I’ve always loved baking, and seeing macarons here at Yours Truly Cupcake made me feel like I too, could make them. I was wrong, I was so very wrong because making macarons is a whole different ball game than making chocolate chip cookies. My first mistake was not whipping my egg whites into stiff peak, however in my defense I’d never whipped egg whites into anything before. So my slightly soft, basically still kind of foamy, egg whites where never going to do the trick, still, I forged ahead.
I laid down my parchment paper down onto the cookie sheet to only find out that the cookie sheet didn’t fit in my oven. So after grabbing a cookie sheet and fighting with parchment I went to pipe my batter, which with hindsight being 20/20 was too runny, as the batter simply poured from my piping bag spilling on the cookie sheet.
At this point I didn’t know what to besides letting them sit while waiting for the trademark “skin” to form. Learning again from hindsight I probably shouldn’t have gone back to poke and pinch them them trying to get them into something that wasn’t the blob shape they had become. After about a half and hour and problematic filling I came back to find the skin had formed (yay!) so I popped them in the oven at 350℉ letting them bake for about 15 minutes.
It was during this process that I achieved what might be a first in the history of baking macarons. I both over cooked them and undercooked them at the same time. So I cried and was comforted and reminded that even professional bakers hate making macarons, so I shouldn’t get down on myself.Now my second and third attempts went slightly better than my first but that’s a tale for another time. But I will tell you what I learned: sometimes things don’t work out and that’s okay, just pick yourself up and dust yourself off and get right back to it. And, if it’s not a vital skill, then leave it the professionals unless your like me who’s a glutton for punishment and will no doubt try it again. So stay tuned, because I’m sure I’ll make a quite a few more baking blunders but at least you guys will learn from my mistakes.