Coffee Macarons using Italian Meringue

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After trying the various flavours, i thought to myself, i should give italian method a try. Since i am experimenting with macarons now, i should also try out the kind of macarons produced by different method.

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Actually i did consider using italian method before but the idea of the extra step puts me off. Because besides whipping the eggwhite, italian meringue requires adding boiling syrup into the eggwhite. And the syrup is supposed to reach about 120degree before i can pour into the eggwhite. There seems too many rules and guides to follow, which is something i don't like. However, for the love of macaron and the challenge, i finally gave it a try. But i did not use and thermometer to measure the temperature, i just boiled the syrup and pour into my eggwhite.

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To my surprised, the outcome was amazing! I had never have such nice and smooth macarons before. They looks beautiful! However, this could due to luck that i have succeeded, because i did not follow the instructions exactly. Besides not measuring the temperature, i did not mix the unbeaten eggwhite with the almond meal and powdered sugar, i just pour them into the beaten eggwhite separately and mixed them together.

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I made two flavours, one is original and the other is coffee. Both me and my DH loves the coffee ones. Not only the speckles are cute, they taste delicious too. But due to the sugar used is higher for italian meringue, resulted a very sweet shell.

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Italian meringue observation :

1) Requires longer baking time.

2) Uses more sugar, therefore sweeter shell.

3) The shell seems harder as compared to french meringue.

4) Produced a much smooth shell.

5) Not so sure for the resting time, because for the first batch, it has been rested for two hours (rainy day and humid), but all cracks. The second batch maybe 30min later, all came out beautiful with feet and only a few cracks.

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Will try to use this method again.

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