Macaroniers, Macaronistes et Macaroneurs,
So you want to make better macarons? Welcome to the third instalment of La Macaronicité at Syrup & Tang! If you missed the introduction, click here to read it. And if you want to learn about basic technique, ingredients and method, visit the second article.
La Macaronicité: Advanced technique and knowledge
Main sections:
Ingredients
Fundamentals
Recipe B — macarons au sucre cuit
Background to my recipe
Please remember that this material is copyright. If you want to use any part of it (beyond a very short quote), please contact me for permission.
There’s a lot of information here and it’s possible that not everything applies to your kitchen or experience. I don’t know everything about them (there’s a limit to how many kilos of almond meal a poor writer can buy!). I welcome feedback about other solutions/explanations/ideas, but please don’t submit comments listing other recipes unless it contributes to a better understanding of the actual process and problems. You’re welcome to contact me directly if you prefer and I’ll incorporate helpful info into the article where appropriate.
Ingredients
To summarise the more detailed ingredient information from the previous article, the macaron batter consists of only four ingredients:
- almond meal (ground almond) – amandes en poudre
- pure icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar, no starch added) – sucre glace
- egg whites, preferably old – blancs d’œufs
- sugar – sucre
On occasion you might also see mention of cream of tartar or salt, both of which strengthen egg white foam.
The batter may be coloured (very common) and flavoured (less common, though not too difficult).
There are three types of recipe:
- macarons au blanc monté (1) – a simple eggwhite foam is combined with the dry ingredients; preferred in Pierre Hermé’s books
- macarons au blanc monté (2) – a simple French meringue is combined with the dry ingredients; in most other books, including Alain Ducasse
- macarons au sucre cuit – an Italian meringue is combined with the dry ingredients; preferred in most professional books
I’ll explain the third recipe type (Italian meringue) here.
The important differences in this style of macaron recipe are as follows:
Meringue: This recipe uses a so-called Italian meringue, made with a hot sugar syrup which is beaten into the whipped egg white.
An Italian meringue gives this beautiful peak, called a ‘bec d’oiseau’ (bird’s beak) in French.
Mixing: As with the simpler recipe, at first the ingredients won’t mix together well. The Italian meringue is slower to pick up the dry ingredients and needs a bit more mixing to achieve a smooth batter. If you find you have lumps of powder in the batter, don’t be scared to smear the batter against the side of the bowl with the spatula. The final batter looks fluffier (some visible bubbles) than for the simple recipe. If the batter sits for any length of time the aeration becomes more apparent. That’s fine. This batter seems a little more tolerant of overmixing. This mixture dries out much more quickly than the simple one, but also remains usable for longer. Just cover the bowl with plastic film until you need it (e.g., if you’re baking multiple batches).
Crusting: I experimented with leaving some macarons to crust for an hour. The surface was actually almost hard after this time! Popped them in the oven and they rose happily, though some air bubbles made the surface irregular. The most striking difference between crusted and uncrusted macarons is that the former have a clearly defined line between the shell and the foot. On the downside, the shell was thicker than desirable. [UPDATE: after more testing, I now recommend permitting the shells to sit for half an hour or so. It helps reduce some problems if your oven has strong heat below the baking tray.]
Sugar syrup: The syrup is made by simmering off moisture until you achieve a certain sugar concentration, which is judged by its temperature. If only making a small quantity of syrup (e.g. for the recipe example quantity below), it’s best to use a small narrow saucepan or even a Turkish coffee pot.
Hot sugar syrup can cause bad burns, so be careful of splashing and don’t feel tempted to stick your finger in it! You need a digital thermometer or sugar thermometer to check the temperature. (Actually, you can check it using the old-fashioned drop test into cold water, but for that I suggest you check out one of your cookbooks — look up ‘firm ball’ stage.) Syrups harden quickly as they cool, so you need to have your equipment and ingredients ready to go.
Oven: Being slightly less touchy, this recipe doesn’t require changing temperatures and leaving the oven door ajar. You should be able to cook the shells at one temperature with the door closed. In general, you’ll lose fewer shells to burning or sticking if you use your first attempt to work out the best temperature for your oven — just cook a few macarons at a time at different temps (or trust me, LOL).
