macarons

Hello and thanks for your interest in macarons!  I’m a pretty big macaron-ophile so on my blog you will find a lot of posts about making and eating macarons!  I also teach classes around Toronto – check out my classes page for current listings.

Key tools for macaron-making success

I have a step my step tutorial on my blog in this post and you can follow my macaron journey by looking at the macaron category of posts. There are, ahem, a few. For the videos showing each stage of macaron making, see this post.

You will find some wonderful posts on macarons over at my friend Stella’s blog, The Brave Tart – Macaron Mythbusters and The 10 Commandments for making macarons.  My recipe and method are adapted from Stella’s.

I go to Golda’s Kitchen for food colour powder and piping tips and smaller piping bags (reusable or disposable) – they deliver (worldwide!) at reasonable rates.

Amazon is your friend as well. They offer all the equipment you need to bake perfect macarons (links should take you to the Amazon store geographically closest to you)

1. KitchenAid stand mixer. Yes, you can make these with an electric hand beater but my whipping times are based on my own Artisan stand mixer so you will have to adjust.

2. Digital scale. Yes, you need one. My recipe uses weight, not volume. Because a cup of almond flour is a different amount depending on who is measuring it. And because “1 egg white” is different depending on which country you are in. Buy a digital scale. You won’t look back.

3. Large Flat Spatulas

4. Plain piping tips and 18″ disposable piping bags

5. Half sheet pan (conducts heat more evenly and slower than a regular cookie tray)

6. Parchment paper (more reliable and consistent for me than silicone). I like PaperChef brand.

7. In-oven thermometer – in case your oven isn’t really the temperature it says it is on the dial!

8. I buy a wonderful array of freeze-dried fruits as well as fabulous ground almonds (also known as almond flour) from Nuts.com with pretty reasonable (and speedy!) shipping (note they ship to Canada on Tuesdays and I regularly will receive shipments by the end of a week).

Almond Flour – 1 pound bag
from: Nuts.com

Macaron recipe

Below, you will find the recipe I use in class – I have tried to break it down as much as I can but please email me (mardimichels@gmail.com) if you have any questions.  If you make these and have trouble, please snap a quick pic and send it to me – I can most likely tell from what they look like what you have done wrong. Please let me know if you tried them at home – I’d love to see what they look like!

 

Yield: 40

Basic Macarons

Print

A basic, virtually no-fail macaron recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes

Additional Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 4 minutes

Ingredients

• 4oz (115g) ground almonds (store bought and sifted before you weigh or home ground in a spice grinder and sifted before you weigh)
• 8oz (230g) icing sugar
• 5oz (144g) egg whites (separated, covered in plastic wrap and left at room temperature for a few hours)
• 
2.5oz (72g) granulated sugar
• (food colouring powder – about 2 teaspoons for this amount of macarons)

Instructions

1. Make sure egg whites are at room temperature.
2. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
3. Prepare a 14” piping bag with a plain tip (I use Ateco 803), twist the bag at the tip end and place inside a glass to facilitate filling the bag.
4. Combine almond flour and powdered sugar (and freeze dried fruit powder or cocoa powder) in a food processor, pulsing about 10 times for a few seconds, until all ingredients thoroughly incorporated.
5. Sift dry ingredients twice using a fine sieve and pressing the mixture through with your hands and set aside.
6. Using a stand mixer, beat the egg whites and sugar at a low speed (KitchenAid 4) for 2 minutes, medium speed (KitchenAid 6) for 2 minutes and a high speed (KitchenAid 8) for 2 minutes. The egg whites will be a large mass at this point; don’t worry!
7. Add the colouring powder and mix for one minute at the highest speed (KitchenAid 10).
8. Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites. You can do this all at once – don’t be shy!
9. 9. Fold the mixture, at the same time pressing it against the sides of the bowl to deflate the mixture. Fold this mixture about 40 times (counting single strokes), stopping every couple of strokes after 25 to check the consistency. It should be lava-like, flowing in ribbons off the spatula.
10. Transfer the mixture to the piping bag, sealing the open end with a twist and holding firmly with the hand that will not be actively piping.
11. Pipe four tiny dots of mixture under the corners of the parchment paper to make sure it stays put.
12. Pipe your macarons, holding the piping tip at an angle to the baking sheet, about 3cm in diameter (they will spread during cooking), and quickly removing the tip when you have finished piping, making a shape like a comma. Rap the tray four times on each side hard on a countertop to remove any remaining air bubbles.
13. REST the tray of macaron shells for 30 minutes before baking. At this point you should pre-heat the oven to 300˚F.
14. Place the tray of macarons on an empty baking tray and bake for 14-18 minutes at 300˚F, turning the tray from back to front halfway through.
15. Remove from oven and let the tray sit for a few minutes.
16. Remove the parchment from the tray and place on a cooling rack and allow the macarons to cool completely. Remove from parchment paper.
17. Pair up like shells to facilitate the filling process.
18. Once completely cool, fill with ganache or filling of your choice.
19. Best enjoyed 24 hours after filling.

Notes

Adapted from Stella Parks (bravetart.com/)

did you make this recipe?

please leave a comment or review on the blog or share a photo and tag me on Instagram @eatlivtravwrite !

________

Please note: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post also contains affiliate links from Nuts.com. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance! The other stores are not affiliate links, just places I love to shop!