I feel so stupid. Yes, I have labelled myself that already so please spare me and do not repeat it after reading my post. You see, for coloring my macarons, I use Wiltons coloring gel. For those who do not live in sunny Singapore, or should I say now because of global changes, very humid Singapore, we do not have coloring paste/powder being sold in our local stores! If any Singaporean out there who knows there is one, do let me know. What is available are gel and there is Wiltons candy gel and Wiltons icing gel. By the way, I managed to search online and found a store in the UK that sells color powder. Ordered them online immediately. Back to my story.
I purchased a variety of colors and that included both types. I did not know the difference between candy and icing coloring gel. The attractive colors with fanciful names blinded me to think straight. For those who know where I am coming from, do not scoff.
So one day, I used the black candy gel for my black macarons. I had wanted to make Blackberry macarons with blackberry curd. Ambitious, you say. To my greatest horror, I was churning out cement-looking macarons! No posting of photos this time round. They were horrible looking. They will give you your ultimate nightmare. The color was similar to cement - dull and grey. Add more gel, that comes to your mind and to mine too. And so I added more black coloring till I emptied the entire bottle.
Viola! I made the perfect stone-grey-cement-looking macarons! Not black beauties but repulsive grey little tombstones. Really unappetizing! "Yucks! " My son, Dom, spewed out immediately. "No offence, dad. But if you were to throw any one of these ugly slabs at me, I will be knocked dead"."Thanks, son, Rub it in. Rub it in harder". I found out later that there is a difference between candy and icing gel. And so I learn - the hard way.
No Blackberry Macarons this time. So the frozen blackberries remain untouched in my freezer. Till I find the right color for my macaron shells to go with my blackberry curd, I will not experiment with black coloring anymore. Any color suggestions for my shells to go with blackberry curd?
hey ken,
ReplyDeleteeven if you used the correct black colour from wilton, you might not get proper black. It will turn out greyish-purple. Wilton black is not as concentrated, so there is a need to add a lot of coluring to get the colour to a dark hue close to black. But adding a lot of colouring means it will affect the taste.
Hey Bakertan, you are absolutely right about the color being greyish purple. Observed that too. And yes, too much gel may affect the taste or texture. That's why I ordered online Black powdered paste to experiment again. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAccording to another blogger, chef master's black is pure black, which can be obtained at sun lik. I have not used it myself so am not sure how it will turn out to be.
ReplyDeleteThe issue seems to be the same with Wilton red too. Selected Wilton colours do affect the taste when added in large quantity. From what I read, Wilton red and Wilton black are some of them.
Now why didn't I think of Sun Lik. Gonna check it out:) Thanks for the tip and I really appreciate your comments.
ReplyDelete