them. I considered this idea superfluous - on the second baking sheet, the hand itself understands how it should be - and the cakes turn out to be approximately the same. In addition, I bake them not for sale, but for home tea parties =)
As you can see, after the lids are deposited, they look uneven (bumpy surface).

The "beaks" are visible on the lids, which remained after being deposited from the bag. In order for the surface to level out and the air we don’t need come out of the pasta, we take the baking sheet in our hands and hit the table several times (you can put a towel on the table so that there is no rumble). What happens if this is not done? The surface of the cakes in the oven will crack, as excess air will rapidly leave the halves of pasta.

After these actions, the blanks of the cakes turn out to be smoother and spread a little in volume. Keep this fact in mind when dropping off.

The next important point: leave the cakes to dry at room temperature. They should become matte and, when touched with a fingertip, leave no traces. If you touch the surface - it is sticky and “smears”, you can’t send such cakes to the oven, wait more. The time to dry the hats depends on the humidity in your apartment, it took me an hour.

There is such a drying method for electric ovens: turn on the temperature of 100 C and set the baking sheet with pasta to an average level for 10-15 minutes, constantly checking the surface with your finger so as not to overexpose. As soon as the lids stop shining and sticking to your fingers, remove from the oven, cool and then proceed according to the recipe.

We send the cakes to the oven preheated to 160 ° C (Top-Bottom mode) and then we observe the process. The baking time depends on the power of your oven. My pasta takes 16 minutes to bake. At the sixth minute of baking, the skirt begins to grow, then it falls off a little, but not critically. Cakes are ready if they are easily removed from the baking sheet (now I am talking about a Teflon mat). From a silicone surface or from ordinary baking paper, they can only begin to be removed after complete cooling. Do not overexpose the pasta in the oven, otherwise they will become too dry, change color, and simply fry.
I recommend baking the hats in small batches to get used to the oven. If you see, for example, that the surface is cracked and the pasta has changed color, then the temperature is too high, for the next 5 pieces, make it smaller. In this way, by experience, you will determine what temperature for baking pasta for your oven is ideal.

Attention! If you have a gas oven, you need to heat it up to 250 C, then turn it off (!) And put a baking sheet with pasta in it. Leave them for 20-25 minutes until done.

We turn over the completely cooled cakes, we find halves that are very similar to each other.

Squeeze the filling from the pastry bag onto one of the halves of the “pair”. We connect them in pairs.

Macarons are ready! It is better to eat them not immediately, but the next day, so that the filling soaks the lids well.

Macarons can be made with a wide variety of fillings, using both white and milk chocolate as the main component of the filling.

What are the perfect pasta?

It is considered that macarons are successful if they have a smooth, shiny, even surface and a characteristic "skirt", the lower porous layer. Macarons should not be cracked, bent to the side, the skirt should match the diameter of the lid. The cream should peek out a little from the cakes, but not flow out in any way.

Store pasta in a container with a tight lid. Store in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. This will keep them fresh and tasty for several days.

Why pasta doesn't work

Sometimes mishaps happen when making pasta. Rarely, but they do happen. This usually happens the very first time the pasta is cooked, and only because you can't know in advance what temperature your oven is ideal for baking pasta. But as soon as you make friends with the oven, there will be no missteps.

Let's analyze the frequent failures when baking them:

Why do pasta lids crack?

If you do not dry the pasta before baking, the lids will crack in the oven. This happened with my first pan of cakes. Before you send them to bake, you should let them stand at room temperature until the surface does not stick to your fingers and stops shining. A little higher in the article, I explained how to do drying in the oven.

Another reason for cracking is too high a temperature. If you dried the lids perfectly before sending them to the oven, and you should not worry about this, then the cracks appear due to the high temperature. Try reducing it.

Why doesn't macarons have a skirt or is it too small

This happens if the temperature in the oven is too low. In the recipe I used to cook, the temperature was indicated as 140 C, I set it exactly like that, but the skirts did not appear ((((When I increased the temperature to 160 ° C, the skirts turned out!

Why are pasta inside hollow (empty)

The halves can become hollow inside if there is too much air in the pasta. Therefore, it is important to knock the pan on the table well so that excess air comes out of the halves.

Why did the halves shrink and settle

This usually happens if you make French meringue cakes and not Italian ones. Let me remind you that in French, sugar is whipped with whites “dry”, in Italian, we boil sugar syrup and add it to whipped whites. So, if sugar is added in large portions, it will not have time to disperse: the proteins will whip, and the sugar will float on its own. As a result, in the oven, the sugar begins to caramelize, becomes heavier and pulls the meringue with it, which leads to a heavy bottom and a shriveled cap.

