I made macarons! - Page 3

Just remember getting the batter to the right consistency is the critical point. Err on the side of stiffer, drier egg whites. Everything else is easy and straightforward.

No, I didn't. The macaron lady just said to bang the tray a few times to settle the macarons. This seems to be common advice. And it worked. The macarons all came out well-formed.

I would have, but I was very angry with my pastry bag by that point, so I just spooned it on.

Made these last night. Oolong tea with honey buttercream on the left, blueberry cream on the right. Came out even better than the earlier batches. A few individual macarons came out cracked, but no batches were botched.

The oolong one is perhaps my favorite so far. I thought it would be difficult to infuse the flavor or tea into the macaron, but it turns out you just need to ground up some loose leaves and throw them into the batter. I tried two teaspoons, fearful of making it too strong. After tasting them, I think I can go three or four. The honey I added to the filling complements the tea flavor very well--oolong is very robust and can stand up to the sweetness.

For the blueberry ones, I wanted to avoid doing a fruit jam macaron. I much prefer a cream filling. So, I mixed some blueberry preserves into the basic buttercream I've been using (which, incidentally, is super-easy to make). Again, I could have gone stronger and doubled the blueberry portion. Next time.

Probably yet another food you aren't allowed to eat.