Sometimes when I whine about not being able to drink eggnog year round or being unable to find a bakery in town that makes French macarons, I keep forgetting that I can learn how to make them myself. I realized that eggnog is surprisingly easy to make and I no longer have to wait every fall-winter season for the stores to stock it anymore. As for the macarons, I was a little apprehensive because I knew it was going to be a little tougher to master.
But I had to do it…I’ve had this greatly under-used beautiful Kitchen-Aid stand mixer that I received 5 Christmases ago that I haven’t fully learned to appreciate until this year so I really had no excuse as far as equipment goes.
I’ve done a lot of reading online and watching youtube videos to familiarize myself with the technique and I’m glad I did because if I just selected a recipe at random, I probably would’ve had a lot of trouble with it. After reading the various websites, I’ve gathered a few things:
-it’s better to “age” the egg whites for a few days (many people say you don’t have to but it’s highly recommended)
-a kitchen scale is a MUST (I got one for under $15 on Amazon)
-the batter should flow slowly and thickly (many websites describe the batter as “magma”-like) and overmixing is bad.
-allowing the macarons to dry before baking is a good way to ensure proper rising of the shells and feet formation. The “feet” is that crumbly edge all around the cookie that you want to achieve each and every time.
-For beginners like me, the Italian meringue method, though more involved, would be better than the French meringue because it produces a much more stable meringue that offers less room for error when it comes to mixing the batter, the “macaronage” stage.
With that all said, I was mostly successful in making my first macarons. I made raspberry one day (I had aged the egg whites for 4 days in the fridge) and it came out pretty nice. They removed easily from the parchment paper for the most part, though some left some of their “bellies” behind on the paper. I did notice that between the 2 kinds of baking sheets I’ve used, the one that was insulated (those Airbake sheets) produced a much better macaron (nice color, good feet) than a normal baking sheet which produced a dingy brown tinge and some feet development. I think I read somewhere that some people double up on baking sheets to allow the heat to cook the macrons more gently. The general consensus when it comes to oven temp and baking time is that not all ovens are alike; you have to play around with settings to find the one that’s just right.
Anyway, the next day I made pistachio macarons and that wasn’t as successful. I had accidentally overmixed the batter–or at least I think that was the culprit. It could’ve been other factors such as the egg white; I had only aged it 24 hrs, or the meringue formation…at one point, instead of slowly adding the hot sugar syrup into the beating egg white (in the mixer), I stopped the mixer and poured all of the syrup into the mixing bowl to prevent the wire whisk from spreading the syrup all around the edges of the bowl (which eventually and irritatingly hardens into rock candy). Whatever the reason was, it made my batter a little too runny and after piping my 1″ circles, they spread out into nearly half dollar sizes! When I took them out of the oven (both raspberry and pistachio macs were dried for 30 minutes), the macarons were flatter and had small feet formation and the ones baked on the non-insulated pan had that dingy brown tinge and made the shells hard and hollow, with a chewy bottom. It was a little disappointing but at least I know what to expect now. I’m going to try this again and see how this next set fares. I’m posting a video to my first time attempt below (after the pictures).
links that were really helpful:
Food Geek – this is the recipe I used for the raspberry macs
Not So Humble Pie – this is excellent. It has pictures of batter formation
Congratulations, im really impressed with your macaroons, they´re almost perfect!!! Its supposed to be a very very difficult recipe, but you just make it look easy!
Hi! It’s so encouraging to hear that these macarons were your first attempt! I’m also trying to make them for the first time and plan to follow the “almost foolproof method,” but I just had some questions.
When it says “In a stand mixer, whip 60g egg whites to soft peaks, add 35g sugar,” are you supposed to add in the sugar after the soft peaks form? And if so, do you just dump the sugar in and then add the syrup, or do you mix the sugar with the egg whites first? And mix using a rubber spatula, or beat it?
Also, when it says:
“Mix the remaining 60g of egg whites and the sifted almond/sugar” does it mean to mix it gently with a spatula or beat it with the beater? I would appreciate it if you can answer these questions! I also left the same comment on your Youtube video, thanks so much!
I think that it means to gradually add the sugar once the soft peaks form in the mixer and continue mixing then slowly add the hot syrup as the mixer is moving. That part will take around 10 minutes because you’re supposed to beat the egg whites and cool the mixture at the same time since the syrup is boiling hot.
I mixed the egg whites and almond/sugar mixture with a spatula until it formed a thick paste and carefully folded the meringue into it.
Hope that clears it up
Can you please send me the songs you used for your video when you made the raspberry macarons? I am dying to have them downloaded on my Mac :’(
yeongjia@gmail.com
Thank you so much! and the tutorial was absolutely spot on!