In testing, I found that at 150C the shells came off the paper beautifully, had good feet, but had air pockets. At 160C air pockets were absent, but the bottoms were just a bit sticky. At 170C the feet were more modest (still good) but the bottoms were sometimes too sticky. Permitting the shells to crust before baking gave a good rise (feet) and fairly dry bottoms, but a duller shell.
This is what happens with batter at different levels of mixing when cooked at 150C.
Experiment with temperatures: air pockets at low temperature.
Be brave and face the batter!
Recipe B
macarons au sucre cuit; (Italian meringue)
This method is rarely found on the English-speaking internet and is only mentioned in a small number of professional cookbooks. It is fairly reliable, though still requires some practice.
Decide how many eggs you want to sacrifice. Crack and separate the eggs, remembering to keep the whites and all vessels and implements scrupulously free of fat or egg yolk. You don’t need to weigh the egg whites at this point. One egg white will yield about fourteen 3-4 cm macaron shells.
It isn’t necessary to age the eggs (though probably doesn’t hurt).
Formula and method
When you’re ready to start cooking, weigh the egg whites and then scale the recipe appropriately. The formula is below.
‘eggwhite’ refers to the weight of the egg whites in grams. The righthand column provides an example calculation.
| Ingredient | Amount | Example | (with eggwhite=50 gm) | ||
| Almond meal | 1.35 x eggwhite | 1.35 x 50 = | 67 gm | ||
| Icing sugar | 1.35 x eggwhite | 1.35 x 50 = | 67 gm | ||
| Sugar | 1.35 x eggwhite | 1.35 x 50 = | 67 gm | ||
| Water | 0.33 x eggwhite | 0.33 x 50 = | 16 gm | ||
| Egg white | 50 gm | ||||
A batter with 50 gm egg white should yield one baking tray 30 cm x 40 cm or approximately 25 shells.
Preheat your oven:
Conventional oven: centre rack, 160C. Convection oven: 140C
- Stack two or three heavy baking trays. Line the top tray with non-stick baking paper. If you’re well organised, mark the paper with 2 or 3 cm circles, spaced about 4 cm apart (the piped batter will spread about 1 cm).
- Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and leave to stand.
- Divide the total egg white into two equal amounts, placing one half in a small bowl or glass and the other half in the bowl which you will use for making the meringue. It is preferable to weigh the amounts, not do it by volume or eye.
- Process the almond meal and icing sugar at high speed to achieve a fine powder. Sift (or whisk the powder by hand) to break up any lumps of powder and place in a large bowl.
- Place the saucepan for the syrup over low heat and bring to a simmer. Stir once or twice to help dissolve the sugar, but once it’s simmering you shouldn’t stir it again. As the syrup boils it will splash the sides of the pan and you should use a wet basting brush to dissolve the dried sugar so that it runs back into the syrup. Start to measure the syrup temperature after it has been simmering for a minute or two.
- If you are using an electric hand beater rather than a kitchen machine, beat the egg white until it makes soft peaks. If you are using a kitchen machine you can start the machine when the syrup is a few degrees below the final temperature (see below).
- The final temperature you want the syrup to reach is 118C (no drama if you overshoot slightly). Beat the egg whites to firm peaks just before the final temperature is attained.
- Set the beater/machine to slow speed and slowly pour the hot syrup into the bowl of beaten egg whites in a thin stream. The syrup may splash a little. If you are too slow to do this, the syrup might harden in the saucepan… there is always some wastage.
- As soon as all the syrup is in the egg whites, increase the beating speed to maximum and beat for several minutes until the meringue is just warm to the touch. If there was lots of splashing when you poured the syrup on, you can stop beating briefly at the start to scrape down the sides a bit. The final product should be a stiff, white, compact meringue with a lovely satiny consistency.
- Pour the unused amount of egg white (see beginning of this recipe) onto the dry ingredients. Then scoop the meringue on top of that. Mix the ingredients with a spatula using a circular motion around the bowl and under the batter. The mixing process for this recipe takes a little longer than for the simpler recipe in the previous article. You don’t need to be gentle, but the goal is to incorporate the dry ingredients quickly to avoid overmixing. It’s better to undermix than overmix. You can add colourings or flavourings during this mixing.
