Hey everyone, guess what.
I did it.
I made really yummy macarons!!!!!!!
So the story starts back when I went to NYC a few weeks ago
and had some macarons from Ladurée.
I had eaten macarons a few times in the past, but these
macarons from Ladurée were like nothing I’d eaten before. The magical crunchy, but chewy texture, along with the endless possibilities of flavors totally entranced me. I had been
meaning to make them all summer so finally, about a week ago I attempted my
first batch. I researched and studied online about the best way to make
them, and from what I had read, I decided on the Italian meringue method. This
method includes a sugar syrup and does not require aging of the egg whites,
which is nice.
So anyway, there was a reason I called that my first attempt at macarons. They did not turn
out that well.
First of all, there were just SO many. I had 5 baking trays
filled with these cookies, and for anyone familiar with macaron making, this is
not a good thing. Macarons are pesky little treats, and small things from the
temperature of the room and how long the batter sits out can affect how the
cookies turn out. The other issue was that my recipe told me to keep folding
the batter until the consistency was ribbon-like. I found out too late that the key to macarons is not to over-mix the batter!! It is better for your batter to be too thick than too
runny. The final major issue with my macarons was that I had no idea how long to
bake them. My recipe told me to take them out after 9 minutes, and they were
WAY TOO UNDERDONE. When I tried to lift them up off the parchment, the caps
came off and there was a gooey mess under them. Bye-bye two trays of macs. I
was able to bake the other trays for a little longer, and they didn’t turn out
so bad. In general, the macs were a little thinner and less uniform than I
wanted.
The next day, I filled the cookies with leftover chocolate
pastry cream that I had made for a cake earlier in the week. BAD IDEA. Don’t
fill you macarons with pastry cream. It has too much water content or
something, because I took them out of the fridge and had to throw most of them
out because they were SO soggy.
My first macaron experience wasn’t optimal. But I did learn
some key tips from the attempt:
1. Bake at 300 F for
longer than 12 minutes
2. Let them cool completely before trying to remove them
from the parchment
3. Work quickly when piping the batter
4. Rotate the pans in the oven
5. Do not over-mix
the batter
6. Be extremely gentle when mixing, handling the
7. Stiff peaks should form in the meringue—that means the
tip of the peak should not curl down. However, do not overbeat.
8. Rest the shells for 20-40 minutes in a cool dry place, they
should not be sticky when you touch them
So keeping these tips in mind, I embarked on my second
journey with macarons. This time I was going to try the French method, with
aged egg whites and all. Guess what? Success! They didn’t turn out absolutely
perfect because the batter was a little lumpy, but I think I know how to fix it
next time. To fill these little beauties, I made up my own recipe for blueberry
mascarpone filling, and it was so delicious!! Below is the French method posted
by Food Nouveau, which you can find at this link.
Definitely go check out this website, it has so many
troubleshooting pages and it helped me so much! {I have also included my own
comments/tips within the recipe}
Some final tips before you begin:
I recommend tracing circles on the underside of the
parchment paper if you want uniform macarons—it really helps! I used a pill
bottle to trace circles, cap side down.
Get ALL of your bowls, parchment, piping bags, etc. out and
ready before you even start opening your ingredients. Everything needs to be
prepped and ready so you have it the moment you need it.
It is detrimental that you use a gram scale to measure out
your ingredients. Precision is key in macaron making.
Sifting the almond flour with the powdered sugar sucks. It takes
forever, but be patient and do it--it is key to smooth macarons.
Macarons: Basic Recipe
These ingredients will make the
cookies. This is the base and what’s hardest to master. You should try to
successfully bake a couple recipes of basic macarons before trying to mix in
other flavors.
Makes about 60 small (1.35-inch [35 mm] diameter) cookies,
or 30 assembled macarons.
{ 3 egg whites (from large eggs),
separated at least 24 hours in advance and kept in the refrigerator
/ 210 g
powdered sugar
/ 125 g almond meal
/ 30 g regular granulated sugar }
A couple of days before you plan to
make your macarons: Prepare your eggs. Separate them,
putting the whites in a clean airtight container and reserving the yolks for
another use. Now, your egg whites must “age”: they need to spend at least 24h
(up to 5 days) in the refrigerator before you use them.
The morning of the day you plan to
make your macarons: Take your egg whites out of the
refrigerator and leave them to temper at room temperature for several hours. {THIS
IS A VITAL STEP. Your meringue will not be the right glossy consistency if you
use cold egg whites. I took mine out of the fridge before I went to bed the
night before.}
Making the cookies:
Measure the powdered sugar and almond
meal and put them in the bowl of your food processor. Finely grind the
two together for a minute or two. Stop the processor, scrape the sides and
bottom of the bowl, and process again for a minute.
