After the epic fail that was my last batch of macarons, I had quite a few weeks break before I endeavoured to try another batch. I decided to stick with flavours I knew well and colors that are easy to manage. In the weeks between I practised by making a big batch of meringues, which fortunately turned out well and restored some of my confidence.
My main problem with this batch was that I wasn't happy with the flavour of the lime butter cream. I don't really have a standard recipe for the butter cream, instead I adjust the amount of icing sugar and flavouring depending on taste. The limes I used in this batch were quite sweet and I couldn't get the zingy tang I got from my previous Tahitian Lime Macarons. In the end I squeezed in a small amount of lemon juice and got a nice balance of fragrance from the limes, and citrus tang from the lemons.
I also found a solution to the problem of the jam soaking all the way through the macaron shells after 3 days. It's much more fiddly, but I piped some ganache on the bottom shell, added a little jam and then piped more ganache on top of that before sandwiching the 2 shells together. I had no jam-leak even after 7 days (when my last raspberry macaron got eaten).
I tried freezing the macarons to see if I can make them last longer. I matured them for 2 days and then popped them into a container in the freezer. The macarons kept their shape very well even after defrosting. However I found them a little crunchier and just a little stickier to the teeth, and much prefer them matured the usual way in the fridge.
Lessons Learned -
- To prevent more moist fillings from soaking through the macaron shells, sandwich that filling between less moist fillings before assembling the macaron; or else mature them for a shorter time and eat them up earlier.
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