- The final batter should be the colour of pale ivory (if you haven’t coloured it) and smooth and thick but flowing (typically referred to as being ‘like magma’, but as few of us have visited an active volcano or been to the centre of the Earth…). A ribbon of batter dropped from a spoon onto the top of the remaining batter should take about 30 seconds to disappear.
- Dab a little batter under each corner of the baking paper on the tray to anchor it (otherwise it’ll slip).
- Spoon the batter into a piping bag/gun with a 8-10 mm nozzle and pipe evenly onto the baking paper. Mild peaks should settle back into the batter eventually. If they don’t disappear, tap the tray repeatedly on a table until the peaks have largely disappeared. Usually the batter will spread a little and any bumps will disappear. Sometimes the batter is quite runny and will rapidly flatten out. (It might be overmixed.) This consistency will often yield irregular shells. If the batter never stops spreading then you should probably scrape it all back into a bowl, gently add some more almond meal and try again.
- If you want, you can leave the piped batter to dry for anywhere between 20 mins and two hours.
- Place the tray in the oven. If you’re using a conventional oven, cook as normal (ie, with the door closed) for the entire time. For a convection oven, you will need to experiment a little, possibly leaving the door ajar for part of the time.
- At the 5 minute mark the shells should have lifted and developed ‘feet’. At the 6-7 minute mark they should be starting to colour just slightly. Rotate the baking sheet if the colouring is uneven. The outermost shells often have to be sacrificed in order for the centre ones to be cooked, but the majority should be no more than the palest cream colour. They are probably ready if a shell moves only reluctantly on its foot when you lightly nudge it with a finger.
- Remove from the oven and leave on the tray for a minute or two. Gently try to lift one of the outermost shells. A slight twisting motion or a peeling motion can help. If the shells stick badly, but are firm, try spraying or brushing a little water under the baking paper. This will moisten the paper and soften any stuck bits after 1-2 minutes. Don’t use too much water or the shells may start to dissolve around the edges. Remove each shell by gently peeling away the baking paper or with the aid of a thin palette or paring knife. Another solution to the sticking problem can be to place the paper or Silpat (with stuck macarons) in the freezer for a while.
- Once removed from the sheet, leave the shells to cool on a wire rack, face up.
Very sticky macarons leave their bellies behind 🙁 Don’t try to peel the macarons off. Just put the paper with stuck macarons on a rack for a few hours and then peel carefully.
- If you haven’t already made a filling, do so now.
- The plain shells can be frozen for a few weeks quite well. Complete macarons store well in the fridge for two to three days. After that they become softer. Eat macarons at room temperature.
Background to my recipe
There’s only really one formula for the Italian meringue style of macaron recipe, as illustrated here. Alain Ducasse (in his Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse’s Desserts and Pastries) is approximately 1.4:1.4:1.0:1.4 (almond:icing sugar:egg white:sugar). My favourite book, by Christophe Felder (Les Macarons de Christophe), uses a ratio of 1.33:1.33:1.0:1.33. I’ve used both successfully, but settled for a compromise of 1.35:1.0. I don’t know how much impact these minor variations will have in your kitchen.
If you have any doubt about the preferability of the Italian meringue approach, read what talented Joycelyn at the beautiful Kuidaore site has to say, or see what Kitchen Wench has written about her macaron adventures.
For troubleshooting and additional info on technique, remember to read the previous article.
Pause for breath
I’ll leave everyone who is so inclined to play with their delicious divas over the weekend. Next week I’ll write about fillings and flavours, amongst other things.
My piping gun has cracked, my piping bag is torn, and I have fourteen neglected egg yolks in the fridge, clamouring for use!
Naked shell with chocolate ginger ganache. My midnight snack.
You can read La Macaronicité 1: an introduction to the macaron.
La Macaronicité 2: basic technique and simple macaron recipe.
La Macaronicité 4: fillings, flavours, frippery.
La Macaronicité 5: Macawrongs and macarights, macarons day and night.
– DM
Hi Duncan,
I am amaze at your site on macarons know how and absolute surprise that all the discussion dated back year 2008. Amazing!
