Lots of people say that for macarons you should “age” the egg whites at least three days in a glass container in the fridge.
Simple Macarons
{makes about 40-ish shells for 20 cookies}
3/4 cup ground almond flour/meal
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 large egg whites
3 & 1/2 TBSP granulated sugar
food color (optional)
buttercream, ganache, or Nutella for filling
Stack 2 cookie sheets, one top of the other, unless you are starting with very thick, insulated sheets. Use a 1.5” cookie cutter to trace guidelines for piping the macarons on a piece of parchment. Leave about 1 inch between each circle. Flip the parchment over, and place on the top cookie sheet.
Combine the almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor. Process for about 30-seconds to 1 minutes, until combined. Sift the mixture or shake through a fine sieve into a bowl. (About 2 tablespoons of larger pieces are ok, just stir them into the rest.) Set aside.
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites on medium-low, until frothy. Increase the speed to medium, and continue whisking until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running, gradually add in the granulated sugar. Scrape down the side of the bowl if needed.
Increase the speed to medium-high, beating until the eggs are glossy and come to a stiff peak. Add food coloring, if using, note that more food coloring may affect the baking time. (I used just a bit of AmeriColor Deep Pink.) Beat until the egg whites form a clump in the whisk attachment and are stiff.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and sift about half of the almond flour mixture over the meringue. Use a silicone spatula to fold into the meringue, using about 10 strokes; don’t expect it to come together completely. Sift the remaining almond flour mixture into the bowl, (it’s ok to add in the 2 TBSP or so of larger pieces that won’t go through the sifter), and continue to fold into the meringue.
Don’t worry about being gentle; you want to deflate the egg whites. Fold until the mixture comes together, but avoid overmixing. Be sure to scrape the bowl to avoid stray bits of meringue remaining unincorporated. The batter will loosen and start to fall in the “ribbon” off of the spatula. A ribbon or dollop of batter dropped back into the bowl, should reincorporate into the rest of the batter in 20-30 seconds. This should take no more than 50 strokes total.
Spoon the 1/2 the batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1/2” tip (I found that just using the coupler without a tip worked great for this). Pipe the batter onto the parchment, using the circles as a guide, staying just inside the lines (the batter will spread a bit). Repeat with the remaining batter.
Let the piped batter to dry for about 15 minutes-30 minutes while the oven preheats to 350.
Bake for 11-12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The tops should be firm and glossy and the bottoms of the shells should have formed “feet” or frills at the bottom. When done, the cookies will lift fairly easily from the parchment.
Remove from the oven, place the cookie sheets on a wire rack and let cool completely on the sheet.
Once cool, remove the cookies from the parchment and fill. Lightly press the cookies together.
Macarons taste best after 24 hours, so place in a container between layers of wax paper and be patient. :) After 24 hours, remove from the refrigerator and let the cookies come to room temperature, or close to it, before serving.
Lord..that looks really interesting....you’ve just complicated my life this week...
I am a baker and used to teach classes on how to make macarons. Your instructions are great, but I would add just a couple of small hints.
Aging the egg whites is helpful. Just leave them uncovered in the fridge overnight. It reduces the amount of water in the egg white.
If you use parchment, you don’t need to butter it. Parchment has a little bit of silicone in it, so things don’t stick. Also, silpats work really well for macarons. If you use one, just dip your cookie cutter into flour and touch the silpat. It will leave just enough of a ring to show you how large to make your cookie.
When you whip your egg whites you want them to be glossy and stiff. Don’t overwhip them until they start to look dry and almost curdled. They will start to separate if you do, and be more difficult to fold into the flour mixture.
Folding until you get a ribbon is the key. And after you have piped them, leave them to dry a bit, until they have “set”. When they are set you can gently touch them and they won’t stick to your finger. Setting is what allows the cookies to form a “foot”. The time may vary depending on how humid it is in your kitchen.
We always filled them with an Italian buttercream (yummy). However, when you make it, be sure to use a European butter. American butter is made from sweet cream, and European butter is made from clabbered (soured) cream. Because of that, the European butter has more of a “tang” to it, and it is just wonderful in buttercream. When made with American butter, it just tastes like sweet grease.
Good luck. They are just yummy!
Looking at past recipe threads I came across your recipe for Macarons. I taught myself to make them when DIL requested them for her and son’s wedding. I was having a hard time getting consistant results until I followed the instructions in Jill Colonna’s book “Mad About Macarons”. I get good results 90% of the time now. Those cookies are really good! I especially love the macs filled with Dark Chocolate ganache and I’ve made up my own like Black Walnut macarons with maple buttercream filling. Wish I had time to do some but have other Christmas baking to do!