Baking Macs @ Indonesia

Phewww, finally I get the chance to update my blog today.. I started taking macaron orders last week and yesterday was my biggest order so far, 150 pieces of those little dainty almond sandwiches. Baking all those macs was definitely tiring, but I enjoyed it because my macs turned out looking better than I expected :D Was it that easy? Did it turn out great the first time I baked them in Indonesia? Noooppeeeee... At first, I used Pierre Herme's recipe with the Italian meringue and the first few batches turned out great. Well, a little bit too sweet but that's due to the higher sweetness of Indonesian sugar compared to US sugar. Oh, and the filling melted so fast that I didn't even have time to pipe them onto the shells before they dripped from the piping bag to all over my counter -___-" Absolutely hate the effect of humidity and heat in Indonesia on macarons :( The 2 batches I made were for this month's Mac Attack: Fruit, thus the inclusion of griottine and berries into the fillings. I liked the pistachio griottine much better than the white chocolate berry because the second one was too sweet for my taste *white chocolate was never my favorite*

 Milk chocolate pistachio griottine macaron

White chocolate berry macarons

As you can see, my macs still looked good despite all the mishaps. And then, everything went wrong. I used the same exact recipe, ingredients, technique, oven, mixer, everything, but I kept failing. My macs didn't rise, instead they became just like regular meringue cookies. When they did form a skin and feet, the tops broke into little volcanoes. I made 5 batches and only got 8 decent looking macs :( Until now, I still don't know what was wrong. After I failed again and again, I was ready to give up and I only had 3 days to make 150 macs. If I were in the US with all my baking tools, it wouldn't have been a problem. However, my baking stuffs are still being shipped and I had to deal with the new ingredients. So, I decided to go with the simpler French meringue method. I was very skeptical because I tried it once and it didn't work. Surprisingly, I got really nice shiny macarons with feet! I was ecstatic! Then everything went smoothly, I finished baking all 150 macs in a day :D I think I'm done baking macs for a while, unless someone orders them. Okay, below is the pic for the French meringue macs, til later!!

Dark chocolate, matcha, vanilla bean, pistachio, rose macarons

Goodbye Chambana!!

I haven't updated my blog for a very looooooooooong time and the reason for that is I've been busy packing and  travelling with my parents after my graduation.. 

After leaving my footsteps on Boston, NYC, DC, Philly, Miami, Key West, NOLA, and Memphis, I'm going home for good :( I felt extremely sad, although I often complained about how boring life in Chambana was, I think I will miss it badly.. My small but convenient kitchen in my old apartment, where I spent most of my time baking all those good stuffs, arrrgghhh... Also, I'll definitely miss all the people that accompanied me during my 6 years in Chambana.. Well, some of them are actually already in Indonesia now, but still, I just know that it won't be the same :(((( Anw, I think it will be another long wait before I post anything again.. I'm just crossing my fingers that the differences in ingredients and humidity between US and Indo won't affect my baking -____-" Goodbye Chambana!!! Til we meet again!!