After processing the powdered sugar
and almond meal, you have to sieve the mixture. This is really important
(especially if you don’t have a food processor) as it will get rid of the
remaining bigger bits and ensure a smooth batter. You will see some of the
almond refuses to pass though your sieve. Don’t try to force it through; it’s
ok to throw it away. The quantity shouldn’t be significant enough to unbalance
your recipe.
Set this bowl aside and take your
bigger stainless steel bowl out. Make sure your bowl is cold.
Stainless steel usually remains cold by itself, but if it’s not, rinse it under
cold water (or stick it in the freezer for a couple of minutes) and dry it
before continuing. A cold bowl also makes egg whites happy.
Make sure your granulated sugar is
measured and close to your working area. Put your egg whites in
the bowl. Start beating them at medium/high speed with your mixer. Once
they start to get bubbly and white and you see your whisk is lightly leaving
marks, add a tablespoon of the granulated sugar.
Continue beating and add the
remaining sugar slowly over the next minute or two. Your eggs will now be white
and fluff but not stiff enough. Continue beating at high speed until peaks form
and remain up when you take out your whisk (stop your mixer before trying this!).
When the egg whites are ready, you’ll notice that they seem dense and creamy
and not as bubbly anymore.
Now is the time to put your electric
appliances aside. Your egg whites are delicate and you must treat them
gently. If you wish to add color, now is the time to do so. Gently fold
in the color using a spatula: slide your spatula on the side of the bowl
under the egg whites and bring the bottom up to the top. Repeat this until the
color is evenly blended. Now is not the time to be in a hurry: DO NOT whisk
at any cost as it will deflate your egg whites and your batter will
be ruined. At this point, the color of your batter (if you added food coloring)
should be at least as intense as you want the final macaron to be. It will
intensify and brighten a bit when you add the almonds/sugar mixture.
Continuing your folding motion, start
mixing in your dry ingredients a little at a time (you should add the whole
thing in 4 or 5 additions). Carefully blend everything together, always sliding
your spatula to the bottom of the bowl and back up to make sure no pockets of
dry ingredients remain.
When your batter is evenly blended,
it will look shiny and creamy:
Prepare your baking sheets. Double the baking sheets (helps macarons rise and cook more
evenly) then cover each with a well-measured sheet of parchment paper. I have
tried silicon mats before and I don’t think they work well with macarons. Their
rubbery texture seems to cling to the delicate and somewhat sticky cookies so
that you more often than not end up with empty shells (the tender insides
remaining stuck to the silicon).
Now is the time to fit your pastry
bag with its tip. I like to use disposable
pastry bags that I wash 3-4 times before getting rid of them. I find
that plastic pastry bags are more flexible and easier to work with than textile
bags. They are also really easy to clean just by letting hot water run through
them and they don’t stain. {I only had small pastry bags, so I used a giant
freezer bag fitted with a pastry tip. It worked like a charm!}
To make the transfer from bowl to
pastry bag easy, I stand my pastry bag in a measuring cup, folding or
twisting the tip to make sure the batter doesn’t come out too quickly. If your
pastry bags are long, fold it in half to make sure the batter gets to the
bottom of the bag.
Now is the time to work your magic:
you have to hold the tip of your bag with one hand to guide it, and hold the
larger end with your other hand to push the batter down. Place your tip close
to the parchment paper and twist the end of the bag so as to push the batter
down and out to form 1 to 1.5” disks. You can set your macarons pretty close
together as they won’t expand while cooking. When enough batter is out, stop
twisting the end of the bag and swiftly lift your tip up to stop the batter
from coming out. This is tricky: you will need practice. Mastering this
technique will ensure your macarons are uniform in size and round.
Now, don’t panic. Your macarons have
a pointy tip that makes them look like lazy Hershey’s Kisses. Not to worry: as
they rest before cooking, they will smooth out. You can help them though:
lift your baking sheet up a bit and firmly bang it on the table a couple of
times. This will even the caps and take the air bubbles out of them.
The next step will once again test
your patience: you have to let your macarons rest on the baking sheets
at room temperature for at least 20 minutes (some say a couple hours is best
but I’m not that patient). You just have to. This step will “dry” the
caps and help them rise later when they cook.
Halfway through the wait, preheat
your oven between 275 and 300°F (135-150°C). Every oven behaves differently.
