I don’t know about the rest of you out there, but here in Melaka, it has been raining A LOT  in the past few weeks.
And while I am always grateful that I don’t live in an area when water scarcity / drought is a problem,
I can’t help but think that right now, we’re getting too much of a good thing.

My plants for one, do not appreciate the lack of sun as well as the constant torrential rain descending upon them.

Baking is a b*tch now as well.

Try getting whipping any kind of meringue to a stiff peak with this kind of humidity!
All my meringue recipes have had me whipping my egg whites for 1/2 an hour at a high speed,
only to end up with peaks were still droopy.
And I’m very sure that they have not been overwhipped either.

I ran into the same bad luck making macarons last week.
Not one to waste — it was approximately six egg whites in total — I folded all the dry ingredients in anyway,
and ended up with a mixture that resembled a very runny cake batter.

And while I didn’t take any pictures of it at that stage,
I did manage to snap one of them all piped out and resting
— and their runniness is quite evident here: see how they’re reaching to kiss one another!

Though, because I use Italian meringue — which is a million times more stable than its easier French counterpart — the end result didn’t turn out so bad after all.

I allowed the shells to sit for a whole 1 hour 15 mins under a fan in an air-conditioned room
— yes, macarons are really that finicky —
until a nice skin was formed (pressing on the unbaked shells didn’t leave so much as a fingerprint at this stage);
preheated an oven @ 180°C;
popped them in & reduced the temperature immediately to 150°C;
and baked them for 15 mins — opening the oven 2x & rotating it.

Voila!

And while they weren’t as crumbly as they could have been if my meringue was properly whipped,
they tasted just as good.
*yummeh*

I do make macarons in other favours, but you can probably guess by now,
I have a weak spot for pink. 🙂