# Macarons: Hollow when baked on silpats but not on parchment paper



## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

IME.

This is my theory re Silpat and hollow mac shells.
It acts as an insulator...using a bit of the energy and oven time to spread the heat throughout the thickness of the mat.
The pre bake resting period has caused a thin dry skin to develop...right?
This skin is exposed to more heat than the bottom therefore the top will rise while the bottom just sits there waiting for a burst of heat which will not come until the silicone mat has reached max heat saturation.
The skin has already pulled away from the bottom and nothing you can do will get that bit of batter between the bottom and top to rise up and fill the void.

Ergo.....hollow shells.

I have a boxful of the Silpat brand mats.
They are great when I need a non stick surface for sugar and gumpaste work.
For anything else I use parchment.
Comes precut in the most common sizes.

mimi

Yes I am an insomniac.
Have to have something to do while waiting to drop off.
So I ponder the mysteries of the universe lol.

m


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

If they are hollow, it simply means your egg whites were beat for too long.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

@bonbini has some good advice. Wish she posted more these days. I love her work.


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## chefwriter (Oct 31, 2012)

Are they hollow enough to fill with something?


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## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

kuan said:


> @bonbini
> has some good advice. Wish she posted more these days. I love her work.


Good thread.
Silpats always feel greasy to me.
Still say save them for your butter based cookies and use a clean sheet of parchment for the meringue based like macs and kisses and RI decos you are drying for a later application.

mimi


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## bonbini (Feb 18, 2007)

In my experience, I don't think it's about silpat or parchment paper.  It's more like an improper macaronage technique. Too much air in the batter will cause hollow shells.

To fix : deflate some of the air in the batter by using proper folding technique.

P.S. I just moved to Seattle two months ago and I'm loving it here.


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## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

What happened to the original post?
There was a question asking why their macs worked better on parchment than Silpat.
I am now post #1.
Am I going crazy?

mimi


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## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

Found it....moved to the baking forum.
Whew!

m.


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

> What happened to the original post?
> There was a question asking why their macs worked better on parchment than Silpat.
> I am now post #1.
> Am I going crazy?


@flipflopgirl, maybe you are going crazy. You reported the post because the OP wasn't a pro (and shouldn't be posting here). So I moved the post to the pastry and baking forum. If someone is improperly posting to this forum, don't reply to the post, just report it.


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## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

chefpeon said:


> > What happened to the original post?
> >
> > There was a question asking why their macs worked better on parchment than Silpat.
> >
> ...


Yeah...had already answered before I asked to move it.
My bad.

m.


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