Oh baby they’re back. And better. I’ve actually made a few batches of these puppies (well using a different recipe from the first post) but I was still using the French meringue (so with just sugar), while this recipe uses a sugar syrup instead. I think between the two, I like the Italian meringue version better because they instantly get that same chewy texture that the French ones have after they’re refrigerated overnight.
Like I mentioned in my first macaron post, I read Bravetart’s Macaron Myths and found that aging the egg whites, drying the almond flour and drying the shells made no difference whatsoever.
I now can honestly say that aging egg whites really doesn’t matter at all, I’ve never dried almond flour, and I actually find they look nicer when the shells aren’t dry. They puff up nicer and the make a dome, whereas when they dry, they kind of do a weird dome that is separate from the feet.
I can’t stress enough that weighing your ingredients is ESSENTIAL here. It’s UNREAL how much of a difference it makes (fail vs. non-fail).
I think between the two variations of meringue, although the Italian meringue is a little more high maintenance, the end result is way better, and the macaronage isn’t as sensitive. (Macaronage is the method/process of mixing the batter to a specific consistency). The thing about this is making sure that the sugar doesn’t crystallize in the pot (say there are 3 grains of sugar on the side, they collect more and more sugar and turn into rock candy. Le suck.). The best way to get around that is to get a pastry brush and wet the sides with water. If you’re worried that the water will change the sugar:water ratio, don’t be, because the sugar syrup needs to be at a certain temperature anyway, and that can only be at a certain temperature when the sugar:water ratio is correct.
Anyway.
I’ll also post some of the pictures of the macarons I made before (orange chocolate! Tasty!)
Here are things I’ve learned about macarons:
- Never add extract to the meringue as you’re beating it. It’ll deflate it instantly.
- Always let the cookies cool completely before you fill them. If you squish the icing between them while they’re still warm, sometimes the inside caves in cause it’s still soft
- If you find your oven burns the feet of your macarons, double stack the pans or add a silicone layer (silpat) underneath to slow down the heat transfer from the metal
- Aging your egg whites don’t matter
- Better to overbeat your eggs than underbeat. Underbeating will make your batter too runny. It should be just stiffer than soft peak stage. But before stiff peak.
- Always sift your sugar and almond flour. It’s okay if there are bigger almond chunks, but when it’s all in the food processor, you -think- it’s all ground nicely, but those big chunks always surprise you.
- Check on your macarons frequently when they reach the 10 minute mark. They burn quickly!
- Using food colouring paste is better than the liquid. I find it doesn’t alter the consistency as much.
So for this recipe, I used FoodGeek’s almost foolproof macarons. Check it out! They have awesome pictures that are better than mine. =P
Ingredients:
- 150g icing sugar
- 150g almonds (I used blanched and sliced cause they’re cheaper for me)
- 120g egg whites (divided into 60 and 60)
- 35g sugar, and 150g sugar
- 50g water
Directions:
- In a food processor, grind your almonds with icing sugar. Sift until you get the smallest pieces of almond possible. Then chuck in the stuff you’re sick of putting in the food processor.
- Add 60g of egg whites and whatever food colouring you want to that and set aside.
- In a clean bowl, beat 60g egg whites and 35g sugar until you get soft/stiff peaks. Like stiffer than soft, but softer than stiff. If that makes sense. The picture I have down there, the eggs weren’t stiff enough so it was a little runny. Second batch was more like the picture in the original recipe. Kinda like marshmallow Fluff. Anyway, set aside.
- In a small pot and over high heat, cook 150g sugar and 50g water until 230F.
- Slowly pour the sugar syrup into the meringue while constantly beating to temper the syrup in without completely deflating the egg whites. Careful not to get it all over your hand mixer like I did. That was not fun to clean. Beat until you get an even, glossy meringue.
- Mix the meringue into the almond flour/egg mixture.
- Fold the mixture until you get the ribbon consistency. It shouldn’t be too runny. Make sure you incorporate ALL the meringue, or else those rogue streaks of meringue will make your cookies crack.
- Pipe onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets about an inch in diameter with at least a cm of space between each cookie or else you’ll get weird morphy cookies. WHOA that just reminded me of animorphs.
- Bake for 13-16 minutes at 320F (when you touch the tops of the cookies, they shouldn’t wobble too much).
- Remove from the oven, let cool on the sheet for a minute, then remove the parchment paper from the sheet and let cool over a wire rack.
- Once completely cool, fill with icing =D (I made mint chocolate butter cream). Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Here are the lemon ones that I made, the buttercream icing had lemon curd in it so it was tart and delicious and the lemon just kind of seeped into the shells in the fridge.
Here’s a picture to show you the consistency of your macaron. The other recipe I used, I think I didn’t beat the eggs enough because there would be a completely hollow shell because the meringue wouldn’t set properly and would sink to the bottom of the cookie and be kinda gross.
These are the chocolate orange ones I made:
The shells turned out really flat and the feet were HUUUGE in the oven, but I think I like the Italian meringue method the best.
ALSO, my lovely co-worker, Hannah, told me her mom wanted to make these macarons after reading my blog. HI HANNAH’S MOM! THANKS FOR READING! =D I forget if I mentioned in my previous post, but you can make nut-free macarons with pumpkin seeds! So good luck =)
That’s alllll folks. *cue Bugs Bunny music*
Omg! I spent an entire summer trying to master these but never succeeded, I will totally try again now that I've read your tips! Thanks again for the cookie! -Vic, from upstairs at the PC!
I’m so glad that everything worked out for you. It’s been five years since I put that post together and it is hands-down the most popular post I ever created. It’s amazing how this one little recipe has found its way all over the world in such a short time.
I need to go back and add an update to this post with all the of the good times, tricks, and failures that I’ve seen. Thanks again!
That would be really great to see! I love seeing people’s failures and successes for macarons =) I feel like I actually learn more from mistakes than successes.