Vivien Doucette

6th Chemistry
Steve Smith

Temperamental and Cute

Abstract:

Introduction:
The French macaroon is one of the most elusive, yet delicious treats in French baking.
Each cookie must be perfect looking and delicious. A macaroon with an uneven, cracked or
burnt edge, just will not do. The process of making the cookie is delicate and often
temperamental. The primary ingredients consist of egg whites, refined white sugar and almond
flour. In order to improve my own method of creating these little bites of heaven, this experiment
was created to perfect my recipe. Good macaroons are hard to come by, expensive and great
gifts, as well as a good recipe to base other creation off. This will hopefully allow me to perfect
this skill. With good luck and a little skill I expect my results to have three comeouts. The first
cookie (the blue one) meringue will be beat until smooth and white, but not stiff enough for
peaks to be created. The second cookies (the red ones) will hopefully be the perfect cookie as
the meringue will be whipped to a stiff, shiny, yet malleable texture. The last cookies will be the
green cookie, where the meringue will be over whipped. Each will create a different result,
leaving the tester to determine the one they prefer. The meringue in the cookies is formed by
proteins, air, and a stabilizer such as sugar. The proteins made of amino acids have polar and
nonpolar ends. Polarity of molecules are determined by the outer electrons of each molecule
and whether they share the outer shells, borrow the outer shells or keep all of them. Water is a
polar and amino acids are nonpolar preventing them from mixing. When you beat the egg
whites you introduced air to the mixture causing small bubbles. The polar water begins to attract
to each other, the nonpolar amino acids cling to the air. You then get a fluffy, white and
deceptively simple white foam, but this foam needs something to stabilize as it will begin to
defluff. Not only does sugar act as an excellent stabilizer, but also adds sweetness, making it
the little piece of heaven it is.

Methods:
To be able to create the perfect cookie, each measurement and skill must be done with
surgery like precision. Due to the common errors due to volume measurement, it has been
decided that all of the ingredients used are being measured in weight by grams. This will
hopefully insure a more consistent product. I used a electric measurement scale, zeroing out the
containers that will hold my ingredients.
Preheat oven between 275-315 degrees fahrenheit determined by stove quality and heat
retention. I choose 275 degrees to fit my stove quality. Begin by letting 2 large egg whites to

warm to room temperature. These eggs should preferably be aged, because less moisture will
result in a more stable cookie. In a food processor pour 71 grams of unbleached finely ground
almond flour and 117 grams of confectioners (powdered) sugar. Process until powder mixture
becomes as fine as possible. Sieve or lightly whisk the powder to ensure there are no lumps.
These will create an uneven cookie shell. Remove 1 tablespoons from mixture and discard.
Set aside your powder mixture. In a deep bowl place your measure out egg whites. With an
electric hand mixer beat the egg white for twenty seconds. While continuing to beat eggs slowly
add the measured sugar in a slow steady stream. Cream of tartar can be added to ensure
stability. Beat meringue until the desired consistency is achieved. Quickly pour in the measured
amount of almond and sugar mixture to the meringue and fold the mixture 45 times into the
middle, using calculated strokes. Using a deep cup, fill the pastry bag with your meringue
dough. With a piece of parchment paper with circles measure out on it, pipe cookies onto pan.
Allow all cookies to settle for 45 minutes in a low humidity area. The top of the cookies should
be smooth and non tacky. Tapping the cookie sheet will release any air bubbles. Bake for 15-20
minutes keeping a very close eye on not allowing any of the cookies to burn, as this will destroy
the aesthetic. Allow each cookie to cool completely before filling with filling of choice and
sandwiching. Place in a airtight container.
To analyze the cookies I am conducting a double blind taste test for qualitative results. People
will be given a cookie from each experiment. Both the taste tester and the server will not know
which cookie is supposed to be the perfect cookie. Hopefully this will prevent any bias from the
taster or server.

