Dear All;

I've been trying to make a macaron recipe with italian meringue, and I've followed several recipes with similar proportions/instructions and I always have trouble getting to hard peak stage. I am using a hand mixer, all my items are scrupulously clean, i heat to sugar to 245, drizzle in slowly and increase the speed. I use 55g egg whites, syrup made of 120g caster sugar, 40g water plus 35g caster sugar into the eggs at foamy/soft peak stage. Sometimes i add salt/a few drops of lemon juice. My first attempt saw me beat on med then med/high for 20+ mins and the batch remained quite runny and was cool by then. The only thing i've found to help is to put the whole thing over a water bath, reheat gently, sometimes several times before I see it thicken. The trouble with that is the alot of meringue will dry/crust on the sides of my bowl this way and I feel like the recipe proportions are thrown off. Any tips? Does anyone else do this jimmy-rigged method I made up? I have never had my eggs over-whip or come apart, they just plain stay runny unless i reheat them. Does it really need to get to hard peak for a macaron?

Dear Chowhounders;

I was wondering if anyone has tried to make compressed fruit without a vacuum? I read the idea is that you squeeze the from between the cells of a piece of fruit and it seems it should work with two dishes stacked with the fruit pressed between. I'm trying with some strawberries right now, we'll see what we get! I have two plates with strawberries between and a jug of water on top. I also added a bit of sugar to macerate it compressing does nothing ;)

thanks for comments!
Karen.