A Guide for Baking Macarons
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The macaron is an especially fancy, in-demand baked good and maybe you're eager to learn how to make it. Master it and you will no doubt impress many friends, neighbors, and party-goers with your macaron baking skills.
Here is the ingredients list: - quarter cup of granulated sugar - three egg whites at room temp - one cup almond flour - two cups confectioners' sugar - one teaspoon vanilla extract - some kind of filling (like jam, buttercream, etc) - pinch salt - quarter teaspoon cream of tartar First, you'll preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Place parchment paper on two cookie pans and have those pans ready for later. You will also want to have a decorating (piping) bag ready. Next, sift both your almond flour and confectioners sugar to remove any large bits. |
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Take the tartar, salt, and egg whites, and beat them on a high setting. You're looking for the mixture to become foamy. Reduce the mixer setting and start adding the sugar gradually. Be careful about the setting, because sugar has a tendency to get everywhere. After you do that, you are looking for the mixture to form the classic soft peaks you often want in baking mixtures. Once that happens, add vanilla extract. Keep mixing until those soft peaks become stiff peaks.
Carefully pour the almond flour/confectioners sugar mixture onto your egg mixture. You'll use your spatula to slowly fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture. You'll need to fold things over 40 to 60 times.
Now move the mixed batter to your piping bag. Now you're going to work on your parchment-topped cooking pans, piping circles that are about one inch in diameter, spaced about one inch apart.
Before you go to bake the macarons, tap the pan down onto the counter a few times to remove the air in the macarons. You're going to let the macaron batter circles sit for about 25 or 30 minutes before baking (don't skip this step). Your oven by this point is preheated to 275 and you'll bake about 20 minutes.
Bake, cool, then fill the macarons however you'd like.
If you end up with hollow macarons, it's likely that when you were whipping the egg whites, you either undershot or overshot. You want to make sure that you whip just long enough for the eggs to form stiff peaks, without going any longer. To test for stiff peaks, pull a beater out of the bowl and see if the peaks from the beaten egg that form on the beater (and in the bowl itself) stand up and maintain their shape.
You may want to consider using aged egg whites. This involves separating the egg whites from the yolk then refrigerating them for at least a day. What this does is help guard against over-whipping as you try to get stiff peaks going.
One of the most important steps is when you fold the dry ingredients (almond flour, sugar) into the wet ingredients (the eggs, etc), as mentioned above. Fold the dry ingredients in a bit at a time. You'll find yourself needing to do 50 or more folds.
One way to test whether you've mixed the dry and wet ingredients sufficiently is to take a small bit of batter out with a spatula, then let it drip back in in a figure eight pattern (or whatever pattern). You want to see the pattern melt back in within 10 seconds. If it does, you are done.
Carefully pour the almond flour/confectioners sugar mixture onto your egg mixture. You'll use your spatula to slowly fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture. You'll need to fold things over 40 to 60 times.
Now move the mixed batter to your piping bag. Now you're going to work on your parchment-topped cooking pans, piping circles that are about one inch in diameter, spaced about one inch apart.
Before you go to bake the macarons, tap the pan down onto the counter a few times to remove the air in the macarons. You're going to let the macaron batter circles sit for about 25 or 30 minutes before baking (don't skip this step). Your oven by this point is preheated to 275 and you'll bake about 20 minutes.
Bake, cool, then fill the macarons however you'd like.
If you end up with hollow macarons, it's likely that when you were whipping the egg whites, you either undershot or overshot. You want to make sure that you whip just long enough for the eggs to form stiff peaks, without going any longer. To test for stiff peaks, pull a beater out of the bowl and see if the peaks from the beaten egg that form on the beater (and in the bowl itself) stand up and maintain their shape.
You may want to consider using aged egg whites. This involves separating the egg whites from the yolk then refrigerating them for at least a day. What this does is help guard against over-whipping as you try to get stiff peaks going.
One of the most important steps is when you fold the dry ingredients (almond flour, sugar) into the wet ingredients (the eggs, etc), as mentioned above. Fold the dry ingredients in a bit at a time. You'll find yourself needing to do 50 or more folds.
One way to test whether you've mixed the dry and wet ingredients sufficiently is to take a small bit of batter out with a spatula, then let it drip back in in a figure eight pattern (or whatever pattern). You want to see the pattern melt back in within 10 seconds. If it does, you are done.