R is for Recipes and Replying

I am one of those cook who must follow a recipe.
I am not able to create something on my own, I just manage to get things mixed up (in a wrong way) with too much of 1 ingredient and not enough of another.
I have no inspiration with flavour so am always looking to recipes to see what flavouring they use and then maybe I will adapt slightly, but that is as far as it goes. Odd for someone who actually has an O'Level (High School Diploma) in Home Ecomomics (cooking)!

The latest thing to come into my line of vision that I want to try and make is Macorons.
Yes I have spelt it correct, we are talking Macorons here, the little biscuit cakes made with egg whites and almond not egg white and coconut which are Macaroons.

Now please don't fall over at my next statement....but I am new to this beautiful cake snack. I have never come across them before this year. Just goes to show how much I do not frequent coffee shops!

Anyway thought I would look for a recipe online to see exactly what was in them and how they were made. For some reason I ended up on You Tube watching several different people show you how to make them and include their recipe for them. Simple thing to make but what got me was the difference in recipes......!

• 1 recipe told you to beat the dry ingredients into the egg whites as you wanted to knock all the air out so the end product was not too high.
• Another told you to fold very very gently as you wanted to keep the air in.
• So am I wanting the air in or out?
• 1 recipe told you to leave them to form a skin prior to cooking for 10 minutes.
• Whilst another told you to leave them for an hour.
• And another told you to place them in the oven straight away
• So am I leaving them for 10mins, 60 mins or not at all?
• The other major difference was the amount of dry ingredients compared to the amount of egg whites. Most used 4 egg whites but the dry ingredients varied from about 225g to 300g, some used just sugar whilst others used a combination with cream of tartar as well.
• I know I want it to be stiff and thick but how thick?

I know most of this is my own fault for checking out too many recipes but I can not believe the variance out there for 1 simple recipe!

Happy cooking all.

Replying

If someone leaves you a comment on your blog do you reply to it?
I do, I think it is so important to answer any questions that get asked, to clarify anything that may be stated and to generally be polite and friendly to anyone who has taken the time to comment on my blog.
I love getting to know new people out in blog world and I like to let them know that I am greatful they stopped by and please come back and visit again soon.
It has been a busy month this month with the challenge on but I hope I have managed to reply to everyone who has left me a comment to say 'thanks for stopping by' but then it is slightly easier at the moment as I only have about 17 followers and only get 1 or 2 comments a day not sure how I would cope if I had 700 followers and got 50 comments a day!?

Happy commenting folks!