When planting, pasta hats have an uneven shape

Macarons spread on a baking sheet in uneven puddles in cases where the dough is very liquid. You've been tossing pasta with meringue for too long. Therefore, it is important to stop in time, the pasta mixture should flow down in a wide ribbon, if you raise the spatula above the bowl - this is the correct consistency for the dough. In this case, when we put the halves on a baking sheet, they themselves diverge a little, while they have an even round shape.

Macarons are not removed from the pan

If you have any questions about the recipe, ask them in the comments, I'm glad to get feedback!

I have recorded a video recipe for pasta cakes for you, which you can watch on our You Tube channel:

You can attach photos of the resulting cakes to the comments, it's very interesting to see how they turned out for you! Good luck!

If you will post photos on Instagram, please indicate the tag #pirogeevo or #pirogeevo so that I can find your photos on the network. Thank you!

In contact with

I promised a post about pasta, I sat down and wrote. And what exactly to write about? Recipe? Yes, there are plenty of them, and believe me, almost every recipe, if you strictly follow all the instructions, will give you a good result. Technology - yes, here you can say a few words from the point of view of my having a small but still practice. I decided to start with the story, but what? My blog is myJ)) I immediately warn you, I am not a professional and do not pretend to be one hundred percent true. This is my experience, my opinion, you can listen to it or ignore it - it's up to you)) There will be a lot of letters and photos - you asked for it yourself !!

I’ll be honest, not hiding: once upon a time, I decided for myself that if I manage to cook pasta in such a way that, in principle, would satisfy me on all counts, I will start doing confectionery business more densely, more professionally, more consciously, in order to finally begin to implement your dream bakery. To say that I had a million attempts is a lie. I live in Minsk - this is Belarus. We have a terrible shortage of all the pieces needed for a confectioner, and almond flour is no exception. And I can’t afford to screw up a few kg of flour, which costs almost $ 30 per 1 kg, I’m not rich))) Therefore, I decided that everything should work out right away. I carefully studied the recipe. And I started with French meringue macarons

Here I’ll digress a little and give the theory (I’m a teacher in the past), so treat this post as a small lecture)))
Macarons can be made in several ways. But there are 2 main ones: in French meringue and in Italian. Simply put, the main difference is that for the first option, it is not required to cook syrup and measure exact degrees. The second option requires a thermometer and brewing egg whites with hot syrup. You can guess why I chose the first method - I didn’t have a thermometer then.

I hope no one will be offended if I still won’t give the pasta recipe, why is this empty rewriting from one place to another? I highly recommend visiting the site of Nina Tarasova - there are all the options and are described in great detail with pictures. Speaking of confectionery equipment for pasta, scales are MANDATORY!!! These are not poppy seed buns or cabbage pie, accuracy is needed here. Do not be fooled by recipes that say the measurement is in glasses and eggs in pieces - this is very approximate and can have a deplorable effect on the result. You need a pastry bag with a round nozzle, and preferably a few, but still deposit the filling. As well as parchment paper or a silicone mat. By the way, after the competition, I discovered that many people bake on silicone - well, it's up to you, I bake on paper))

So, following strictly the recipe, I finally kneaded my first macarons and the first adversity that I encountered was that I don’t know how to plant even circles out of the bag !!!
What can I advise - draw stencils, circle cups, glasses directly on baking paper, you don’t need to buy special rugs - why? Fill the bag so that as little air as possible gets into it - this way there will be no sharp ejection of pasta from the bag. I highly recommend drying the pasta for about 1 hour at room temperature. That is, after you have planted beautiful circles on a baking sheet, knocked them on the table - this way air bubbles will come out better and possible tails will even out - leave the macrons for a while to form a crust. But here, too, there is a catch - by experience, I proved that if the pasta stands for too long, the crust will form excessively thick and the skirt will rise crooked when baking. Macarons turn out to be skewed ((
The next thing is the oven. I would say that this is the main nuance in many ways. Anticipating the question of which oven I bake in, my oven is not super modern and after the repair I will make a comparison post before and after where you can see everything. I love her immensely and do not want to part with her, and if it were not for the upcoming renovation and the design that does not fit into the modern interior, I would not part with her. So do not chase after fashionable ovens - this is not the point here. You just need to find your baking temperature. How to understand it? The fact is that most ovens all lie by a few degrees. And for baking at a temperature of 160 on your oven, for example, you will need to set not 160, but in the middle between 150 and 160, this is for mechanical switches. I don’t know how electronic ovens, which are incomprehensible to me, behave. And there is no convection in my favorite, no special heating, nothing. Ordinary simple oven. Why haven’t I bought a cool oven yet - that’s why I haven’t bought it, I’ll have to look again for my temperatures and spoil more than one batch of pastries ((Another point regarding the oven, they say that it’s very difficult to bake pasta in a gas oven. But I I saw good options from gas, so again, it's a matter of experience))