I just want to solute you for your wonderful, rare and professionality to your blog and giving so much honest information. I perfectly agreed with you that some site or blog are waste of time and crap!
Thank you DM.
Alice
Hi Duncan.
I tried the recipe today, using the method you write above. However, The macaron don’t have body perhaps? They were flat!!! Maybe you can suggest what I have done wrong?
Next time I will put less sugar because the macarons are very sweet.
Hi Duncan, you are a genius!! I tried your recipe last night and it worked! My last two attempts (using other recipes from the net) were epic failures BUT this time, using your detailed step-by-step recipe and tips, it was a success! Thank you so very much for sharing
= )
@han: don’t play around with the proportions of ingredients until you’ve successfully made macarons. The perception of sweetness is controlled by the texture of a good macaron and the choice of filling.
@Lee,@Alice: it’s wonderful to hear of people succeeding after frustrations (I know the feeling only too well!).
Congratulations on putting together this AMAZING guide to macarons! Thanks to you I managed to fix what I was doing wrong and produce lovely ones!
I have one question: how would you convert this recipe to make chocolate macarons? I tried substituting some icing sugar for cocoa but they came out very cake-y and didn’t rise properly…
@Annalisa: you usually would replace an equivalent weight of the TPT: so for instance if you add 30gm cocoa, you would remove 15gm sugar and 15gm almond. Sometimes you’ll need a little extra eggwhite.
sooooooooo excited i stumbled upon your site! i recently attempted the french meringue method with some success. they looked pretty, however they had quite a large air pocket inside. can’t wait to try your other method! thank you sooo much for such a detailed recipe! can’t wait to try it!
Hi Duncan
i’ve just been on a course making macaroons and the tutor sugggests you ‘shock’ them once out of the oven by moving greaseproof + macaroon shells off the baking tray immediately and onto a cold surface.
this seemed to ensure they then came effortlessly off the paper.
Also to solve the egg problem they use a product called ‘two chicks’ which is in all supermarkets (you might need to ask) its often with the milk. Its basically fresh pasturised egg white and contains 15 egg whites in each carton-its brilliant and SO easy. no more egg yolks.
Hilary
I’ve received a couple of macaron cookbooks in French recently. Something got lost in translation, because my first try was too moist in the center, and the tops were too dry. Your recipe helped fill in the blanks, so my next try was nearly perfect. Macarons a la Pistache!
The only thing different from your method for me was I needed about 10 minutes in the oven.
Thanks!
great article Duncan!
I’m obsessed with macaron and have been making or should I say trialling 2 or 3 times a week! its a sickness! 🙂
If you can give me one advice, should I go with French or italian meringue? I do want to get serious with this…meaning hoping to be the australian version of Herme lol
Thanks
@Steve: entirely your choice. The Italian meringue tolerates more variation in composition/conditions, but still within limits…!
@Hilary: thanks for your comment. There’s nothing about the cold “shock” that will facilitate removal of sticky shells, beyond making them slightly less soft. I would imagine that that technique is only useful for people whose ovens are basically baking the shells correctly, so it’s just marginal adhesion that has to be dealt with.
Great inspiration, thanx. I used the ‘more reliable’ version. First time I didn’t pay enough attention to the recipe. Made another batch today sized to 160g eggwhite. With my spacing this was 4 cooking sheets, and as I only have 2, I made the 2 sheets first, and covered the remaining meringue with cling-wrap directly on the surface. The first 2 sheets weren’t optimal and quite a lot of the shells came out cracked, velved and not flat on the top, and without a symmetrical foot. However when making the last 2 sheets the meringue seemed to have changed character after the resting time, the shells ‘floated’ out much mure nicely. I tried the first sheet at 160c conventional oven-mode and the last sheet 140c hot-air. The last sheet came out perfect, all beautiful shells with a nice little foot. Stuffed half of them with prune/armagnac/chocalate filling and the other half with plain ganache. Greg/Denmark
I tried making them the first time with the other version..didn’t turn out so great. The second time I used the Italian Meringue version and they came out pretty good; I made the plain version filled with Dulce de Leche. But since I’m obsessed, a couple of days later I took the risk of making the chocolate version and they came out beautiful!! I wish I could send you a picture. A few days later I made the Pistachio recipe, and OMG!!! Of course, each time a few came out cracked, but I found out that using the bottom rack of the oven is what did this, so next time I will bake them on the middle rack even if I have to bake them in several batches. We made a taste comparison with some macaroons we bought at a local French bakery…mine were soooo much better tasting!!! I’m really proud of myself. Thanks for the step by step instrucions
Duncan, I was thinking of making the plain recipe, adding some nice color and filling them with hibiscus jelly (pink) or some other type of jelly or jam (ie: mango, coconut, guanabana, etc.), but I want to know what you think…is it going to make them soggy?
