Macaron Class - Well Done Cooking

This week is going to be more or less Macaron week, so please don't kill me. Hee, hee... it's just an obessession, I swear we'll go back to normal food next week. So, as a Macaron week goes, I'll review couple of classes I've taken, and couple of attempts I've made as a compare and contrast type piece.

I have been begging Kat at Well Done cooking to do a macaron class for quite sometime. I think the catalyst of her finally doing a class is from their trip to Paris. They went to Pierre Herme's and got some awesome macarons, and I think from then on, they were sold!

While they thought a class like that no one would sign up for it, they had a full house. So, all of my nagging paid off. We ended up making 3 types of macs. We did the Raspberry, Chocolate, and passionfruit.

Here's the thing about a class like this: I've 'taught' my friends before (and I use that word loosely), and there's alot of prep work even before they arrive. Just having made these cookies several times, I know. You have to aged the eggwhites, the receipes we used in class were based on Pierre Herme's book, and they asked for 2/3 aged and 1/3 new egg whites. You have to sift all the powdered suger and almond meal. It's kinda deceiving to tell students how easy it is.

That said, having done this several times on my own, I do appreciate additional tips and tricks from a trained pastry chef than having to go thru the trials and tribulations. At one point, Kat, knowing that I've done this, even asked if I was learning anything.

I will say this, taking a class from a cooking school is always nice. Someone already done the prep work, and someone is cleaning up after you. But just to prove that all macarons are created equal, our team's 1st batch came out beautifully, 2nd batch totally flatten out, and 3rd batch came out fair.

What I learned that I didn't know:

You can use all powdered sugar as opposed to part powdered sugar and part granulated sugar. (In case you don't know, we use the granulated sugar to help whip the egg whites)

Sipat does make it turn out better, although I'm not entirely sold just yet. This is as opposed to using parchment paper. But if you do end up using parchment paper, I find that the Pampered Chef ones are pretty good. (Disclaimer: I am not a hostess/demostrator/sales person for them, it is really good for making macarons.)

You can buy puree instead of having to make it yourself.

How to make inverted sugar, so you don't have to buy corn syrup.

Of course, learning how to plate them is pretty cool too!
What I find they can improve on:

Asking only experienced bakers to sign up is helpful, but not sure how you can control that.

Having another teacher to help w/ this delicate cookie would be great. While not much about the mixing techniques were discussed, I think that's why our second batch fell flat because some of the ladies didn't understand that this is meringue, and if you squish them while you're mixing the batter w/ the egg white, you do take something out of that mix.

Have more troubleshooting tips would be cool. There were so many ways to screw up macarons that it's deceiving to lead the students to think that it's so easy to do at home. There are so many factors that can ruin a good batch.

I think just having more experience teaching this would help too... so have more classes. Ok, that one is for selfish reason, but still true.

Well Done Cooking
http://www.welldonecc.com/index.aspx