When baking pasta, I always turn the pan over when all the skirts have risen. After that, the oven can be safely opened several times - nothing will happen.
Properly baked macaroons easily lag behind the surface of the baking paper. But you don’t have to tear everything off at once - let them cool on the sheet - then they will move away even easier. This is about the cookies themselves.

For those who don't know, it is the filling that sets the tone of taste, the color scheme of the halves of the cake only echoes the filling. Therefore, pasta can be blue and this does not necessarily mean that they will be, say, with sea reptiles)) - they can be completely with any filling. Fillings is generally a song. Here you can roam so widely that you can’t even imagine. Why go far, in the competition in which I took part this Sunday there was nothing but ginger and wasabi and carrots and nuts of all kinds - in general, a wide variety. I’ll say about the fillings that it’s better to upset from the bag, then there will be beautiful sides of the cake. And yet - there is never too much toppings !!! My favorites: salted caramel, coffee, lemon-basil, cherry-chili. My husband loves lemon and lime, and everything with white chocolate, but does not like bitter chocolate fillings ((My customers also most often order salted caramel, lemon and, oddly enough, coconut. So the taste and color ...

What else did I forget to tell you? I'll finish the story. In general, my first pasta turned out like this:

I was extremely pleased with them - there is a skirt, the circles are almost the same, of course there was a marriage, it still happens from time to time. Now, of course, they seem terrible to me ... That's how I decided that I would definitely become a confectioner. Of course, not only because of this, the fact is, and I never hid it, I love pastries, sweets and desserts. I enjoy the process of cooking and coming up with my own recipes. So far, this has been achieved with varying degrees of success. It is very difficult to combine a 24-hour mom and work in the kitchen, as well as courses, sports and so on. And I am also a wonderful wife))))) For this reason, not everything is in time, and not all of my steps are fast and stable. In general, I really like to set goals for myself, I achieve and start a more serious goal. Macarons were a stepping stone, for me it has not yet been fully passed, I have not yet studied all the nuances and whims of this playful cake. But the next goal behind them has already been overcome and I'm moving on)) So don't be afraid of pasta - there is nothing super scary in them. Yes, they don't work for everyone. Yes, the first time - it's cool))) yes, sometimes they dry badly - in rainy weather, for example, the caps can explode. And also, if the meringue is not whipped correctly, this will only come with experience, then skirts may not work. Dyes often fail (But isn’t this a reason to try and test your strength. But this is only if you are truly interested in cooking and in particular confectionery. Most of all, it angers and offends me when some try to cook this dessert because is it cool or what is it cheaper to bake “simple multi-colored circles”. to try it! Everything is important: the texture, a shiny, not matte surface, the absence of pimples-tails, the presence of skirts of a certain height that are even around the entire circumference, a crispy crust and a tender core. And as it turned out, it was the upper crust that did not lag behind UNDER ANY CONDITIONS that was important. This, by the way, became a seemingly small, but decisive reason for my elimination from the competition anyway)) Below 3 works are competitive ones))

Hang the almonds or almond petals immediately with sugar, in the proportion that is needed for pasta.
And grind 2-4 tablespoons in a coffee grinder, not very long. No more than 30 seconds, otherwise the almonds will give oil, but because. there is sugar in there - this is less likely because it will absorb some of the moisture. Shake the coffee grinder a little while grinding.
When everything is ground, preheat the oven to 160 C and sift the mixture into a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Put in the oven for 5 minutes to dry. You can transfer the mixture to a mixer for greater grinding, because grinding is very important, the structure of future pasta largely depends on it.
Sift again, but already in a bowl for further preparation of pasta. If large unsifted particles remain, then simply grind them again.

