tried/failed

loveage macaron
i have been wanting to try to make macarons with a flavored meringue for a long time now.  using egg white powder and juice of some sort.  finally i mustered up an attempt.  rummaging through items on hand, i found in the freezer some loveage puree sealed away.  thinned with a little water and blended with egg white powder (using the ratio on the manufactures label) i left the vibrant green meringue to rehydrate overnight.
the next day i began whipping while doing the rest of the mise en place for my future macarons.  unfortunately this meringue just didn't have enough stability (even with the cooked syrup method) to hold stiff enough peaks to complete the recipe. 
the hopeful loveage meringue just didn't hold up.  maybe the ratio was off, maybe it wasn't thought out enough. 
actually, the remainder of the day didn't fare much better, with many failed recipes and even a broken glass.  not the best day in the kitchen.
still thinking about how to get the most flavor out of a simple macaron, i will come back to this fight another day...here are some other macarons to view
rose-raspberry, lemon basil, blackberry-cassis, peppermint, earl grey tea, foie with pink peppercorn, shiso, citrus, raspberry-meyer lemon

3 comments:

Barzelay said...

Is it possible that the lovage puree was basic (as opposed to acidic), possibly because of salts added? If so it could hurt the stability of the meringue. You might tweak it with extra acid (though that may turn the lovage puree kinda brown). Try it with a berry first. Seems like it'll be easier to manage.

When I first glanced at the top photo in this post, the very high feet on the macarons made it appear that you had made triple-decker meringues. I laughed at the whimsy of it, then realized I just saw it wrong. I'm sure it's been done, but triple-decker meringues seem pretty fun to me.


ron. said...

not too sure about the PH of the puree. i will indeed return to making a flavored meringue for macaron.
they do look like double deckers. because they are small (about quarter size) they do tend to look a little tall, i know pierre herme fills his with several different components but i unfortunately don't have time for that


Anonymous said...

Hi Ron, big fan
I posted a comment a few days ago but my pc froze..
Firstly your macarons are awesome, any tips? (maybe a base recipe if you're feeling generous? :P) I tend to fail when it comes to macarons
Have you tried using a loveage "water" as opposed to a thinned down puree? I think that the dry matter content of the puree could make the final product too heavy to take on sufficient air. Perhaps even juicing the stems and leaves could prove helpful..
Thanks for keeping up the great blog, if i ever come to the states, your restaurant will be on my list of must visits!


Post a Comment

 
© 2009 - one spoon quenelle | Free Blogger Template designed by Choen

Home | Top