Chpt4 Which macaron recipe should I use

[@sarahkirby379]

Thank you! So informative! What flavor are your kitties?

[@bakingwithphay9427]

You are welcome! To be honest, I filled the kitties with royal icing because I made them for photography 🤣. If I filled them with anything yummy, they are not going to last long enough for me to do photoshoots! But they are 100% made of macarons so definitely qualified to be my hosts for the video.

[@MH-zr4rb]

Thank you so much for this very detailed and helpful tutorial, I learnt a lot! If you don't mind, I have 2 questions: 1) Why is it necessary to make an almond paste (dry ingredients + raw egg white) before incorporating the meringue for the Italian (and most) Swiss methods, but not the French method? 2) Is the egg white to sugar ratio the same for French and Swiss methods? Specifically, can one just use a French meringue recipe and make it Swiss (by heating up the sugar and egg whites together before whipping)? Thanks in advance for your kind help.

[@bakingwithphay9427]

1) if you see my Chpt 6 video, you can incorporate all kinds of meringue with dry ingredients directly, just that I seldom do that for swiss meringue and never for italian meringue. Some bakers have done it though. You can also add a little unwhipped raw egg whites into the french method batter and I do this occassionally when the batter is thick due to additions of non traditional ingredients. Let me explain the purpose of adding unwhipped raw egg whites into the batter. Swiss and italian meringues tend to be drier than french meringues because of the cooked egg whites. It may cause the batter to be really dry if you use all the egg whites for the meringue. Such dry batter can never be folded until smooth and lava stage. The addition of unwhipped egg whites helps to make the batter less thick and also smoother and shinier. 2) As mentioned in point 1), the difference between Swiss and French meringues other than stability, is that swiss meringues are drier than french. Technically you can convert a French method recipe to swiss method with the exact ingredient ratios BUT, the meringue must not be whipped until too stiff and the egg whites should not be cooked to too high a temperature as it would make the batter extremely dry. It may take some trial and error to figure out the sweet spot for egg white temperature and meringue stiffness but I would suggest trying out a recipe and method that is meant for the original method in the first place to do away with the need to do trial and error.

[@MH-zr4rb]

@@bakingwithphay9427 - Thank you so very much for spending the time to write this detailed and educational response! I've come across so many Italian/Swiss meringue macaron recipes where an almond paste was made, but can't seem to find the reason as to why. Now I know, and it makes so much sense that a high density meringue cannot be incorporated easily into the loose dry ingredients! Love your scientific way of explaining things! Thanks again!

[@fheyii]

I am so.glsd I found your Instagram page that led me here. Can you pls explain more on the temp one cooks the egg mixture determines how stable. What temp is the max you will suggest for stability? I know you also say that it could make the meringue more dry. I have seen a recipe that cook up to 70c. I am referring to Swiss Meringue here. I made my first macarons yesterday and was so happy as it wasn't a too bad first attempt. I will love to try your Swiss recipe of egg white separation too. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and explaining the best way possible 😊

[@bakingwithphay9427]

Hi Kemi, it really depends on your recipe ingredient ratios, whether you are reserving some egg whites to mix with the sifted dry ingredients, and how stiff you beat your meringue. E. G. I have used the same recipe but different execution methods, one where all the egg whites is used for the meringue, and another where only some of the egg whites is used in the swiss meringue. The batch with all the egg whites used for swiss meringue had a drier batter that required more folds in the macaronage to get the right batter consistency. I cooked the egg whites in both cases to the same temperature. In another example, I whipped the meringue to a stiffer peak and another to firm peak. The one beaten to stiffer peak results in a drier batter. The higher the cooking temperature, the more stable the egg whites as I mentioned as more of the protein structure is altered in the process. I can't specify how high a temperature you should go as it is recipe specific. A recipe with higher dry ingredient ratio would do better with a meringue that is not beaten till too stiff and dry or cooked to too high a temperature. I have encountered swiss method recipes that are so dry that it doesn't work for me at all. The batter doesn't get to the lava stage no matter how long you fold. By then the batter is actually overfolded without looking overfolded. This is why I mention a more stable and drier meringue made by using higher temperature for cooking egg whites is not necessarily the best. Do some trial and error and see what works best for you, increasing the cooking temperature by a few degrees each time and observing how well it works for you. I hope this helps!

[@fheyii]

@@bakingwithphay9427 more than helpful.you are amazing. Thank you for thoroughly explaining. I will check your blog for thr Swiss method recipe .

[@therasiathecook]

Sooo cute ^^

[@bakingwithphay9427]

Thank you 😊

[@areebakhan5276]

Can you pleasee share recipes for all three methods

[@bakingwithphay9427]

I didn't share recipe in this video as I wanted to focus more on technique and the nature of each method, because success or failure depends a whole lot more on technique than recipe. But if you would like to know the detailed recipe I use, you can refer to the blog I share with my baking partner at Lovingcreations4u.blogspot.com Or refer to my 2 macaron books in the Creative Baking series (Macarons (book 1 has Italian method only) and Macaron Basics (book 2 has both Italian and French method)). The Swiss method recipe can be found in the blog, along with French and Italian. I mainly use Swiss and French methods now due to batch size requirement. I don't take in big orders now.