Macaron Day - Jour du Macaron = Happy Day!

Do you know that there is an official Macaron Day or Jour du Macaron?

I’m not talking about the usual macaron days I had so many in a week. It’s the official Macaron Day initiated by Pierre Herme, an annual celebration of macarons. It has been running on 20^th March annually for the past six years. Many patisseries in France, Japan and US are participating in the event. Some participating shops in New York even hand out free macarons to customers if asked.

Well, today is Jour du Macaron…Let’s talk macaron. Let’s us all macaron aficionado observes our passions and obsessions with these little beauties.

Oh, macaron, the queen of dessert. She is temperamental (well, she is the dessert diva after all). You have to treat her right, give her enough stokes and not over-handle her and you will be rewarded with those pretty feet underneath crisp meringue shells. The feet…the holy-grail of macaron makers. For some, the feet are the key success indicator. And it’s right, in a way. Feet (the well raised ones, not spreading) will only appear when you do something right and you’ll get the good meringue shell texture as a result.  Not-so-high-feet and slightly-spreading-feet macarons still taste heavenly nonetheless.

Little Miss Diva also has the tendency to act differently during high humidity. Her skin (crust) won’t form or takes forever to form. She loves warm and dry weather. It’s the condition she’ll behave the best.

Even though she is a diva, she can be easy to get along with. Spending a bit more time with her and you will be surprised that she would stop acting like one and start behaving.

I do have an obsession with this little diva. I love making macarons. I love that you can create so many possibilities with flavours, colours and looks. It is fun and rewarding.

Here are some of the tips and tricks about macarons that I gathered from recipes, (mostly) forums on the Internet and my own trial-and-retribution. Their significances are not in order. 

- Egg white needs to be separated at least 24 hours in advance and is at room temperature at the time of mixing (aged egg white). I believe this helps losing its moisture and strengthen the protein.

- If you forget to separate egg white beforehand, don’t panic, you can put egg white in a microwave for a quick 10-second to remove some moisture. I have tried this and it worked well

- Frozen egg whites works fine with macarons. There is no issues or whatsoever.

- Macarons taste better next day after they are filled and chilled, when crisp meringue shells and filling have come together.

- They can be kept a few days in a covered container in a fridge.  They are also frozen well without losing its eating quality.

- You might come across some posts on the Net suggesting touching the non-smooth macaron shells (the uncooked piped shells) to smooth the surface. Don't ever do that!  This will create a weak spot on the shells and you'll end up with rupture shells.

- Dare to mix the batter! The batter need to be well-and just-mixed. Don't be afraid of collapsing the meringue (whipped egg white) as we are not making meringue or pavlova, we are making almond meringue cookie. 

- Use heavy-based baking pan, the commercial quality ones. If you don't have them on hand, double lining trays for even heat distribution, i.e put two trays on top of each other .

- Cool macaronss completely before removing from baking paper, to avoid issues of macarons sticking to baking paper. I usually remove the baking paper/sheet from trays and leave them on cooking rack until they are cool completely. Removing macarons wil be a breeze after that.

That's all I can think of now. Let's celebrate the Macaron Day. Let's have more macarons.