Random 10 - Macaron Heresy

My wife gave me Pierre Herme's book, and this weekend I finally got off my butt and made a batch, following his recipe and techniques.

*** Warning - if you are a macaron purist, what I conclude may be considered heresy in your mind. I'm an open minded agnostic, so I'm willing to experiment and try almost anything once, so from my point-of-view, it's just a question I encountered on my Random Acts of Macarons. ***

Background - I've made 9 batches of macarons before, using the French meringue technique. 1st batch was good, next 5 batches had issues, as I was trying to save sugar on the cookie side and never ended up with a true meringue, so ended up with a number of variants on the macawrongs, macawhats, and macanots. But, being an engineer, I figured there was some science involved that was preventing me from "just using less sugar", so I went and read-up on meringues and understand it better. (Short form is meringues aren't just whipped up eggs with sugar - a true meringue needs sugar to form the right chemical bonds and be stable, or you end up with whip eggs that collapse). On the positive side, I know a lot more about what can and will go wrong with macarons, and am not afraid to experiment.

So - I followed the recipe for "Bitter Chocolate Macarons" mostly. Mostly because I didn't buy 100% chocolate pate (aka cocoa mass, or unsweetened bakers chocolate) but purchased cocoa powder. Yes, yes - they give it different names for a reason - cacao pate / unsweetened chocolate is the solid form or chocolate liquor (and vice versa), which is roughly 50% cocoa butter and 50% cocoa solids. And cocoa powder is nearly 100% cocoa solids. For the ganache, the 100% chocolate pate was only ~10% of the total chocolate, so by using cocoa powder, I made it 10% more chocolaty, and marginally less fatty (although w/ 400g of cream and another 140g of butter, less fatty is a relative term). On the cookie / shell side, 120g of cocoa powder is the *only* source of chocolate, so they were definitely more chocolaty, and probably a bit denser than they should have been.

And my food thermometer didn't work right, so I couldn't tell when the sugar syrup was at 115C exactly, to start whipping the egg whites / 118C for drizzling it into the mixer, but it was boiling, so it was hot enough, but maybe a little over.

Having said all that, they came out very good - nice peds, no air pockets in the cookies, wonderful flavor. Bit "too much" chocolate, not enough almond flavor for my palate, but I can only blame myself for that.

*** Warning - I'm getting close to the heresy section, so stop reading if you a macaron purist ***

Caveats -
1) I changed the ingredients on his recipe, so I shouldn't be commenting on his recipe but my end product. But, this is a blog - what's the point of being fair?
2) My thermometer didn't work, so I added the sugar syrup at a temperature that I guessed was about right, so again - I should only be commenting on my results. Ain't gonna happen.
3) I don't own a "fan oven", so didn't cook them @ 190C for 12m, but cooked them @ 300F for 24m, turning once in the middle (what's worked before on my French meringue batches).

*** Warning - heresy imminent ***

What the macaron shells reminded me of most, overall, is those poorly made, jumbo 3" or bigger macablimps that get sold in some stores. They're big, they're sweet, and their dense. These were not big, not overly sweet, but they were dense. Is it possible all those stores are using the Italian meringue method? Is that what makes the dense macaron shell?

For my taste, I prefer a lighter, more airy cookie.

*** Final warning - here it is ***

Is there still a better way of making the shell, so that it has the ped, no air pocket and consistent texture through-out the cookie, but is lighter than Pierre's recipe?

Guess I'm just asking the question for now, so it's not even truly heresy, just 1 guy asking if there is a better way.

To do - add link to book, add picture of the first official "Random Acts of Macarons", and do another batch, following Pierre's recipe as exactly as possible. Maybe his recipe does produce the lighter, crumbly, wow-producing experience I want, and maybe it's my interpretation that's wrong.