've been plagued with hollow macarons when baking with the French meringue method. I signed up for the class hoping that I would have more luck with the Italian meringue. I followed the recipe and instructions to a T and have baked about 10 batches so far.
Almost all of my macarons bake up lopsided, which is a problem I never had before when using the French meringue method. Out of the 10 batches, I've only had 1 batch that had a some flawless (nice, compact feet with no hollow - full and fluffy interior) macarons mixed in, but the rest would have slightly tilted shells. In all my attempts, I worked on a level surface.
I have tried:
1. Baking at a temperatures of 290 degrees, 300 degrees and 325 degrees, using the middle rack. I have a conventional gas oven and the temps were the actual oven temps according to my oven thermometer. Lopsided macs regardless of temp.
2. Fresh as possible egg whites versus week old egg whites, both room temp, and there doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference.
3. Baking on silpats, and then on 2 different brands of parchment paper. No noticeable difference.
4. Rapping the tray versus not rapping the tray after piping. No noticeable difference.
5. Using Nordic Ware aluminum baking sheets versus AirBake cookie sheets. No noticeable difference.
These lopsided macarons are really driving me up the wall. I've become so obssessed that I even dream about them! I am just about ready to throw in the towel....any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm attaching pic of my most recent handiwork...