2. There is a second way to prepare tant-pour-tant:

2nd stage: "French Meringue"

Protein

It’s worth starting with the fact that aging proteins is not necessary, the main thing is that they are at room temperature and for a good result, this is at least 2 hours, ideally, overnight ... There are many discussions, I personally didn’t notice the difference, but one girl spent "experiment" and "found" the difference. I can not say that there is a difference, because it still may depend on how she whipped, how she kneaded. And even doing it 100 times a day, it cannot be argued that everything was done the same way. Proteins come from different eggs. Flour was also made from more than one nut, we kneaded it, maybe "as always", but who knows? and the oven is a completely separate character. So, I can only say: "try. Starve, as before - a week. Starve, 2 days in the cold, 1 at room temperature. Do not age, but only bring to room temperature. Just leave the proteins for 2-3 days. In general don’t do anything with them, but this is still possible for Swiss and Italian meringues, but not for French.”

The main thing is to understand that this is done so that the protein "loses" moisture. And he became thinner. Its consistency is more stable when water does not interfere with it. Since if they are chilled, the pasta will be "wet" and soft after baking ... By the way, aged proteins can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, before working with it leave for 1.5-2 hours at room temperature.

Protein aging:

To age the proteins, they must be separated from the yolks and put in a dry, fat-free bowl and covered with cling film.
The bowl can be degreased by wiping it with a cotton swab dipped in vinegar. Or very well wipe the bowl with a dry kitchen towel.

Whipping proteins and what are the "peaks"

In my searches, I very successfully found a blog in which everything is so detailed and well described about meringue that I decided to plagiarize, because I will write exactly the same thing, and she also filmed this process very beautifully.

Proteins are very easy to beat, and then they will become dry and, as it were, “curled”. It will be difficult to add them to the rest of the ingredients, and they will lose their "uplifting" power ...
The acid "stabilizes" the meringues. Usually add 1/8 tsp of acid (citric or cream of tartar).
Sugar "stabilizes" meringues - they are heavier and "thicker" than just whipped egg whites. But sugar should not be added immediately. Beat the whites to "soft peaks" - and then, with the blender on, add sugar. Gradually and slowly. ATTENTION!! The more sugar, the longer it will take to beat. The mass must be shiny.

"Soft Peaks" "Medium Peaks" "Hard Peaks"

"Soft Peaks"- this is when you lift the whisk with the meringue up, and the protein does not want to keep its shape. This stage is needed if we are preparing, for example, a soufflé. In this case, the meringue should still have a margin to "grow" in the oven.

"Medium Peaks"-(steady peaks,) this is when the protein is already confidently holding on to the corolla, but its tip still falls off ..

"Solid Peaks"- the protein is confidently held on the whisk, very hard, but still moist and shiny.

"Bird's Beaks" are somewhere between medium and hard peaks. The main thing is that they are not quite dense, which are overwhipped and look like an airy matte cap, similar to a finished soufflé, if cut with a knife. Such proteins will never mix with the dry mix. And they no longer have their lifting ability.

Whisk egg whites into French meringue:

Place egg whites in a food processor or a mixing bowl. Beat egg whites on medium speed of mixer until fluffy. Then gradually start adding sugar. Continue whipping the protein mass until stable peaks form. (Consistency is higher) If you use dry dye, then it can be added to whipping proteins.

3rd stage: " pasta"

The 3rd stage is no less important. After all, a properly kneaded dough is half the result.

And here a lot of questions arise: "how?", "how long?", "up to what state?" I will tell about the unmixed mixture below, in the 4th Stage. And I will say right away that the "wide ribbon" is more about the Italian meringue. And on French meringue, it's hard to tell which "ribbon" is, because, in my opinion, it depends more on how you lift the spatula with the mixture and turn it over. Because if you have a lot of dough on the spatula and it is mixed as it should, at first it will all drain smoothly under its own weight, a thick wide ribbon. And if you take less, then the mass can drain, as it were, narrowing (it will go wide from the shoulder blade, but the tape itself will be narrow and may break a little and fall in pieces). And of course, the mass should be homogeneous and smooth, shiny, the same as your proteins were. I looked for photos and will post those that reflect all possible "ribbons" in which the mass is exactly correct.

Making Macaroni:

Gently combine the meringue with the dry mixture and mix - from the bottom to the top, as if throwing the mixture from the bottom up, while leading the spatula in a semicircle, and turn the bowl clockwise. Add coloring (if using) and mix again until the dough is completely combined with the paint. The mixture should shine, be the same as I said above. The main thing is not very liquid.

Let's dwell on "not very liquid" in more detail. What happens if we stir the mixture too much:

The result of too runny pasta and overwhipped egg whites:

In the photo on the left, squirrels were overwhipped. On the right, when whipping the proteins, the sugar did not disperse correctly, the proteins were already whipped, and some of the sugar was still "floating" on its own. This happens when we beat at too high a blender speed, or add too much sugar at a time. And then, besides, the proteins themselves were overwhelmed - I had such a combination when I tested the recipe with the 1st protein. And when baking, the sugar caramelized, became heavier and pulled the meringue along with it, which resulted in a caramel bottom, and a crumpled and cracked hat.

