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Perfect feets

Almond flour was not mixed ennough

Round Macaron shells

Weren't hollow this time

Dark Chocolate ganache

Successful in structure but not appearance

Taste : 8/10 (a little too sweet)

Appearance : 8.5 / 10 (I think the appearance of the gloosy shell and shape turned out to be the best out of my three tries but the darker spots makes it look different.)

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Macaron outside shell was shiny and round

Inside was hollow

White chocolate ganache

First try was nearly a success

Taste : 6/10 (The ganache was too salty which threw off the flavour of the macarons, plus they were hollow)

Appearance : 8/10 (looked very shint but there were some abnormal shells due to my piping skills)

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While researching different Macaron recipes, I found this one that stood out compared to the others. In the majority of the other recipes, they were very precise with grams and teaspoons of ingredients. In this ingredient list were four large egg whites included which is very different from other recipes that contained 57 Grams of large egg whites.

While researching the tools used to make macarons I realized I didn't have an electric mixer and other items. Which meant I had to figure out how to get them.

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Fancy French macarons are light meringue cookies made with almond meal. You can color them with pastel shades and fill them will all kinds of fillings such as buttercream, ganache, or jam.

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This recipe was recommended by my Mentor after she looked at the recipe I was originally going to use. She gave me advice if I was looking for a recipe I should look if there are videos, reviews, and comments. She said, " find a reliable recipe as they play a huge part in making macarons come out well."My neighbor has successfully used this recipe several times. Which is why I decided to use this recipe as well.

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The skill I am developing is Communication, to create this skill I have decided to bake Macarons, with the help of a mentor. I believe that communication is essential in cooking/baking. When I did food tech I would usually partner with a friend and communication was the key to making something tasty and successful. Getting a Mentor to supervise me making macarons allows me to get feedback and tips while I am making it this will help me improve my skills.

I struggle to follow instructions if it's not verbally told to me. I have a habit of skimming through things and making macarons is my goal as there are precise instructions that are crucial to follow so that the macarons can come out well.

Effective communication and developing my communication skills will help me meet my expectations and allow me to listen to other people's knowledge which can help me in the future.

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Feedback I received from my peer and mentor 

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Feedback I received from my peer and mentor 

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The feedback I received from my peers and mentor is that I originally wanted to make croissants and develop my critical and creative thinking. But as I was talking to my mentor about it she told me that it was difficult to make because that it requires precise lamination techniques. The process is very time-consuming as it involves multiple layers of butter and dough. I was told that even a slight error can significantly impact the results.

My mentor told me I should start with something not too easy and not too hard which is why we ended up picking Macarons because my mentor also had prior knowledge.

My plan was :

that to make macarons every Sunday

read the recipe

watch videos

buy the ingredients

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How achieving this goal will help you in life beyond school

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How achieving this goal will help you in life beyond school

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I believe that reaching my goal of making macarons can benefit my life beyond school in several ways. The skills I developed is being patience like waiting, right timing and presistence. All of these skills can help me with long term projects or complex challenges I might face in the future. I believe through this Goal there will be mistakes that I will have to learn and improve since macarons are known to be not always turning perfect. This opportunity allows me to foster a new mindset that can help in my professional development. Also I believe that when I master how to make macarons I could host gathering or give the as homemade gifts that can lead me to new social connections or professional connections.

Taking the opportunity I am also improving my communication skills, especially around understanding and accepting feedback from others.

I believe improving my communication and reaching my goal of making macarons can help me beyond school.

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Macarons are a French confectionery/ Dessert. It is originally from Italy but it become very popular in France

Macarons are not made with normal flour but almond flour, with aged eff whites and sugar. Macarons can be any color and be filled with many different fillings like jam and ganache. It is small, and round with a glossy top and ruffled edge which is called a foot.

The Texture should be crispy outside and soft chew interior. The flavors I am focusing on are vanilla with white chocolate ganache and chocolate with dark chocolate ganache.

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My Mentor is my Neighbour, Her name is Vivian and her hobby is baking. I decided to ask her to be my mentor as she had previously made macarons many times before. I faced an issue as I was doing research on different recipes, I was missing a lot of Materials and tools. My Mentor kindly bought her stand mixer, food processor, and piping bags and let me borrow them for this task.

