Daring bakers October Challenge: French Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Well this was a challenge for me. I have to say not one I wish to repeat any time soon. Perhaps part of my problem was that I've never had the pleasure of trying one of these famous macarons so I didn't have anything to compare it to. That being said, I got some great tips from a fellow daring baker and I think had I not had these tips I probably wouldn't have been as successful as I was.

The difficulties I ran into were these, a)still kind of chewy/raw inside, I did manage to get the "feet" but I think I may have needed a few more minutes in the oven. I was scared as they were starting to turn quite golden regardless of using the 2 pan stacking method! Grr... b)sticking to the parchment paper. Now I did try using a few drops of water under the paper and still had troubles with the macarons sticking. Partly I think due to the fact that they were still under cooked. c) Also I wasn't sure if I under beat the egg whites. I had soft peaks but maybe I could've whipped it a tad bit longer. I was fearful of over beating!! Urgh!!

Overall, I'm satisfied with the results, everyone who had one enjoyed them, that being said they've also never had the pleasure of having tried a real one from a proper pastry shop! I used Dulce de Leche and Nutella.