4th Stage: "Working with a pastry bag"

When I was at the Author's Master Class of Nina Tarasova and Alexander Kislitsin, Nina invited everyone to participate in the creation of pasta. Of course, I wanted to try everything, under the guidance of someone who already knows everything. And it turned out that a lot depends on the work with a pastry bag - appearance!

How to hold the bag correctly:

You can try with an empty bag, you can put something there, well, or along the way ...

At MK, Nina told and showed everything in detail.

Now we put the bag on the palm of our hand and twist the bag clockwise with our left hand until the mass begins to approach the end of the nozzle.

I hope everything is clear.

Putting the Macaroni in the bag:

In general, I was not going to write about it, because. questions in this regard should not arise, but then I thought that it might come in handy. True, I didn’t find any good photos ... But Nina has good ones.

Depositing pasta:

This moment is very important. And there are no less questions on this topic than on any other. Only here everything is much simpler ... There are only two answers, so I’ll just say you can deposit vertically and at an angle. I don’t know anything about the second one, but I’ll tell you about the first one now. Just before that, a couple more tips: 1-so that the halves are the same, you can make a markup. We take any round shape, a glass, a nozzle of the diameter that we need (3-4 mm, maybe more, as you like) and dip into powdered sugar and just make the same circles in a checkerboard pattern, at a distance of 1-1.5 cm, on rug. 2- Draw identical circles on the baking paper with a pencil and either turn it over or place it under a transparent mat or other sheet of baking paper.

When we deposited all our halves, then, with a properly mixed mixture, the tops themselves will disperse a little, and to push out excess air and level the surface, you need to hit the baking sheet a little on the table. Not much.

And now we leave our pasta to dry. This is necessary so that they do not crack during baking and that a skirt forms. You can check the "readiness" of drying as follows: lightly touch the surface of the pasta with your finger, if you feel a dense crust and nothing sticks to your finger, then everything is ready. You can move on to step 5...

But first, let's see how the deposited halves from the unmixed dough look like:

5th Stage: "Baking"

You can do everything right and perfect, everything will be fine everywhere, but this final stage ... IMPORTANT! When baking, you can ruin everything! And the reason is that if you bake at home (and this is 100%, because in a different scenario, you would not read this), then you most likely cannot trust the written recommendations and recipes with confidence. Your oven can do whatever it "needs". The process will be greatly simplified if you purchase an oven thermometer, but I don't have one either. And I'm not sure that he will help me, because it will be very difficult to regulate the temperature. To begin with, I’ll say that you can bake at temperatures from 130C to 180C (for Pierre Herme 180C). 130C - this temperature is suitable even for not dried pasta and you need to bake them for 30 minutes, maybe more if the size of the halves is large.
In most cases, bake at 145C-160C for 10 to 15 minutes. I bake at 155C - and I'm not sure about this, since I just put the scale between 140C and 160C. In time, I bake 12-15 minutes. If you have a digital oven, congratulations. You will probably find it easier.
There are a lot of problems with this stage and it is also not easy to understand "what went wrong" the first time. Therefore, try to bake one baking sheet one at a time. (If there are more questions, I will answer, it is sometimes difficult to remember everything here)

We understand the problems:

Why did Macarons explode/crack? (now we only discuss problems with the oven, everything else is above)

- Because you have a very hot oven, but not everywhere, but only below. Move the baking sheet one level higher, if in this case they burn, then do not put the baking sheet higher, but put another (empty baking sheet) one level lower.

-Because you are baking with convection and it is very strong. It is better to bake with heating "top-bottom".

-Because, unfortunately, your oven does not work evenly. The only thing you can try is to give it more time to warm up. And another option is to open the oven door so that the temperature does not drop, and put a wooden spoon so that the door does not slam shut.

Why do they stick/remain on the mat or paper?

Because you didn't finish them. it was necessary to hold it in the oven for another minute or two, you can slightly lower the temperature to dry

-It was trite to separate them from the rug, the halves that had not yet cooled down. By the way, everything also depends on the recipe, because sometimes they immediately move away from the mat, and sometimes they need time to cool, but the result is the same: a smooth and beautiful bottom, there is a “crumb” inside, and the lid is dense and smooth.

Why did they get burned?