Hi Lia, nice to hear of your adventures. Regarding jelly/jam, it’s very problematic. The shell will suck the moisture out of the jelly and go soggy very quickly (a few hours).
Hi i would like to ask a few questions. When im cooking my sugar syrup, it always starts to turn yellow when the temperature hits 100 degree celcius. Upon further waiting for it to reach 118, it became darker yellowish brown colour. Is the sugar syrup supposed to be this colour?
Also when im pouring the sugar syrup into the egg whites, the sugar syrup hardens n sticks to the whisk and a large amount of harden candy is stuck to the side and bottom of the bowl where i poured the syrup at. The beating speed is slow and i poured it in a thin stream. Occasionally stopping to let it incorporate before adding more of the syrup.
My meringue was left with chunks and little balls of hard candy.
What did i do wrong?
@Amy: My first guess would be that your thermometer is lying to you. There is no way your sugar syrup would change colour at either of those temperatures. It should be bubbling vigorously at 100C and then less so at 118C, but still clear.
The only other thing I can think of is that your sugar could be contaminated with something, but it seems unlikely.
Hi Duncan I finally made a decent looking macaron thanks to your detailed posts!! But I was disappointed when I lifted the macaron and found it has a hollow bottom!!!it has feet though!it looks like a macaron outside but inside its hollow and chewy!!help!!!!i have failed so many batches before which had no feet!!i have the type A oven and I baked them at 160C for 15 min…please help!!
@Joyce: when you say hollow bottom, do you mean a gap inside the macaron, or no actual base when you turn the shell upside down? In the latter case, it’s because it’s badly overcooked. In the former case, there are unfortunately too many variables to analyse, so I’d suggest experimenting more with temp and time.
Firstly, thanks so much for the recipe! I’ve tried two others without success, this reliable recipe worked the first time for me. The macarons had feet for the first time and were (mostly) smooth across the top. I also appreciate that you are so active in the comments; it’s really great to be able to get some feedback.
I had two questions about the process. The first is about the merengue itself. I am not overly familiar with Italian merengue, and am not sure I used it to its fullest potential. I whipped the egg whites till there were soft peaks, but it did not seems as expanded as I had expected. Once I added the sugar, the merengue did taste great but still did not seem like as much as I had when using the Swiss method. I was not sure that I was beating enough (or maybe not on high enough speed) but did not want to break the merengue. I beat it a little past the point where the beaters left decisive tracks in the merengue. Should I have kept going? The batter ultimately made ~30 little cookies with 93g of egg whites (~1.5 inch diameter). The batter looked thicker in terms of almond flour to merengue distribution than yours did in the pictures.
My second had to do with knowing when the cookies are done baking. I baked them past 7 minutes, to where the tops were very set and about to brown. I took one out of the oven, and when I broke it open noticed that the middle still seemed very battery (past what I would define as ‘moist’). I left them in for longer to set the middle more, to where the tops were hard. The cookies did not ‘jiggle’ when I poked them, they were very solid. Did this have to do with my oven temperature, or did I just overbake them?
Thanks!
Hello Duncan,
What do you think about Swiss Meringue?
@Cveta: simply, nothing. Swiss meringue is not a necessary consideration.
@Ashley: most recipes take the Italian meringue to stiff peaks (the bec d’oiseau). It will work at a softer consistency too. You may need to add a little more if your batter is too thick. As for the baking time/softness, you probably need to play around with temperature and time, at least. Browning at 7mins is a tiny bit early. For me, the time range for being done is 8-12 mins. Browning might start at 8-9 mins if unlucky.
