How idyllic it would sound to say the love affair I have with macarons began with love at first sight. But au contraire, my first encounter with macarons ended with me washing it down with a gallon of water to get rid of the taste. What was wrong with me then, i'll never know.
It all changed however, when a friend of mine offered to teach me how to make them! My interest was piqued by my first failed batch of macarons (and my frustration with the next 3 failed attempts). Nothing like a challenge to make you want to bake multiple batches of macarons in a day.
Three months on, i'm happy to say that I've finally found a quick and foolproof recipe! No more trying to juggle all my baking equipment/ingredients with crossed fingers, hoping that the shells wouldn't turn into monstrosities once they entered the dungeon of my oven. This recipe even makes macarons that are less sweet than the usual french meringue recipes!
And, there's nothing I love more than pictures to go with instructions! Seriously, how am I supposed to know how lightly is "lightly whipped" or how pale is "pale and creamy"?
Basic Macaron Shells
Dry ingredients:
205g icing sugar
140 almond meal
Powdered food coloring
2 tbsp of powdered flavoring (see tips)
For the meringue:
144g egg whites, aged (see tips for on-the-spot aging)
72g caster sugar
Preparation
Weigh out your ingredients accurately using a digital weighing scale. If you have not aged your eggs, microwave them in a covered bowl for 20 seconds on high, checking every 10 seconds to ensure they have not cooked (they will turn opaque white).
Ensure that the baking paper sits nicely within your tray. If it folds up the sides as shown above, your macarons will become out of shape as the baking paper will lift.
Cut off the tip of your piping bag and put in a Wilton #11 tip. Stuff a bit of the bag into the tip to prevent the batter from leaking out when you fill the bag.
Place the piping bag into a cup and fold it over your hand to keep the bag clean and neat when you fill it.
Directions
1. Process the dry ingredients in a food processor until well mixed and to break up all the lumps. The icing sugar also helps absorb the oil from the almond meal while processing so that it does not clump up.
2. Sift the almond meal and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add egg whites and caster sugar and whisk using an electric mixer. Whisk for 2 minutes at Speed 4, 2 minutes at Speed 6, 2 minutes at Speed 8. (Kitchenaid mixer speeds)
4. Add gel coloring (if needed) to the egg mixture and whisk for 1 minute at Speed 10. The meringues will be very stiff, and almost solid-like.
5. Spoon the meringues into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until the mixture runs off the back of the spatula and forms thick ribbons in the batter.
6. Use a teaspoon to spoon half a teaspoon of batter onto a flat plate to test if the consistency is right before you fill your piping bag. With a few taps to the bottom of the plate, the batter should flatten out until the peak almost disappears after 15 seconds.
7. Pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #11 tip. Use a chopping board to push the batter down to the tip.
8. Using the template laid under a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray, pipe within the lines of the circles. Pull out the template sheet after piping.
9. Leave to dry for about 20-30 minutes until a skin forms. When you gently tough a finger to the shell, it shuold come away with no batter on your finger.
10. Bake at for 150°C for 15 minutes on the middle rack.
11. Remove tray from oven and slide the baking paper with the shells onto a cooling rack and wait till completely cool to fill.
Tips
- To flavor the shells, add 2 tbsp of cocoa powder, ground tea leaves or ground freeze-dried fruit to the dried ingredients.
- To age the egg whites on the spot, microwave them for 20 seconds. Because microwave ovens vary, check the egg whites after the first 10 seconds to make sure it hasn't cooked (it turns opaque white when it cooks).
- When attempting the "macaronage", test the consistency by spooning out some batter with a teaspoon and dropping it onto a flat plate. The tip of the batter should settle into the rest of the batter within 15 seconds.
- If you want to sprinkle crumbs or any powder/decorations on your macaron shells, wait until the shells have dried and formed a skin before doing so. This prevents the shells from cracking when they bake.
- The type of baking tray used can affect the feet of the macaron. I have found that a thicker, more insulated baking tray gives more even and small, neat feet. I use Wilton Recipe Right Cookie Pans. A thin Analon cookie sheet that I used warped slightly in the oven and caused lopsided feet.
- Refrigerating macarons overnight after filling allows the moisture of the filling to soak into the shells so that you achieve the chewy centre of the macaron.
- The only way to make macarons less sweet is to reduce the sweetness of the filling. I have tried to vary the ratios of icing sugar and almond meal but this was the lowest I could go without getting lumpy macaroons that cracked while baking.