-It's simple: the baking sheet is high or you overexposed them in the oven.

Why did the skirt first rise, and then fall and spread out like a rim around the cap?

-My favorite question! Because, before the "great truth" I reached for a long time myself. When talking to the confectionery when reading books, you can hear: "when the skirt has grown to the size you need, you need to open the oven twice, very carefully, without clapping." The thing is, it didn't work for me, and it doesn't. I found two workarounds:

8 minutes top-bottom heating, and 5 minutes top-bottom + convection.
8 minutes (until the skirt, the desired size), thenopen the oven door so that the temperature does not drop, and put a wooden spoon so that the door does not slam shut and bake until done (5-6 minutes).

-Option 2 suited me better, only there is another note, pasta should be farther (deeper) from the open lid, otherwise, due to temperature changes, they will begin to sag in the center.

Why is there no skirt?

-Oh. I don't like this question... The problem is meringue. Overwhipped or you left the dough to dry for more than 2 hours. I don't know about other reasons...

Why are pasta hollow inside?

-In fact, the problem is not in baking, but in kneading or depositing. Air gets in. Therefore, when working with a bag, it is so important to “expel” the air from the pasta. (Step 4)

My favorites are Macarons from Montercino, Catherine Gordon and Hisako Ogita. At the same time, I consider the first two to be more stable. I have confidence in them! They will reach anywhere with any filling, just keep in mind that the filling must be either on ganache or well fixed with gelatin. Quite liquid will not go further than your kitchen. They are slightly softer in texture from Luka. And Catherine is tighter. Hisako's are softer. the center is very soft.

About macarons, according to the recipe of the confectioner from Mon_bon, I want to say that they are a bit sweet. And by the way, those in the photo are from buckwheat - the taste is unusual - not what you need - that's for sure, but the structure is the same as that of Catherine Gordon - dense. And about Alain Ducasse, I can’t say much, delicious, I only have such a photo (these were my first pasta), but how many times I didn’t try to make them, the pasta kneaded too much. They turned out, but flat and brittle.

If you've read all the way to the end, you are a hero! And this means that you really want to create these babies. About the fillings, I think that there is enough information already. And I won’t really turn around here and won’t tell you anything new, but this doesn’t mean that you baked the halves and became a pro. The very essence is not in the halves, but in the filling. YOU create the combination. You instill taste and make a name for yourself thanks to your ideas! so don't stop. Learn from everyone and everything! Search and improve! That's all. In recipes, I give the fastest instructions. Everything is described in more detail above. If you still have questions, I'm waiting for them !!! write !! And about spelling, too).

Blueberries are one of my favorite berries - tasty, healthy, bright. And what a beautiful color it gives to desserts! So this time - even the macarons looked like blueberries themselves.

Ingredients:

150 g almond flour sifted twice
150 g powdered sugar
(about 1.5 protein)
150 g sugar
37 g mineral water (without gases)
55 g egg whites, aged
on the tip of a knife of red and blue food coloring

Filling:
250 white chocolate
70 g butter, softened
250 g blueberries

P r i p o r a t i o n e :

Filling:

Melt the chocolate in a water bath or microwave.

Beat soft butter with a mixer, gradually adding chocolate.

Puree 200 g blueberries, leave 50 g whole berries.

Add the puree and whole berries to the chocolate mass. Stir until combined.

Remove to refrigerator.

macarons:

Preheat oven to 150C.

Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar several times. Stir. Pour onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in preheated oven for 5 minutes. Remove and sift again into a bowl. Add the first portion of aged proteins (55 g) and set aside.

In a small saucepan, mix water and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring with a whisk so that the sugar is completely dissolved and brushing along the sides of the pan so that the sugar does not crystallize. At this stage, add dyes, mix. Keep the syrup on fire until it reaches 118C.

At the same time, beat the second 55 g of egg whites until fluffy.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly pour in the hot syrup. Continue whisking until the mixture cools down lj 45C (i.e. still warm enough to the touch), becomes shiny, thick and smooth. But it should not reach the state of "strong peaks". Properly whipped proteins will be dense, but at the same time soft. And the tip, hanging from the corolla, smoothly bend into the "bird's beak".

Lightly mix the dry mixture with the protein. It should lose its texture. Then add egg whites whipped with syrup to this mixture.

Gently mix with a spatula while rotating the bowl counterclockwise with your other hand. The mass should turn out to be homogeneous and drain off the spatula with a tape.

Fold the dough into a pastry bag and pipe the dough into even circles, 3-4 cm in diameter, on parchment paper or a silicone mat.