I have a gas oven and 300°F (150°C) is generally good for me. In some ovens,
this temperature can be too hot, especially for light-colored macarons (you
don’t want them to brown). I prefer to play it safe, cook them at a lower
temperature and leave them longer in the oven. You will have to test your own
oven and stay close to it to watch over your macarons as they cook.
I baked these macarons at 300°F
(150°C) for 14 minutes. Your cooking time could be
anywhere between 13 and 18 minutes. From 12 minutes on, watch closely, and
avoid opening your oven door before that. Your macarons are ready when they
look dry and matte and seem firm on their crown when you lightly tap on them. Overcooking
the macarons will make them too crunchy and feel like meringue. Undercooking
them will make them separate when you try to lift them off the sheets. I know,
it’s tricky! After a while, you will know your oven and get better at figuring
when your macarons are done. In any case, please play it safe when setting your
oven temperature. Excessive heat is the macaron’s worst enemy: they will
cook too quickly, cracking like meringue and browning, hiding their beautiful
color.
{It is WAY better to overcook your macs,
or else you might not be able to get them off the parchment. I ended up cooking
mine probably more toward the 18 minutes one pan at a time, rotating the pans
halfway through the cooking time because like many ovens, mine does not have
even heat throughout.}
{My largest issue was the cooking
time, and I literally just sat with my face pressed up to the oven once it hit the 12 minute mark. Tap lightly on the top of one of the macarons to see if they are
done. If it cracks, it is not baked enough.}
When they are done, take the sheets
out of the oven and let them cool on a rack. If you need to reuse your baking
sheets for the next batch, let them cool 5-10 minutes in the baking sheet and
then lift the parchment paper out of the sheet to set it directly on the
cooling rack (this is why it’s good to have more than 2 sheets).
Once cooled to room temperature, your
macarons are ready to be assembled.
When they are perfectly cooked, they
should lift easily from the parchment paper, have a flat bottom and a beautiful
puffy crown. If they stick a bit, help them up with a thin stainless steel
spatula so that they don’t separate or break. If they’re a bit overcooked, they
will be hollow under the cap. You can still use them, you’ll just have to put
more cream to assemble them (yum!).
Match the cap sizes that fit best
together. For the filling, the possibilities are as great as your imagination
is. For lemon macarons, you can fill them up with lemon curd, or with a
lemon-flavored buttercream. If you made pink cookies, fill them up with
good-quality raspberry preserves or, if you feel decadent, with a mixture of
mascarpone cheese and preserves. The only thing that’s important is to make
sure the filling is firm enough to not drip out from the macarons. A great
macaron should be able to stand on its side and not lose its filling.
Using an icing spatula (or just a
regular butter knife) spread your icing on one cookie. Place the other cookie
on the icing and press gently to stick them together.
{I piped in my filling, because I
found that it is easy to get the filling stuck on the sizes if you try to
spread it on.}
Once all of your macarons are
assembled, in an ideal world, you would put them in an airtight container,
in the refrigerator and let them rest for another 24 hours. Yes, you need
patience once again. They won’t be bad if you eat them right away.
Letting them rest with their icing in really reveals the fine texture of the
macaron. The humidity of the icing will get into the crispy caps and that’s
what will make them crisp on the outside and so tender on the inside. Try to be
patient, trust me, it’s really worth the wait. The good thing is that it’s a
great dessert to make in advance and it will for sure impress your guests.
They will be at their best if you eat them in the next 4-5 days.
{What I ended up doing after filling them is individually wrapping
each one in plastic wrap and putting them in a container in the freezer. Just
take the macaron out of the freezer 30 minutes before you want to eat it so it
can come to room temperature. This worked so well--I got the crunchy/chewy texture and no sogginess!!!}
Blueberry Mascarpone Macaron Filling
{ 1 8 oz containter of mascarpone cheese /
4 Tablespoons organic, good quality jam or preserves /
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar / 1 teaspoon vanilla }
Whisk the mascarpone cheese in a bowl. Whisk in the
preserves, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add more preserves or sugar if needed,
1 teaspoon at a time. Pay attention to the consistency of the filling, ensuring
that it stays thick and creamy. You do not want it to get too thin.
Pipe into your macarons after the shells have cooled and
enjoy!
Macarons are a true delight if you succeed at making them.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and make mistakes…good luck!
*Quick side note
I found this great website about ways to use the leftover egg
yolks. Eggs can produce so many delicious things. They are magical, I tell you.
Some of my favorites are:
Mayo
Spaghetti Carbonara
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