After trying italian meringue macarons a few times, I've to concur the french meringue macarons taste so much better. It has a more delicate, airy, melt in your mouth quality. A freshly baked french meringue macaron shell is more fragrant compared to the italian one. The italian one, i cannot smell the nuts and the taste is like artificial candy - it is so horribly sweet. Interestingly enough, the sweetness dissipates slightly after the macaron is matured.. hmm. The only good thing about the italian ones is that the shells are so smooth with that perfect egg shell feel.
I also noticed the hollow pattern in french and italian meringue macarons to be different. For me, French meringue macarons tend to be hollow right under the shell and if you press too tight at the top, the whole thing will just collapse in. As for the italian meringue macaron, the hollow is centered right in the middle with pieces of 'meat' here and there. As the shell is quite sturdy - to me, the hollow problem is not so obvious. However, italian meringue macarons can taste 'crunchy' if the syrup is taken too far. Some recipes suggested 244 F and some 230 F, which left me initially confused. Now I just use the 230 figure because at 244, the shells came out really rock hard crunchy despite maturation and as I am using a thermapen, I don't think my temperature is wrong.
Hollows - ahhhh!! The bane of my existence. Despite 'thinking' I had fixed the hollow problem in the previous entry, my resulting batches have all turned out hollow. And I've no idea what went wrong. Perhaps time to invest in a new oven? I'm using a really really small and crappy one at the moment.
Anyway these are some macarons (made with french meringue) for an order not long ago. ( Flavours: turquoise - caramel, pink - rose lychee, green - pandan)Thanks guys for your orders and for the customer who called for a hantaran order, they are time-intensive to make - so i do require a week's notice :)
