I finally had a free day to myself this Sunday with zero commitments, so my friend and I decided to try our hands at the French macaron. The macaron is probably one of the most intimidating baking challenges out there. If you mess up a ratio, forget to pop a few bubbles, or simply open the oven too soon, all can be lost. That said, we were determined to tease out the tricks of the pesky macaron. We made a number of different batches and tried a few different techniques to get the very best version – which, I won’t lie, took a good amount of time. After a few mishaps and broken macaron cookies (poor babies), we finally started to get the hang of it!
Despite it’s insane difficulty level, the basic elements of the macaron are relatively simple. Essentially you whip up a meringue (egg whites and sugar), sift powdered sugar and almond flour together, add some flavor and color, then voila! Just add about forty more steps and you’re half way there! After many trials and tribulations, we finally settled on what we decided was the best method to get the most perfect macarons possible. The biggest secret? Patience. Which I am notoriously so great at…
We adapted this recipe from The Food Network.
Ingredient List:
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 3 large egg whites – room temp
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- ¼ cup caster sugar
- 3 – 4 drops food coloring
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- your favorite flavor of jam
Kitchen Tools: whisk, stand mixer with whisk attachment, fine mesh sieve, parchment paper, piping bags with 1/4 inch round tip, clear silicon baking mat, 2 baking sheets, oven with convection setting, coffee grinder or spice mill, chip clip, toothpick
Prep Work:
Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your silicon baking mat. Use a sharpie to trace 24 circles 1 ¼” in diameter each on the parchment paper (6 across and 4 down). Place the parchment paper on the baking sheet and lay the silicon mat on top. You should be able to see the circles through the mat. Repeat for the second baking sheet.
Measure out powdered sugar and sift through your sieve into a mixing bowl. The best way I found to sift was to smack the sieve against the side of my left palm to jostle the powdered sugar on through. Do the same for the almond flour. Not all of the flour is going to make it through the sieve, so take the remaining large bits and run them through a clean coffee grinder or spice mill. Pour the freshly ground almond flour back into the sieve and repeat your tapping process to get it through. If there are still a few tbsp of almond flour that don’t make it through after this, just toss them.
Whisk the powdered sugar and almond flour together until they are indistinguishable from one another. Wash out your stand mixer’s bowl with soap and warm water. Dry completely with a dish towel.
Separate your eggs and plop the egg whites into your stand mixer’s bowl. Make sure there are absolutely no bits of egg yolk in the mix – any fat will keep your egg whites from stiffening up when whisked. (This is why I had you wash out the bowl first, just in case).
Add cream of tartar and a pinch of kosher salt to the egg whites. Using the whisk attachment, whisk on medium speed until egg whites are frothy – about 2 minutes.
Once frothy, increase the speed to medium high and add in the caster sugar one spoonful at a time to create your meringue. After all the sugar is added, continue to whisk on medium high for 5 minutes until the meringue is stiff and glossy.
Use a rubber spatula to transfer half of the meringue into the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture. Gently incorporate them as best you can (it’s going to seem a bit weird and impossible at first), then add in the remaining meringue. Fold the meringue into the flour until it is fully incorporated.
Fold in the food coloring and almond extract.
You’ll know you’re done folding when the batter falls in a thin continuous ribbon from the spatula when you lift it out of the batter.
Fill your piping bag with the batter and secure the end with a chip clip. {I found that placing the piping bag inside a large mason jar with the ends wrapped around the lip made this a whole lot easier}
Pipe about 2 tsp of batter onto each circle, making sure that the batter stays within ¼” from the edge of the circle (they’ll spread out as they settle).
Once all the batter has been piped, use both hands to smack the baking sheets against the counter top a few times. This will release the bubbles from inside the batter so that your cookies are even and pretty on top.
Baking:
Preheat your oven to 300* F and turn on the convection. {if you are using an electric convection oven, lower the heat to 280*F} I use the preheating setting as a sort of timer for the next step.
Use a toothpick to pop any bubbles that appear on the top of the cookies. Do this for about 2 minutes (they’ll keep appearing), then let them sit undisturbed on your work surface while the oven warms up. They will be ready to plop in the oven when they are no longer tacky to the touch and a light tap with your finger leaves a small dent – emphasis on light.
Bake each sheet of cookies separately for 17 minutes each. Very specific, I know. {15 minutes left them under-cooked in the middle and 20 minutes dried them out too much.}
Carefully remove the silicon mat from the hot baking sheet so that the macaron cookies stop baking. Let them sit on the silicon mat for about 15 minutes until they are fully cooled. Only after they have sat can you start to carefully remove them from the mat. {the best method we found was to go one at a time holding the cookie in one hand while carefully bending and peeling the mat off of them.
Assembly:
Match cookies by size into pairs. There’s always a little variation, no matter how perfect you piped them in the beginning. Fill a piping bag with your favorite kind of jam (anything without seeds or chunks of fruit will work). Pipe jam onto one side of the cookie pair, then carefully place the other side on top. Repeat for remaining cookies.
Voila! You have mastered the French macaron!
Super special thanks to Jasmine for lending her baking and hand modeling skills!
Incredible! Thank you for the examples!!