Results:
Each cookie was tested thirteen times for taste, texture and appearance on a scale from
1 to 5, one being horrible and five being heavenly. For the first green, undermixed cookie, all
medians of the data is at a four, the averages range from 3.4 to 4. Only one cookie tested at a
one. This cookie was apperance, but no other cookie in the entire data set from all other cookies
scores this low, but despite the lower score of the one cookie, the average for the appearance
set of the green cookie is the highest of the green cookie. The blue cookie medians ranged out
more from 3 to 5, whilst the averages only ranged .17 points. Both the appearance and texture
averages were at 4.3 while the taste test averaged out at 4.15 on the scale. For the final yellow
cookie the results ranged from from 2 to 5 for all tests. The highest average for all three yellow
cookies tests was the taste test at 3.7, whereas the lowest average was 3, for appearance. The
averages for all cookies combined were 3.6 for the green cookie, 4.25 for the blue cookie and
3.3 for the yellow cookie. From my own observations of the cookies I noticed that the green
cookie was generally very flat, but smooth. The cookies in this batch spread extensively, but
were smooth on the top before I added sprinkles. The blue cookie was tall and did not spread
much, giving a dome shape to the cookie, yet also had a smooth top. For the yellow cookies
they were the tallest and most fluffy, but the appearance of the cookies was not proper, as a
obvious meringue peak. As for the measurement of density, the green cookies was the lowest
in density at 834.385

Green Cookie Data:

Graph #1 (Taste of Cookie)

Average Taste: 3.4

Minimum: 2
Median: 4

Range: 2-5
Maximum: 5

This table shows us the results of all thirteen testers in the terms of taste of the green cookie and places
them in a bar graph.

Graph #2 (Texture of Cookie)

Average: 3.6
Minimum: 2
Median: 4

Range :2-5
Maximum: 5

This table shows us the results of each tester in terms of texture of the green cookie and places them into
a bar graph.

Graph #3 (Appearance of Cookie)

Average: 4
Minimum: 1
Median: 4

Range: 1-5
Maximum: 5

This table shows us the results of tests of the appearance of each of the cookies and places them into a
bar graph.

Blue Cookie Data:

Graph #4 (Taste of Cookie)

Average: 4.15
Minimum: 2
Median: 4

Range: 2-5
Maximum: 5

This table shows us the results of the taste test for the cookies and places it into a bar graph.

Graph #5 (Texture of Cookie)

Average: 4.3
Minimum: 3

Range: 3-5
Maximum: 5

This table put all the results of the texture test from each tester into a bar graph, helping us then find the
average and median results.

Graph #6 (Appearance of Cookie)

Average: 4.3
Minimum: 2
Median: 5

Range: 2-5
Maximum: 5

This table placed all the results for the appearance tests of the blue cookie in a easy to read bar graph.

Yellow Cookie Data:

Graph #7 (Taste of Yellow Cookie)

Average :3.7
Minimum: 2
Median: 4

Range: 2-5
Maximum: 5

This table paced all the results for the taste test of the yellow cookies, then placed them into a bar graph
to help compare the ratings.

Graph #8 (Texture of Cookie)

Average: 3
Minimum: 2

Range: 2-5
Maximum: 5

Median: 3
This graph placed the results for each texture tests of each person and placed them into a bar graph.

Graph #9 (Appearance of Cookie)

Average: 3.3
Minimum: 2
Median: 3

Range: 2-5
Maximum: 5

This table showed us the results for the appearance test of each cookie and placed them into an easy to
read bar graph.

Equation used to determine density: Volume/Mass = Density

Table #1 (Density of Cookies)
Yellow Cookie

Blue Cookie

Green Cookie

923.421 density

834.385 density

968.4902 density

897.593 density

Discussion and Conclusion:

The results of this experiment

http://www.cookingscienceguy.com/pages/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Food-ScienceMacaron3.pdf

http://www.christinamarsigliese.com/2011/03/secret-to-perfect-macarons-to-celebrate.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/meringue-chemistry-the-secrets-of-fluff23039746/?no-ist