https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a Attempting to perfect the most difficult cookie en-us 2020-01-11 21:39:51 UTC 2025-02-04 22:19:28 UTC hello@padlet.com reb0119362 https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/430392118 For my Senior Summit Project I will be learning how to make French Macarons.  I have always loved to cook and bake.  As a kid I loved making brownies from a boxed mix and eventually graduated to making brownies from scratch.  I enjoy making simple baked good:  banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter and jelly bars.  But I aften admire the more complex baked goods I see on TV.  The Food Network is the default TV channel in my house and I am always in awe watching chefs intricately decorate sugar cookies or cakes or pastries.  More recently, I have become obsess with the The Great British Baking Show.  I know it's weird, but I find it inspiring:  here are these home cooks who can whip up eclairs and Chelsea buns and multi-tiered cakes covered in fondant. So, I am going to learn how to make French macarons. This will be a stretch for me because while I have baking experience I have never attempted a recipe that is this intricate to make. For me, success will look like making a batch of perfected formed and baked macarons with flavors that I have developed. I would like to learn from some basic recipes and then make the cookie my own. ]]> 2020-01-11 21:43:00 UTC https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/430392118 reb0119362 https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/430393113 This is the recipe I used for my first attempt in making macarons. I followed it (mostly) as written. ]]> 2020-01-11 21:52:20 UTC https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/430393113 reb0119362 https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/430395802 January 11, 2020

So I gathered all my ingredients and was ready to go!  I even took my the eggs and butter so they would be room temperature!  The first thing I had to do was beat the egg whites until stiff and then add the food coloring.  The food coloring just makes the cookies look pretty; it doesn't add any flavor.  Then, I need to sift the almond flour and powdered sugar.  I thought this would be easy, but apparently my almond flour was pretty gritty and my sieve was pretty fine.  So, I ended up putting them in the food processor to chop them finer.  Then, I had to mix the flour mixture with the egg whites.  From what I have researched, this is a tricky and important part.  Some recipes say you need to fold the batter 65 -- 75 times.  I didn't count.  I just went until everything looked fully incorporated.  Done with the hard part, right ?  Nope.  I discovered that I really need to work on my piping skills.  The next step is to pipe the batter onto a parchment lined baking sheet in 1 1/12 circles.  Then, the cookies need to set and dry for about 30 minutes until they aren't tacky to the touch.  After the resting time, I baked them for 25-30 minutes.  I was excited to see "the feet" of the cookie grow, but eventually they started to spread.  So, in sum, I need to work on 1. Making sure I am mixing the batter enough
2. Piping the batter in the correct amount and size.
3. Not over baking.  ]]> 2020-01-11 22:19:10 UTC https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/430395802 reb0119362 https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/431009882 2020-01-13 20:24:16 UTC https://padlet.com/reb0119362/ooo21nyrzo7a/wish/431009882