macarons from a mix
Macarons. I love them. I challenged myself to make them from scratch. Paying for a class, I made them successfully. Happily, I've made them a few times on my own. Sometimes the results were successful. And sometimes not. They are finicky things.
Then I saw something at the grocery store (Marketplace if you live in Hong Kong). A box of macaroon mix. Would it work? I was about to find out. They had two flavors: milk and chocolate. I decided to try the milk version.
From the Korean brand Peacock, the instructions were in Korean. There were some translated instructions on the side but it didn't say exactly how much water and how much milk to add. Google translate is always my loyal partner and here I whipped it out to translate the instructions which I'll post here.
Macaron Instructions: 1. Add the macaron mix and 30 mL of warm water (around 55°C) into a bowl.
2. Whip at high speed for 2 minutes.
3. Fill into an icing bag and squeeze into a circle onto parchment paper.
4. Let it dry for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Bake at 130°C for 15 minutes.
6. Cook macaroons before filling.
Filling Instructions: 1. Add filling mix and 15 mL of milk to another bow. Mix well with a spoon.
2. Fill into a piping bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Opening up the product, I found two bags of powder and two plastic piping bags. The bags of powder didn't have any labels on them but I assumed the bigger one was the macaron mix and the smaller bag was the filling mix. They didn't include macaron stencils so I just downloaded one from somewhere online. It't not necessary but I'm a bit OCD. I need to have perfect circles.
I followed the instructions by adding water to the macaron mix, whipping it with my hand mixer for exactly 2 minutes. After mixing it, it was a bit more stiff than usual macaron batter. But it did flow nicely when I was filling it into the provided piping bag and it piped out very well. Just as the package stated, I piped out 20 shells (a total of 10 macarons).
After drying them, I popped them into the oven to bake. The moment of truth. Will I get the little feet that is signature to macarons? YES! Not very pronounced but they were there.
I had a tiny spatula that I used instead of a spoon for making the filling mixture. It didn't take long to reconstitute. Probably a minute or two. I loved how it had a nice shiny consistency that was similar to ganache.
And so I filled them. They looked quite nice, don't they? They look practically like the ones you make from scratch. The macarons had a crispy shell but still had that chewy consistency that is known for. They weren't hollow. They weren't too sweet and had a strong milk like taste.
For a box mix, these came out pretty good. I made very foolproof macarons in an hour. It was easy to make and tasted pretty good. A product I'd purchase again if I didn't want to go through the traditional way of making them and just wanted something quick and fast.
