For the past three weekends I’ve been practicing how to make French Macarons.  I’ve aged the whites from 2 hours to 56 hours and I always have (some degree of) success but they’re never perfect.  They either:

1)  get a little tail from the piping
or
2 )  the feet raise high and beautifully in the oven but either during the last minutes of cooking or while cooling they lose the height.  They don’t fall flat.  They simply aren’t as tall as when they’re in the oven which affects presentation. 

Can anyone give me some suggestions that might help me improve next weekend?

Cheers,

I have never made macarons but here are some links from the forum. Hopefully they will be helpful.

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/index_ee.php/forums/viewthread/961/

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/index_ee.php/forums/viewthread/385/

I think the little tail means you haven’t quite mixed the batter enough.

I was thinking the same thing about the tail but it’s really hard to know just how much beating is enough.  It also seems a little unfair that they should be considered imperfect because of a little hat. 

And thanks for those links.  They eventually link to a site called Syrup and Tang which has a comprehensive “study” of the marcaron but still not an answer as to why they sometimes fall.

FYI, I have also been making macarons using Walnut Flour and Pecan Flour in place of the Almond Flour and had delicious results, I still get a tail but I also get a nice rise.

Check out the macaron thread over on eGullet.com - it’s in the pastry and baking section and is invaluable in terms of figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

For further inspiration, you might also like to read some of the posts by a woman who does beautiful work in patisserie generally, but is also *a little bit obsessed* with macarons. Here’s a link to all of her blog entries on the subject. Beautiful photography, too.

http://www.mytartelette.com/search/label/macarons