I knew they were difficult to make and have been 'practicing' for quite some time. There are not many ingredients but each step is critical to getting them just right.
There are HEAPS of things that you should and shouldn't do to make them work - don't over cook your sugar, don't over fold the mixture, make sure you sift the almond meal x3 before measuring out to make sure there are no ugly lumps and the crust is smooth, make sure the almond meal and icing mixture is well combined, use a circle template to help you to get them all even in size, allow them to 'set' for 30 mins to form a crust before putting into the oven, put them onto a damp bench when taking them out of the oven ...the list goes on and on but finally on Saturday I got them perfect. They rose well and all had 'feet' at the base (the bubbling/cracking at the edge where it has sat on the baking paper). The outside was crisp and the centre soft and chewy.
Do you want to know my secret? Instead of piping them out I used two teaspoons and as I offloaded the mixture with one teaspoon I twisted the other to encourage it to go into a circle. Not perfect but it worked for me :)
Does anyone else have any good tips for making macarons?