Before starting the baking I had to get all the ingredients first. The thing that was the hardest to get out of all the ingredients was the 57 grams of white aged egg. This means you had to measure how much white of the egg you had and put it in the fridge for over 12 hours. I also bought other ingredients like:

Almond flower

Icing Sugar

Chocolate

Sugar

Salt

Cream of tatar

Vanilla essence

Cocoa Powder.

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When I started to prep for the macarons she gave me some tips.

Measure all the ingredients carefully

Clean Workspace

Once the macarons are piped out you have them let them dry enough for them to have a skin outside. To check if it's dried enough, touch it gently, and if it doesn't stick to your skin it means it's ready to go into the oven.

If the macarons aren't dried enough, once they are baked they won't have any feet which is the base of the macarons

If the macarons are out too long the "skin" will prevent them from rising properly and will prevent cracking which is the "feet".

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French macarons are hard to make due to the fact there is no baking powder or baking soda which means there is no rising agent to make the macarons themselves rise. The shells are meringue, which is egg whites and sugar that is beaten into stiff peaks. The air beaten into the eggs is the only thing that helps them stay upright.

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Stiff peaks are when the egg whites and sugar are mixed to create a meringue. A meringue will go through 3 stages which help with macaron structure and texture. Soft peak which is the earliest stage and this is when Cream of tartar and vanilla essence is also added. It is still quite loose and they quickly fold back once lifted. Medium peak is when the egg whites have a firmer consistency and it holds their shape a little longer. When you lift the whisk the tip should curl and droop. The last stage is Stiff peak which is where the meringue in the photo has reached. It is very crucial to be able to get that consistency if not your macaron will not rise. The meringue stands firm and to check this my mentor told me to hold the whisk above her head and the peak will not move. If it does it means you have to whisk it longer.

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Beating the meringue mixture for macarons was one of the hardest part. As I was doing research and asking questions from my Mentor.

My mentor said " You can over whip eggs which will lead the macarons not to puff out but if you under mix macarons will lead them to rise since the mixture will spread once u pipe them out. The mixture will also spread if you over mix the batter as it will release the oils in the almond flour and also beat out all the air leading the mixture to be spread out."

To test out if the mixture and the meringue was mixed I was adviced by my mentor to see if the mixture would form into an 8 sign and then fade away. If it did, it would be ready for piping.

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Piping was a challenge as I didn't have any prior knowledge on how to pipe the macarons except for watching some videos.

My mentor gave me some tips on how to pipe :

Hold the piping bag straight

Even pressure through the whole time

Do not go in a circle

After piping all of them use the tiniest dab of water on your fingers and dab down the tips

Use a toothpick to pop all the big bubbles

If you look at the image some of them looked uneven and messy due to the fact I first tried out the intructions given by a video I watch but failed which is why my mentor stepped in and gave me advice.

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The third problem I faced was when I took them out of the oven, I found out they were completely hollow. The outside of the macaron didn't look bad but this batch was not considered successful. The batter was either overmixed or undermixed which could lead the meringue to deflate. There could also be a issue with my oven, for example if the temperature was too high causing the outershell to set too quickly.

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In this photo you can see one Macaron that broke apart and seperate leaving batter behind. Underbaking and removing them while they were too hot were problems I struggled with in the first try and the 2nd try. This batch of macarons remained too moist at the bottom due to the fact they weren't fully baked. Next time I would ensure that the macarons can be lifted up gently rather than being impatient. Another issue that could've caused this was that I didn't give them enough Resting time. Resting time is very hard to find as macarons can seem to havea skin formed on top but not on its side which causes the bases to stick. One more promblem is Me being too impatient and removing the macaron while its too hot which causes them to stick. Next time I will ensure they are completely cool before attempting to remove them.

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Weren't hollow this time and they easily taken off the parchment paper

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Round and Glossy

Not flat

Good feet and puffiness from the shells

White chocolate ganache

Successful in taste and structure but this time again not the best in appearance

Taste : 10/10 (This time the white chocolate ganache paired well with the chocolate shells)

Appearance : 7/10 (they were good shapes but the batter was too thick making it look unporportioned)

There was no challenges this time but instead I misread the Instructions as I didn't have enough egg whites for all the mixture made therefore making the batter very thick and rough.