Duncan,
Have you gone to the trouble of translating your recipes into the “Imperial” system we use in the US? We’re having a bakathon this weekend, trying your recipe and vast knowledge.
Hi Nancy. No, I’m afraid I don’t do Imperial. It’s a quaint system that, whilst interesting, should long have been replaced in my opinion.
Hello Duncan,
I need some macarons troubleshooting…
Thank you for sharing your tips and recipes on macarons!
The photos and all that were were helpful!
I’ve been making some chocolate macarons using the Italian meringue method and replacing almond meal with hazelnut meal and they worked well. I baked them at 170~160 deg.
However, just today, I made some normal ones using the same methods using almond meal instead. I was so stumped when they came out with large air pockets at the top. I baked them at 170 and 160 degrees many times to test.
I might have overmixed the mixture just slightly… but I don’t think it would affect the shape that badly? What do you think might’ve been the cause? I did try to dry out the almonds in the oven and might just have overdone it… and I also blended the meal+icing sugar till fine…
Cheers.
@Shaz: temperature distribution in the oven, most likely, otherwise a change in consistency of the batter. Requires lots of experimentation.
Dear Duncan, Your site has been very useful for me since I started making macarons! Nowadays most batches are successful (i am touching wood as I write this!).. However, since the overall product has become better, my shells are becoming matter and grainier. I use the same almond meal, sieve it twice, but they are not smooth and shiny (perhaps you can have a look at the pics on my website). Do you have any suggestions? Thank you!!
Yvette
@Yvette: I can only guess that there might be an increase in ambient humidity (the weather?). Graininess is the almond meal, so process it finer for your needs.
Dear Duncan,
Greetings from Mexico, thanks to your kind research I was able to produce perfect non hollow beautifully proportioned feet macarons. I have aleays adhered to the sucre cuit metjod and thanks to your notes I finally grasped my mistakes too much sugar (I used x3 instead of x1.35) and I shifted the temperature by opening the door. I cooked then for 310f aprox 155c and they now came out perfectbfrom the oven. Such happiness and a great accomplishement all thanks to you!
Most kind and warm regards
Raúl
Thank you very much, Raúl. I’m glad they’ve worked well for you. Felices Pascuas.
Hi Duncan,
Thank you for your extensive explanations for making macarons! I have tried SO many times, all attempts resulting in disaster, until today when I tried your simple method. For the first time my macarons had feet, and a smooth, shiny shell.
There was one issue, however, and that was that they were lopsided- it looked as though the tops had slipped off the feet. As mentioned, I used your simple method and baked the macarons in a conventional oven (no fan), opening the door after 2 minutes. I wondered if the lopsidedness was to do with the ambient temperature of the room when I opened the oven door? Or to do with my oven temperature? (My oven is relatively new, though so far the temperature seems even and correct).
Finally, my other query was regarding the sweetness– would you recommend adding salt to the recipe to lessen the sweetness, and if so, how much?
Thanks again for really useful and comprehensive posts!
@Raphaella: Glad it worked for you! Lopsidedness happened once for me when I changed the brand of baking paper I was using. It was more absorbent, so the shells were sticking around some edges. I would suggest not resting the shells for too long before baking. (Probably no more than half an hour, and less if the problem persists.)
The issue of sweetness seems to come up quite often, but really you have to accept this is a sweet patisserie item. If it’s too sweet, you should make something else. A common mistake is to put excessively sweet fillings in macarons. Try something less sweet, like a dark chocolate ganache, for instance.
I would like to share a little bit about a project we fell into at my sons school earlier this year. To be fair I dragged others into it albeit with their consent and great enthusiasm. I’ll go back a couple of steps.
In April I was lucky enough to swing a three week trip to Europe with my beloved and without kids. i discovered macarons, courtesy of Richart and then Pierre Herme (Isphahan no less).
The first Saturday after I had returned home, I woke and a decided that the best way to “ground” my self back into family life was to teach myself to make macarons. I searched and read many sites and yours was the one which resonated the most. Given I am not a baker, a good cook, great at pastry, but cakes are biscuits are not my forte, my fascination with macaron baking was odd.
