Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Circles of Eternal Vexation...

vex·a·tion/vekˈsāSHən/Noun
1. The state of being annoyed, frustrated, or worried.
2. Something that causes annoyance, frustration, or worry.

Why? For starters, these annoying things sometimes go tits up for no reason.


Then, there's ALLLLL that waiting time involved in the multi-stage process of mixing,



piping,


drying,



baking,


filling


and packing...


Yes, I'm talking about macarons and after making at least a thousand filled cookies, I can finally say with conviction that, 'j'ai atteint macaronnage', I have attained macaronnage.



Maca-wud? Macaronnage is the term used to describe getting the correct consistency when mixing your tant pour tant and your meringue. Undermixing gives you puffy meringue-like cookies and overmixing gives you chewy discs.

Even if you get the right consistency, nothing guarantees the elusive feet. I think I've seen them all. No feet, feet right across the top (cracks), lopsided feet, half formed feet, collapsed feet. I generally have a lot of luck with patisserie, I almost never ruin chocolate when melting it down, but with macarons, oh with macarons, I'm always flipping coins...



For Valentine's day, Ming and I filled out orders for 600 cookies. 17 hours was how long it took, from start to finish.

Next time you lament at having to fork out $2.50 for one, just shut up and pay. It's much easier to just buy it.