c/baking-fails-and-wins

Tried to make macarons and ended up with pancake batter instead

I was in my tiny apartment kitchen in Austin last Saturday, thinking I could finally nail macarons after watching 10 tutorials. Mixed the almond flour and sugar too fast and the whole thing turned into a soupy mess that looked nothing like the stiff peaks they showed. My roommate walked in and asked if I was making breakfast pancakes, which was pretty funny honestly. Let it sit for 20 minutes hoping it would fix itself, but nope, just ended up scraping it all into the trash. Has anyone else had a batter totally give up on them like that?

2 comments

tessa_carr•1d ago

Rant: My cake kept sinking in the middle until I tried a cheap trick

I've been baking birthday cakes for my kids for years and every single time the middle would sink into a crater. I tried opening the oven door less, I tried different pans, I even bought a $40 oven thermometer thinking my temp was off. Nothing worked. Then my grandma visited last month and watched me make a batch of cupcakes. She said I was overmixing the batter and that was creating too many air pockets. She told me to just mix until the flour disappears and stop. I thought she was crazy but I tried it on my next layer cake. The middle stayed perfectly flat for the first time ever. Has anyone else had this problem with overmixing? I feel like every recipe says "mix until combined" but that's way less time than I thought.

c/baking-fails-and-wins

Tried to make macarons and ended up with pancake batter instead

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