Macaron madness

Tomorrow I will make macarons. They're tough little sonafabitches to make, and it took me 4 weeks of devastating, ego-destroying failure to get them right. In the meantime, the entire office suffered batch upon batch of wonky macarons. Tough shit.

It's just that there are so many variables that determine whether they come out right, and it took a scientific approach to figure out what variable did what. Humidity, heat, technique... screw up one of them and your batch is f*cked.

But it all boils down to 4 simple things:

1. Precision - Measure everything down to the last gram. If you don't have a digital scale, invest in one. $50 will save you mucho frustration and pain.
2. Aged egg whites - This means leaving the egg whites in the fridge for at least 24 hours, if not more. This removes the moisture.
3. Oven temperature - Unless you have a newfangled digital oven, the internal temperature of ovens aren't usually the same as indicated on the dial. Get an oven thermometer so you know exactly what the temperature is on the inside.
4. Hairdryer - This one needs a bit of explaining....

After piping the batter, a dry "skin" needs to form on top of the macaron before it's baked. This causes the batter to be forced out from UNDER the macaron as it rises. This lifts up the shell, and creates a "ruffle" at the base, known as "feet". It also keeps the tops of the shells smooth and uncracked.

In our humid weather, the skin may have difficulty forming, even in an air-conditioned room. Batch after batch, I waited hours upon hours for those evil things to dry but no cigar.

Here's where the hairdryer comes in to make sure it happens (or at least speed it up). Set on cool and blast those suckers dry. Perfect macaron guaranteed every time.

This whole macaron journey is kind of like a metaphor for life. Nothing in life comes easy, but you stick with it and somehow, some way (albeit weird), you'll figure it out. Either that or when you're a Type A anal-retentive perfectionist, you'll torture everyone around you until you get things done the way you want.

Who'd have thunk the secret to tropical weather macarons is a hairdryer? Stranger things have happened.