Basic Macarons
Posted On 7 October 2021
Okay, this uses a French Meringue not the traditional Italian Meringue you’re supposed to use for Macarons. (Why a French cookie should be made with an Italian, rather than French, meringue is beyond my level of comprehension.)
A pretty easy recipe, although every Macaron recipe I’ve read uses the word “finicky” or some synonym. I said below that these take 2 hours but that’s very optimistic.
Basic Macarons
Servings: 20 macarons
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Ingredients
- 80 grams egg whites, room temperature (packaged egg whites are fine)
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt (not iodized)
- 75 grams baker's sugar (super-fine, caster, etc.)
- 100 grams super fine almond flour
- 75 grams powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
- Gel food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- With the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites until foamy, 3-5 minutes. Usually on speed 4 or 6.
- Add the cream of tartar and salt and continue whipping until soft peaks form.
- Add the food coloring if you'd like (and yes: it does matter the type of food coloring as non-gel food coloring is a lot wetter and will change the consistency)
- Add the baker's sugar a tablespoon at a time until dissolved.
- While the mixer is going, sift together your almond flour and powdered sugar. A couple of times. Discard any chunks.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- When all the sugar has been added to the meringue and it forms hard peaks, remove bowl from the stand mixer and sift the flour/sugar mixture into the meringue and, using a silicon spatula, incorporate it the flour/sugar into the meringue until (a) all sifted in and (b) dropping a bit of the mixture back onto itself it re-incorporates itself within 10-20 seconds. If the drop doesn't blend back into the mixture it needs more mixing.
- Fill a piping bag with a Wilton #2A tip with the mixture and tie off.
- Holding the pastry bag vertical to the baking sheets and parchment paper pipe out 1-1.5" rounds. Try to be consistent — I dare you. I shoot for 4 per row, 5 rows per baking sheet — they don't spread much — so you should be able to get 40-50 rounds total. (Note: I usually do one oblong one at the end of one sheet as a tester to touch for later.)
- Bang the sheets on the countertop to get any air bubbles out of the shells. Good luck with this, too. Pop any large air bubbles with a toothpick and then bang on the counter again.
- Let the shells sit on the counter, uncovered, for 30-60 minutes and maybe a couple of hours (depends on humidity). What are you looking for? When you touch the tops (or the tester as I alluded to above) the batter doesn't stick to your finger.
- Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Bake one sheet at a time for 16-19 minutes, turning halfway through. To test for doneness touch and try to move — it if wobbles, go another minute or two. Honestly, over-baking is better than under-baking.)
- Let cool completely. COMPLETELY. Removing — or trying to remove — too early may result in breakage and stickage. Then remove from the parchment paper to a cooling rack and cool even more.
- Since I suck at making them a consistent size, once completely cooled I match up similarly-sized shells to be sides.
- Make a buttercream filling (see recipe) and pipe onto one half. Mash together. Let set in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours to "ripen."
- Remove from refrigerator 30-40 minutes before serving.