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This video talks about my feedback and what I did wrong in the first batch of macarons. Using this advice I tried again

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How will this skill support me in my future career cluster? (or how are these skills transferable?)

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How will this skill support me in my future career cluster? (or how are these skills transferable?)

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Both baking and communication skills are highly transferable and can support me in different future career clusters, as they can help foster essential qualities and abilities. My goal for my future career is in healthcare or medicine, this means attention to detail is cruical. Baking allows me to follow precise measurements and steps, all of these actions have to precise which can transfer to quality control and analyse data more precisely. Communications skills can help me expand my collaboration skill as well as I have to learn to communicate and coordinate effectively with my mentor. Usually in work place especially in medicine, strong communication skills can help create a successful team and allow me to get my point across.

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How will I know that I have made progress in this skill?

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How will I know that I have made progress in this skill?

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I think I will know I have made progress by either My macarons taste really good and that the shell rises well. I also believe understanding the recipe quicker and being able to make macarons without second guessing myself will mean I have made progress. I also believe that communicating with my mentor and asking her for advice means I am improving my communicating skills.

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How do I know that it will be possible to make progress in this skill?

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How do I know that it will be possible to make progress in this skill?

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I think it is possible to make progress in baking and communication as long I am willing to invest my time and effor to continously learn and practice these two skills. I have been told since I was young "practice makes perfect", so I think practice can lead to my improvements. Regular feedback from my mentor or other people can help me identify areas for improvement that I have missed and then I will be able to approach my goal from a different view.

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How will my Character Strengths, current habits or personality traits support or hinder my progress? What do I need to consider in my planning to achieve my goal?

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How will my Character Strengths, current habits or personality traits support or hinder my progress? What do I need to consider in my planning to achieve my goal?

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I have good time management and a good sense of rountine, this will support my progress as these habits will help me ensure steady progress and not slack off and do everything at the last moment. To realistically plan this to acheive baking good macarons I can make a scheldule that balances my assignment and goals without making me feel over stressed.

Something that will hinder my progress is my carelessness and impatience. From previous experiences in food tech and other classes, I realised that I tend to skim through instructions sometimes leading things to not going the right way. I am also impatient and usually when I don't see quick results I get fustrated and always try to think of a way to finish it up quicker. To avoided these problems when waiting for the macaron shells to form and cook I will keep myself occupied by other assignments or activities. While for my carelessness I will just have to remind myself and maintain my motivation for taking a step forward towards my goal.

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How did the key skills of time management, prioritisation and engagement with resources affect your learning growth throughout this course? 

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How did the key skills of time management, prioritisation and engagement with resources affect your learning growth throughout this course? 

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Since week 4, I planned that every upcoming Sunday I would bake Macarons, this meant I had to complete my Homework and manage my part time job as well

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Reflection ( This will be on another document, Please ignore this)

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Reflection ( This will be on another document, Please ignore this)

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In the finished result you can see there are darker spots on the macarons. I didn't realise this as I was making the macarons but once they were filled with cream, you could obviously tell. My mentor told me those dark spots are created because the almond flour was not mixed together enough with the matter. Taking this advice next time I will remember to shift and process the mixture more to ensure they will not be dots on the macaron shell.

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How did you demonstrate responsive action when faced with emerging opportunities and challenges? What did you learn most from these experiences? 

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How did you demonstrate responsive action when faced with emerging opportunities and challenges? What did you learn most from these experiences? 

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How did you manage, value and consider diverse perspectives and feedback to inform your learning?

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How did you manage, value and consider diverse perspectives and feedback to inform your learning?

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Throughout this course, how did you consider the audience and purpose, when choosing your assessment mode and medium? 

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Throughout this course, how did you consider the audience and purpose, when choosing your assessment mode and medium? 

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What did you learn about yourself through this process? In this question you must refer to the capabilities. 

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What did you learn about yourself through this process? In this question you must refer to the capabilities. 