Masterchef Australia's macarons: bad crunch
Macarons should not be crunchy.
There, I've said it loud.
Every contestant in Masterchef Australia episode 61 had crunchy macarons. (Ok, except Andre, who didn't have macarons at all.) The microphones captured the powdery crunch of their "Masterchef macaroons".
Crunch is a result of dehydration. You achieve it in two ways:
- You cook them too far (and hey, the colour quickly tells you it's happening unless you've coloured them strongly).
- You leave them to stand for hours before baking (great for reducing product loss cos the shells don't break easily; not so good for retaining the subtleties of texture).
A good shell is crisp and fairly fragile. It should offer resistance to the teeth, but should not make crunchy sounds. In a bag of macarons transported carefully, it's a miracle if some don't break. Fragile. Understand? Not bakery-meringue robust. Not looking good after cutting with knife!
Some professional bakers in Australia should keep that in mind, as I've noted elsewhere before.
Contestants Poh and Chris did well to produce such visually attractive ones first time round. Unfortunately, I wouldn't mind betting that this line in the recipe they used was what led them to overcooking the shells: "cook until macaron is able to be lifted from tray". Ovens vary so much that this instruction is fairly pointless, especially for novices. My home oven would turn macarons to rusks if I had to wait until they lifted off the tray without coaxing.
UPDATE: Scroll down for another piece of silliness, discovered after publishing this earlier today.
Australian Gourmet Traveller has a big fat French wank edition this month (some nice recipes, a little food wisdom). The front cover features pink macarons. Behold the following lines in their recipe (French meringue version, by the way):
The first highlighted sentence is simply rubbish. The second highlighted sentence will most likely give you a nice, thick, powdery, crunchy shell. Delicious! Ha.
Filed under: cooking, food, hl, local, macarons, media
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I cringed every time I heard those crunches. Ouch! I've just returned from a Sydney tour were I claimed to the A list of Sydney bloggers that you could give their dear Adriano Zumbo a run for their money on macarons.
Did I go too far?
Hey Ed. I've just updated the post with some extra silliness I discovered later in the day.
I've tasted Adriano Zumbo's macarons once and written about it. I hoped he was just having a bad week. I certainly have bad batches, and there are limits to how much experimentation you can do as a home cook without going broke and crazy. I'd expect consistency to be easier in a professional kitchen (Jack was encouraging me to think about it a while back). Whatever the case, I wouldn't sell crunchy macarons with hard ganaches to my (hypothetical) customers.
RAOW Duncan! Haha I'm glad I'm not watching Masterchef (am I the only person in Melbourne who isn't??) because it would annoy me too much, lol.
xox Sarah
I was thinking of you watching the episode! A very enjoyable post, this one, to all the twitterers screaming last night "it's macaRON, you idiots!"
So glad someone else was thinking the same thing. I was waiting all day for that Masterchef episode. I was keen to see how well (or not!) they would make the macarons. I think Poh had made them before. But I was so unimpressed by the crunching noises, too! Oh, and I saw that line in GT that you reference. Was a little surprised they suggested so long. After all my own trials, I find 30 minutes the magic number for resting. I couldn't even imagine what would happen after all that resting. I guess your point about dehydration above, huh?!
Thank goodness I read your site. I was going to attempt the GT macarons as my first go at the little beasts, but I had my reservations about the resting time too. Thankfully you cleared that up. I'll give them a go, but with a MUCH shorter restng time
Ha!
I was waiting for your 'Macaron Guru' feedback on both of these. I will sleep happy tonight.
Jack
Speaking of macarons, has anyone tried the macarons at Cacao's? I spotted them in the window on the way past but haven't yet found the time to get in and try one.
Thanks everyone!
@Julia: I got the feeling Poh might have been familiar with them too, though there was something in the kitchen footage which made me doubt. I agree that there's no need to go beyond 30 mins resting. In the many trials I did for my series of articles in 2007, there was some benefit from leaving them to rest for at least 10 mins, so 30 mins is an easy number to settle on. The only aesthetically interesting thing from resting for hours is the very very clean line you get between shell and foot. But it also makes them look industrially neat.
@Maria: try anyone else's trusted recipe. I wouldn't bother with GT's.
@Jon: I believe Cacao gets theirs from Noisette in Bay Street.
I've had Cacao Macarons twice this week. Not bad the first time. But a day later and they'd been sitting around too long and were a tad soggy. Baker D Chirico also does them from time to time and they've always been fresh.
I'm also glad I read this article and discussion. I too was going to try the GT recipe, but was concerned about the resting time. My last batch of macarons turned out like little meringues instead of macarons, but after a bit more beating and more waiting time, they started getting better. But now I've moved and my oven is way hotter than the dial says… time to get to know my new oven
Hey D and Ed,
I think Zumbo is onto you guys. I just noticed that one of his macaroons was named "Ed knocked me up". As for De Chirico Macs, they were pretty flat last time I had them. I think they are better at dunking and stuffing, e.g. their bomboloni. I think I saw cacao macaroons at teaspoon. They looked nice, but they could have been hollow.
J.
I made the GT version of macarons before reading this, and it turned out fine. I have never made macarons before, and did not see Masterchef, but the shells on mine did not crunch – they were crisp but yielded easily – one of my friends was surprised that the shells looked so sturdy but were so delicate.
@Cakelaw: well i guess it pays to be openminded sometimes! Thanks for telling us, and I'm glad they worked. Can I ask if you left them to stand for 4-5 hours?
Hi Duncan, I did leave them stand for the 4 hours – perhaps the fact that I live in a relatively humid place meant that they didn't dry out too much??
Hi Duncan!!!
i followed ur macaron recipe!!!! and come see it in my blog!!! thank you sooooo much, it turned out great, but i still need a lot of practice. However i think they're still a bit flat, so for the last batch I made I added more almond meal about so 70g of almond meal and 67g icing sugar. They're more bumpy (they're the yellow ones in my blog) however takes a about two minutes more to bake. Do you think I did too much macaronning?i hope u can helllpp…n again thanksssssssssss!!!!
E
LOL thanks for some closure i will sleep well tonight, the haunting crunching noises have finally gone away haha
I came across this looking for your sucre cuit recipe again (works well!) and saw this. Masterchef! gah! Baker rage time!!
Apply for season two so we can show them how its done hahaha.
Hi Duncan,
Well I'm RELIEVED that I came across your blog! Firstly, after seeing Masterchef, I've been beating myself up that my macarons weren't even remotely crunchy, so I've been baking the crap out of my macarons to achieve this 'crunchiness'
Whew!
Secondly, I bought that issue of Gourmet Traveller because it featured them, and followed those instructions…
Thanks for clearing this nightmare up =D
I'm going to try again soon and hopefully they'll try out great. Fingers crossed
I usually rest my macarons only until a skin forms – which I find to be around 30 minutes in cool weather…
Fantastic post Duncan! I didn't get to watch too much masterchef, but thanks for the link and the information. I'm currently on a quest to get my macarons to look like yours – starting with some feet! Advice?
Hi Twinpalates. Just click on the image of the macaron at the top of the window and you'll see links to a pile of stuff I've written about macaron technique.