With a properly kneaded dough, the “tails” will immediately disperse after jigging.

Leave the trays to stand at room temperature for 1 hour. This is a very important stage of preparation - a light crust forms on the surface of the meringue, due to which they do not crack during baking and a beautiful “skirt” forms at the bottom.

Heat up the oven to 160C. Bake the cookies for 15 to 18 minutes. The time depends on the power of your oven, as well as the diameter of the macarons themselves.

Take out the finished cookies, grab the edges of the paper or mat and transfer everything to a flat surface. Let cool completely.

Properly baked halves will easily move away from the surface on which they were baked.

If they move away with difficulty, and sticky pulp remains on the paper, you did not finish them in the oven.

Place the frozen filling in a piping bag. Pour a small amount onto one of the halves of the macaron and cover with a second half that is the right size.

Put in the refrigerator overnight.

This is also a very important step. They are never eaten fresh, they must be allowed to lie down overnight, soak and soften. Then in the morning - there will be the most beautiful, melting and delicate texture, like a real French macarons.

Happy tea!

How does the fashion for cooking a new dish appear? Where does the general interest come from, almost excitement. Be that as it may, I am always in favor of such a dish and support this streamline. For this reason, it is an incentive to move forward, to feel something still untested, to delve into another culture, to learn to do something new well and to receive, even after an exhausting struggle, pleasure that was not known before.

Macaron. I tried very hard to manage in my work only with natural colors of products, not taking into account the molded mastic cakes. And for a while, I succeeded. But the world and fashion ruthlessly demand explosive elegance. Now you can’t do without the bright colors of these virtuoso cakes in all respects. They are requested for weddings, in the development of the menu of confectionery, they are necessary in the decor of pastries, cakes. And therefore ... Macaron.

In my story about pasta, I hope to reveal a secret. I want these glamorous foreigners to stop being mysterious and impregnable. With the only condition - practice and everything will turn out - 100%.

Let's make pasta together!

There are two schools in the preparation of macarons: the preparation of macarons on the French meringue, when sugar is added in dry form. The second school involves the use of Italian meringue with cooked sugar.

According to professionals, real macarons are prepared on French meringue. In my recipe, I suggest making Italian meringue pasta. And that's why. Even if this method involves a lot of preparation, the success rate is almost 100%. Whereas with French meringue, the result is not always guaranteed.

About the ingredients:

Almond flour: you can either buy it, for example, in the same JF, or make it yourself. I prefer to make my own almond flour using a coffee grinder. So I am sure that the flour is not saturated with moisture and that its consistency is the smallest.

Powdered sugar: Industrial powdered sugar always contains a percentage of starch to prevent the powder from absorbing moisture. Which is good for pasta. I like to make my own powder. So I'm definitely sure of its composition, and therefore in the final result.

Protein: You can often see advice on using less than fresh proteins for baking pasta. The most important thing about protein, in my opinion, is that it shouldn't be too thin. Further, aged or not, you yourself choose the opinion that you prefer. Professional training manuals always recommend using the freshest protein. The most successful option, in my opinion, is to use homemade egg whites, where the albumin thread is incredibly strong, both in fresh and standing proteins.

For a perfectly whipped meringue, beat egg whites in a dry, clean, fat-free bowl.

It is very important that no protein knots get into the dough. After all, we really want the surface of wonderful cakes to be smooth.

Dyes:

Use dry quality dyes.

We will need:

150 g ground almonds

150 g powdered sugar

55 g proteins

150 g sugar

40 g water

55 g proteins

Process:

Whisk the almond flour with the sugar. The mixture, in French it is called "tant pour tant” of both, in this case almonds and powder, in the same amount, sift 2 times. Add the first protein and dye to the mixture. Stir the thick mixture until smooth.

Heat water and sugar over low heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Stir the sugar until the syrup boils, taking care not to splatter the sides of the pan. This is necessary to avoid crystallization of the syrup. It is precisely because of the possible crystallization of sugar that the amount of water is important. If there is a lot of water, more than necessary, in the process of longer evaporation, the sugar has more time to seize in lumps.

When the thermometer shows 113 C, start whipping the second protein. Bring the temperature of the syrup to 118 C. On the inside of the mixer bowl, pour the hot syrup into the egg white while continuing to beat. Continue beating until the meringue is slightly warm.

