Ingredients

Method

French Macaron Method

Before you begin making your macaroons you must clean your bowl and whisks with white vinegar to remove any trace of fats from your equipment which could affect your bake.

Also make sure you weigh all your ingredients accurately and also make sure your egg whites are at room temperature.

You don’t have to do this next procedure but these can be tricky little critters to bake so if you want to take every precaution place your ground almonds and icing sugar in a magimix and pulse for a few seconds to make sure your almond flour is super fine. Don’t pulse for too long as you don’t want the oils to come out of the ground almonds.

Pour the powdered sugar and ground almond mix into a sieve and sieve into a clean bowl, any almond flour that is left in the sieve discard. Repeat this process of sifting once again.

Separate the eggs into separate bowls and weigh the egg whites to make sure you have the correct amount in weight, you can save the yolks to make lemon curd or custard. I suggest that when you separate the eggs you separate each one into a separate bowl in case you get any yolk in the whites because if you do this will not allow the egg whites to whisk fully so by doing it into a separate bowl you can then add the white knowing there is no egg yolk in your whites but if you should get some yolk in your white you can discard that one and not waste all the egg whites you have already separated. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature.

Place your whites into your stand mixer and turn on the mixer on a low speed. If you’re using a KitchenAid I would put it on the second lowest setting, have your sugar and your cream of tartar ready, start the stand mixer beating the egg whites. Allow them to mix for 50 seconds or until the egg whites become frothy and lighter in colour. There will be tiny bubbles and they will still look like egg whites . Without stopping the mixer, add your cream of tartar and mix this for about one minute 15 seconds. It will look smoother and lighter in colour and you will begin to see lines in the batter as the beaters cut through the batter. Slowly add the sugar a small amount at a time and turn you mixer up to full speed and let it beat for two minutes and 50 seconds.

When you lift the whisk out of the bowl the meringue should be clumped on the end of the whisk and stand up in a stiff peak.

So now we’re going to fold the dry ingredients into the meringue and this is where you begin something which is known as macronage. Take a third of your dry ingredients and sieve them into your meringue take a spatula and fold the dry ingredients into the meringue by scraping around the side of the bowl and press through the middle of the bowl turning the bowl slightly as you go, scrape press turn. Make sure you are going all the way to the bottom of the bowl to incorporate the mixture that is sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Count how many times you go around the bowl, you want to do this 10 times.

Add another third of your dry ingredients into the sieve and sieve it into your bowl and repeat the process stirring around the outside of the bowl and coming up in the middle not forgetting to scrape underneath for a further 10 times. Add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl and this time go around the bowl and through the middle 20 times.

This is where you can add food colouring if you want to. When adding food colouring use a gel not a liquid and make the colour a little darker than you want as they will lose some colour as they bake.

This is now where we start the macaronage process which is where we deflate the mixture until it runs from the spatula slowly forming ribbons as it falls and then melds back into the mixture after about 15 seconds.

Check your batter to see if it falls off the spatula in a ribbon. If it falls off like a blob it is not ready. If it is not ready fold another 16 times and check again. You want the edges of the batter to be jagged and the batter to flow into ribbons off the end of the spatula like lava and you can drawer the figure eight and then the batter levels almost back into the mixture. If your batter is not doing this fold for a further 11 times and check again. If it looks as if it is there let the batter sit for 20 seconds to see if the batter levels back into the meringue.

If it is still too stiff to ribbon fold it for another 8 turns and check again. Let that sit for 30 seconds to see if it flattens but don’t let it sit for any longer than that.Don’t over mix the batter and allow it to be too runny or you will have flat meringues with no feet.

Place a nozzle into a piping bag and twist the piping bag just above the nozzle to stop the batter from running out and place the piping bag into a tall glass or jug and put the edges of the piping bag over the edges of the glass or jug and push your hand into the glass or jug to open the entrance to the piping bag ready to fill. Put the batter into the piping bag immediately. Make sure you put all the batter into the piping bag, if you need to use more than one that’s fine but don’t leave some sit in the bowl as it will deteriorate if left out too long.

You don’t have to use a guide but I like to. Place the guide on the baking tray and place a silicone mat or some parchment paper on top and pipe the meringues following the guide. When you pipe the meringues, twist the top of the piping bag and hold the piping bag upright, hold it still and pipe from the top of the bag with your nozzle just above the mat or parchment and do a little circular flick at the end. You do not need to pipe in a circular motion, hold the bag still and squeeze and it will make a perfect circle on its own. Fill the tray with the macaron batter.

Now slam the trays down on the bench twice quite hard to get the air bubbles out. This helps to even out the batter and releases the air bubbles in the batter to stop the shells being hollow inside. If some bubbles persist use a cocktail stick to pop the air bubbles. This will also help to stop the macaroons from cracking. Slip the guide out from under the mat or paper and leave the meringues to dry on the surface. This can take 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the humidity in your kitchen. This will stop the batter from spreading as you want your batter to rise not flatten.

While they are drying put your oven on 150ºC /300ºF and put the rack in the middle of your oven. If you use a convection oven you may have to adjust your oven down to as low as 130ºC /260ºF but you probably know what adjustment to make for your oven.

When the meringues are dry to the touch and shinny they are ready to bake.

Only bake one tray at a time and bake from (12-15) 15-18 minutes on the middle shelf. If your oven doesn’t bake evenly turn your tray half way through the cooking time.

The warm air in the oven causes the air in the batter to expand causing pressure in the macaron and lifts the macaron off the baking sheet and creates the “feet” on your macaron.

If your oven gets too hot from the top and browns your macarons place a sheet of foil half way through baking on the top shelf.

Once cooled they should come off the mat or paper cleanly. If they are not completely cool they will stick to your mat or paper.

Make your filling and pipe it only on the bottom of the shell and sandwich a macaron on top. Place the macaroons in the fridge for at least 12 hours but ideally 24hours.

Store in an airtight container. They will keep for about a week. You can also freeze macaroons either just the shells unfilled or filled. I put them into a ziplock bag and then into an airtight container. They will freeze for up to 3 months but for best results use after 1 month.