Chocolate with Francois - Chocolate Macarons

This is my first time to participate in Chocolate with Francois.  Of course I wanted the end result to be perfect, so perfect that you would all be uber impressed with my baking abilities.  Well you know when you start out with that attitude, chances are something will go wrong.  And it did.  I had no idea what these were supposed to look like so I just winged it.  I should have googled them first, because after I made them, I googled and found a photo and mine are. . . shall we say . .  a little fluffy in comparison!  And. . .  I made these twice. 

The first time, I overcooked my syrup and it was 260 instead of the 250 required.  I also took it off the stove and it sat for just a nano-second while I was getting ready to pour it into the beating eggwhites.  When I poured into my egg whites, it turned to a big sugar lump.  I forged ahead however thinking it would beat up, mix up and work.  Also, when I mixed the egg whites into the dry ingredients, it was like a big ball of goo.  At this point I should have admitted defeat, but no not me.  Still I forged on.  I piped them onto the silpat mat and they were very flat.  After fifteen minutes, I looked at them and thought, "this is meringue.  It is supposed to be fluffy."  So I dumped them off the sheet into the garbage and decided to start over.   Washed all the dishes up and began again with a new fresh attitude.

This time, I beat all the egg whites at once.  I watched the sugar very carefully and as soon as it hit the 250 mark I poured.  Worked like a charm.  Then I gently folded in the dry ingredients.  Now that my courage overran my abilities, and thinking surely I must now be superior to Francois, I thought, why pipe.  I could drop by teaspoonfuls and eyeball it and make perfect circles of heavenly bliss.

Of course, in the end, Francois was the superior one and my redneck macarons were mountainous and not perfect circles at all.  But when they came out of the oven, ohhhh they are delicious.  Because I am impatient, I ate one immediately and burned the roof of my mouth!  I would have to say it was worth it.  At least the ganache was pretty straight forward and easy to make. I used my standby Ghirardelli chocolate.  I'm definitely going to try these again maybe at the holidays when my children are home to enjoy.

I am excited to be in this group and I hope I can keep up with all the fabulous members.  One of my favorite bloggers Leslie of Lethally Delicious hosted this group this month and made this excellent pick.  You can click on her link and see how hers turned out and get the recipe there too if you want to try these.

Comments

Joanne said…
Peggy - great first time with the Francois group. Your macrons came out beautiful. Congrats on your determination! I don't have that kind of patience. I've learned with FP's recipes, you really have to be pretty on the mark with what he says otherwise the results will be quite a bit different.

Great Job and welcome to our group.
Kayte said…
Okay, I am not a chocolate lover, so I won't say these look absolutely heart-stoppingly delicious b/c you know I am lying if I do. I will say, that my guys, who do love chocolate, would think that! They are cute all lined up. Thanks for sharing tips...I think sometimes I learn more from what I do by accident or overdo than when I just do it right! I would say your first participation looks like a success.
Peggy,
I love your redneck macarons ! Welcome to the group..I'm way behind this month and won't be posting until this weekend..I love your story about the crazy attempts too!
Sandy
Leslie said…
Welcome to Chocolate with Francois, Peggy!

You made them twice on THE SAME DAY??? Good grief woman, the sheer volume of dishes twice in the same day would have sent me over the edge!

I think your macs look terrific! Mine looked just like yours the first time, and when I told people I brought them to work again today and they were much improved, they looked confused and said "what? they were great last time" so I think we are our worst critics. I will also make them again (maybe not this week!) and I hope they continue to improve. Thanks for baking with me...it takes a lot of courage to make this as your FIRST recipe with the group! Bravo!
Linda said…
Redneck macaroons! Too funny!
I'm impressed by your determination! Great job!
Liz said…
The "redneck macarons" comment made me giggle. Who needs perfectly round macarons, anyhow? Leave that to the French. Yours look great!
Bri said…
I also had to laugh out loud at the redneck macaron comment! So what if yours are fluffy; they look so scrumptious! I am still too afraid to attempt macarons, so I admire your persistence. Awesome job!
Peggy,
They are not frumpy ! You got the lift in them at least !! My first batch of macarons were flat as pancakes,no feet,no shine,no puff,they were flat as pink quarters !! Get a copy of the book I Love Macarons-trust me you won't go wrong...I couldn't do anything right with them until I followed his instructions to the letter....good luck ! And thanks for stopping by my blog ..
Sandy

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