About the pasta process:

Once the meringue is ready, its temperature is slightly warm, we introduce it into a thick dough. The first part - relaxes the tight dough, allows us to stir it more easily. Feel free to add the rest of the proteins. And now - the moment to which it is worth paying special attention. I would say that this moment is the secret of successful pasta:

We need to mix the protein into the dough with bold, confident movements for about 30 seconds. This action in French is called "macaroniser" pasta. What is it for:

Consider biscuits. They swell and rise due to the air in the beaten eggs in their composition. Italian or French meringue also contains a lot of air, which, if not blown off, will raise the pasta high and high, and also, due to the density of the unblown dough, leave an unattractive tail in the center of the pasta, which will not smooth out when deposited, but will bake.

On the other hand, we need air in pasta dough like air! After all, the pasta crust needs to be lifted so that the cherished skirt appears from under it. And this rise is carried out by the air remaining after mixing in the meringue.

Therefore, after mixing the dough with a spatula, moving from the bottom of the center to the top, turning the container, about 40 times, we make a test. The test has helped us more than once in the process of tempering chocolate, in cooking jams on pectin, it will help us here too. Take a teaspoon of dough and let it fall from the spoon onto the saucer. If the dough has completely dispersed without leaving a trace, it is ready for jigging. If a “tail” remains on the surface of the dough, the dough is thick, you should make a few more mixing movements.

At the same time, Helen Dujardin advises to remember that in the case of mixing dough for pasta, it is better to under-mix than to overdo it. Air will still come out of the dough when we place it in a pastry bag and deposit it on the surface.

The more air we leave in the meringue, the rounder our pasta will be. Conversely, the less air left in the dough, the flatter the end result will be.

And if I confused you with this air, you will definitely say, do not be silent, agreed?

We set aside like this:

You will need a pastry bag and nozzle: 8 mm in diameter - a classic for pasta. Up to 10 mm - approx.

It has been scientifically proven that in terms of miraculous properties, a silicone rug surpasses even a flying carpet. Therefore, everything is simple, if you bake - I recommend purchasing. At least for reasons of limitless savings on parchment paper, not to mention the quality of products baked on it.

If there is no silicone mat, we place it on parchment in a checkerboard pattern: beautiful, practical and correct. It is necessary to try so that each deposited circle is as similar as possible to the previous one. To do this, you can, for example, use a pendulum or simply count rhythmically. The secret is practice. After the pasta is planted on a baking sheet, observing the distance between them, you can safely knock the baking sheet on the surface so that the dough is beautifully leveled.

Leave the pasta for half an hour - an hour so that the film is tightened on the surface. Bake for about 10-12 minutes at a temperature of 150 C, in professional ovens 140 C. In the process of baking, when the skirt is already visible on the pasta, turn the baking sheet over.

Remove from oven, let cool for 10-15 minutes. After this, the products should easily lag behind the mat. Properly cooked pasta should have a soft yet cooked middle on the inside.

Recipe for pasta:

Usually pasta fillings are butter creams, flavored with the boundless imagination of their creators. Or ganache. It can also be thick fruit jams, and a combination of creams, jams, marmalade, ganache.

Recipes will be posted separately.

About supply and storage

In order to feel the full depth of taste of wonderful cakes, French masters recommend placing ready-made pasta in an airtight container overnight. During this time, the taste of products ripens. After all, pasta is a small cake, and like any cake with cream, it needs time to ripen.

Then the pasta can be stored for another 2-3 days (maximum) in the refrigerator. Further, the products begin to lose their taste.

Macarons are perfectly stored in the freeze and with and without cream. Defrost them in the refrigerator and then store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

About joy

I think it's worth a try. How do you think? If only because to see one day how this miraculous miracle happens in your own oven and on your holiday table. After all, as soon as there is a bowl of pasta on the table, it will immediately become festive!

Have you read to the end?! Then I have a pleasant surprise for you. Meet Pierre Herme!

Here you can watch an interview with the great master of our time. His pasta gained worldwide fame, became legendary.

In an interview, he reveals his secret, and I appreciate this feature without limit - French masters most often have no secrets, and even vice versa. There is a need to pass on their knowledge and skills to the next generations. This idea is promoted in the best French confectionery publications and it finds massive support in the minds and hearts of professionals.

Pierre Erme says that his latest collection "Jardin du paradis" trans. "Garden of Eden", he called it so because the flavors of pasta contain aromas of garden flowers: rose, violet, jasmine, as well as anise and saffron. Pierre also shares his favorite flavor of cakes: coconut and milk chocolate.

Macaroni Pierre Herme.

And even if French is not yet familiar to you, I still strongly advise you to watch this interview, hear the voice of the master, feel his simplicity and charisma.