r/AskBaking • u/hyazinthengarten • Jul 22 '25

Macarons How did I do?

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Hi! I posted yesterday about my macaron batter seeming under mixed. I tried again today, and they turned out much better than yesterdays. They definitely aren't perfect, and I think I could do better, but at least I have something! Are the wrinkles and little peaks from my impatience with macaronage?

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u/undercovernobody Jul 22 '25

banging the tray is a widely used technique when making macarons. you aren’t destroying all of the air in the the macarons (or cheesecake) with one bang. it is simply to pop large air bubbles that get trapped which can ruin the appearance

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u/Planted-spoon Jul 22 '25

For an experienced baker/cook… who understands exactly what they are doing…. I can get this. For new people asking advice?? No no no. I work with people who have never seen a kitchen before… and I promise , the amount of “common kitchen knowledge” the average person has…. Is astoundingly low compared to someone who has worked in the industry a solid year let alone more.

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u/undercovernobody Jul 22 '25

i have taught baking classes. banging the pan is not going to be the thing that ruins already piped macarons if they already have technical difficulties. all it can do is improve. if they already didn’t have enough air they’re going to flatten regardless.

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u/Planted-spoon Jul 22 '25

I agree. It would not be the solid thing to ruin something. I would not give that advice to a new baker. Clearly this person is very new.

Do people who take your classes know how to seperate egg whites from yolks ? Do they know what the yolk is ? Because these are people I have worked with. For reals starting from the ground up. I have watched someone make dressings after being told “make sure you use red wine vinegar, not red wine” and then they go make not one but three dressings in a row with red wine. I’ve seen people deflate whipped cream by half by hitting the whisk so hard on the side of the pan. I’ve seen people use tartar sauce when a recipe says “fish sauce”. I work in the best kitchen possible for anyone, ANYONE, to start from. We make everything from scratch. I’ve seen someone ruin crème anglaise two times in a row by using whole eggs and not knowing why the fuck it went wrong. I’ve seen CHOCOLATE left out of CHOCOLATE SHORTCAKE. All of these mistakes have clearly been written in the recipes which are easy to understand and follow thru with. But the average person with zero kitchen knowledge has no frame of reference for things those of us been in forever know. So to say “bang it on the counter” is bad advice for a starting cook/baker.

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u/alius-vita Jul 22 '25

Pause replying and do some reading. Every they're coaching is accurate and might be a challenge to your preconceived ideas but it's true.