I have finally achieved greatness! Well, maybe not on that level but I feel ecstatic and its all because of this little guy. My brand new oven thermometer.
My oven is old. Real old. I could even describe my oven as a relic. It’s a burnt-reddish-orange color and has wood paneling slapped all over. One of my burners is broken but other than that I thought I had a great oven. I mean it heats up so fast. It also matches with my dishwasher and fridge (haha)!
I pre-heated my oven to 300F & clipped my new oven thermometer to the rack. When I went to check my temperature the thermometer was registering at 375F! Thinking my oven troubles were now over, I turned down my temperature and continued with my macaron recipe. Halfway through my recipe, I peeked at my temperature again. It was still sitting at 375F. My solution; I quickly turned off the oven and set the oven temperature to 200F. This did the trick. My oven was finally sitting at 300F when I put in my macarons.
A word of advice,
If your going to make macarons know your oven! Take out the guess work and invest in an oven thermometer.
Also, I picked up this trick during my macaron studies (lol)! Instead of sifting into two separate bowls I used parchment paper instead. This made the whole, “sift your ingredients twice” much easier.
Almond flour and icing sugar before sifting.
sifted twice
FYI clean up went much smoother when using the parchment paper.
pour dry ingredients into whipped egg whites
I thought it would be nice to show my macaron batter through my folding stage.
After 10 folds
20 folds
30 folds
Unlike the last time I made macarons, I was much more delicate with my folds. By the time I reached 30 folds my batter was much firmer than last time.
Macarons piped & ready for baking
Success! Regardless of the 5 cracked shells, every macaron has feet. Making macarons is really a trial and error process.
thick baking sheet
Who would have thought my next batch would have changed so drastically because of the baking sheet I was using.
thin baking sheet
Trial and error has finally led to me to these delicious, pretty, dainty, gluten-free (if your into that) macarons.
I feel it’s time to try out new flavours. Anyone out there have any suggestions?
Erica Watson-Daniels 
Hi Erica! These look delicious!! I love how you include so many photos throughout your post so readers are able to see a visual of what you are talking about. Keep up the good work!
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Wow these are awesome! You’ve made so much progress and have kept a super positive attitude throughout the whole process! Amazing job! I recommend looking on Pinterest for different flavour ideas! I once saw a strawberry one that looked really good! Can’t wait to see what you’ll create next week!
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Hi Erica,
I still can’t believe you sifted your ingredients twice. What patience you must have, I would have skipped the second sifting stage. Your finished product looks amazing and really professional. Your thermometer really did make a difference or was it the sifting? Yes, I’m gluten free and would love to try your handy work.
Anthea
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I know what you mean. I usually try to trick a “helper” to do my sifting lol. Possibly in the future, I will try sift my ingredients once and I’ll let you know if the macarons turn out.
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Erica, these are so amazing! I have always thought that macarons were for fancy chefs to bake and that I was at no skill level to even try. But, you have inspired me to try them! If you prepare these in the future I would love to have the recipe, they look great!
Thanks for sharing,
Shaelyn
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Hi Shaelyn,
Yes, I thought macarons were for fancy chefs too! The recipe I have been using is from BraveTart It’s an older blog post but I love how she has a macaron mythbuster post, which is the reason why I was brave enough to bake macarons. I have been using her recipe for all my posts so far.
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Awesome, thanks!
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Hi Erica
These look amazing, You know what might me an interesting take. If you make macarons with the flavour profile as Terry’s Chocolate Oranges!
Any Who, Looks great! Keep up the great Blog!
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First off, these look fantastic! Second, I could sense your joy and success through this post. You did a marvelous job at explaining the process in such detail (your photos complemented it so well). And I appreciate all of the tips and tricks you shared! I can tell that you are really learning from each experience.
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Hey Erica, these look great! It looks like you put a lot of work into it – especially with your oven not co-operating! It must have been super frustrating but you made it through!
Good job!
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