Battle ReCPY: Yamahomo vs. Ladurée: Matcha Macarons

PREFACE
Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Part 1 & 2)
Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (The Battle Continues)
Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Trial 4, 5 & 6)

Since winning my Ladurée Battle at Trial #6 two years ago, I haven't made macaron for a while. But when looking through the Best of UM posts, I was tempted to make another batch. Umamimart can be such a useful recipe search tool. Since I don't keep notes of my own cooking, I often times look for my own old posts here. UM is my very own recipe book!

RECIPE
4 egg whites
1/4 cup of sugar (used for meringue)
275g powdered sugar
140g almond flour
20g green tea powder

After many trials, and research, I figured out that the key to perfecting macarons are egg whites. In the past, I said that there's no need to "rest" egg whites since American eggs are not that fresh anyways. But I was wrong about this. By leaving egg whites on the counter for a day (or three in my case), it develops acid, which makes the meringue very stable. I cracked my eggs on Thursday morning, and I made macarons on Saturday morning.  48 hours of resting this time. Finally, well-rested egg whites.



Also another key is to sift all the dry ingredients together. For this batch, I used green tea powder.



Prepare piping bag. I always cut a Ziploc bag instead of a real piping bag. This way, you can just throw out the bag after usage-- how convenient.



Another good tool to have is a large spatula. When you fold in dry ingredients into the meringue, larger spatula mixes quicker, as less air will be broken.



Whip egg whites until very stiff and stable.



Dump dry ingredients into the meringue at once. Since meringue is very stable, you don't have to worry too much about breaking the air bubbles. In the beginning, this will be scary since it looks like it's not going to mix. But don't worry.



Gently keep mixing.



Finally everything starts to incorporate.



Almost there.



Final consistency should look like below. Not too thick, but not too runny. When the batter can almost fall off from spatula, you are good to go.



Very important point, buy a Silpat, and invest some money on cookie sheets. I bought these heavy pan ($27 a piece at Williams-Sonoma!!) just for macaron baking. After you pipe them out, be sure to let them rest for about 30 minutes, or until the surface dries up.



Bake these in 350˚F for about seven minutes or so.

Oh, an important point here: don't bake two sheets at the same time. Even if you are in a hurry, make sure you bake these one sheet at a time.

How perfect!



Once they cool down, sandwich with your favorite cream of choice. I used chocolate ganache this time.

Macarons aren't easy, but if you follow the above steps, and be patient when mixing the batter, you should be able to get good results.

Macaron porn.









Sunlight makes huge difference in photography.