First ever batch was perfect. As was the second, third and fourth.
The following weekend, our school had the fundraiser stall at the Collingwood Childrens’ Farm Farmers Market, so I whipped up 120 macarons and dropped them off. From here on every time there was something I could make macarons for, I was mixing, folding and piping.
At the start of third term another fundraiser/macaron making opportunity presented itself. I organised a macaron making workshop and bake-up in the tech kitchen at school. We made 140 macarons to sell at the weekly school market to help fund children in my son’s class whose families were not able to afford to send them on school camp. At this point the principal offered us the whole of the fundraiser stall at the Childrens’ Farm, which was again available to the school. The macaron madness began.
The children helped plan, source and calculate quantities of ingredients. They made signs and negotiated the flavour choices. They organised roles and responsibilities. In the process the teachers guided the children in exploring the idea of being a change-maker inspired by Margaret Mead’s the famous quote Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
We had three huge baking sessions, each with three teams of parents and kids. We made 600 macarons in 11 flavours in the school tech kitchen.We sold out by 11 am and raised $1200. We were able to fund all the kids who couldn’t have afforded camp. Many of these kids are from refugee and seriously disadvantaged families in the Collingwood housing estate flats and have never been on camp. Instead they went with their friends and canoed and yabbied and slept in a tent and ran around in the bush and played spotlight tiggy and had the time of their lives.
It all started with your blog and fantastic instructions. So thank you. And thank you because although I know full well my macaron obsession can partly be afforded to thesis procrastination, I also love making them and love watching other people go ecstatic when eating them.
Hi Duncan,
I am new to making macarons and I’ve only tried using the italian meringue. When I pour in my simple syrup and turn the mixer up for several minutes – my egg whites don’t give me nice “bird beak” shape when I take off the whisk. Instead, it almost has the consistency of a taffy… what am I doing wrong?
Also, another annoyance is hollow pockets and protruding feet… does this mean I am not baking the shells at a high enough temp? Or does it mean I am baking them at TOO high of a temp?
Thank you!!!
Annie
@Annie: You’ll probably find that a consistency anywhere between thick marshmallow and “bird beak” will work for a good macaron batter. Protruding feet usually means weak bottom-heat.
Duncan,
I hope you can help me out here, I recently attended the Zumbo Academy, and have changed my bake ware from standard size steel baking trays (from Big W) with Gladbake to 2mm sheet aluminum with large Silpats. With my old equipment, I had the cooking perfected, single tray (not doubled – but I did find another tray on the shelf below was beneficial), middle rack, 135C convection (read – top and bottom element with fan) for 17 mins.
First batch with the new equipment came out perfect, they were chocolate shells (10% of TPT replaced with cocoa), slightly overcooked at 150C convection for 16mins, but matured to one of the most perfect batches I have ever made.
2nd (and the remake – batch 3) batch were a complete disaster, coming out of the oven, they looked perfect & gorgeous, until I slid that offset spatula under the 1st shell, to find it had no base (see image link below), and subsequently pretty much every single shell of both batches. The top felt marginally over cooked as with the chocolate. They still tasted great, just needed more filling.
What would you propose I try;
– Doubling up my 2mm Aluminum sheets?
– Turn off the Fan?
– Lower temp for longer?
– My baking trays take up the whole oven, probably only 5-10mm gap all round, could this be an issue? It is so nice to do a batch that only needs 3 trays instead of 6 or 7
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w252/TJM82/DSC_0362_zpsc7488a49.jpg
The ratios of the ingredients is within a few grams of your ratios
Dear Duncan,
I have returned to the macaron recipes, after some time and I have noticed the following.
Macaronage:
– When testing if the batter falls in a slow ribbon it will create taller feet.
– It it is a fast ribbon, the feet will be much shorter
Also notice something, when dividing the eggwhite for example 50 (25 for tant pour tant/25 for Italian Meringue). I have noticed that using 67.5 grams of sugar (50×1.35) seems too much for my settings, as it always produced lopsided-hollow macarons.
Instead I used .7 x 50 = 35grams of sugar for italian meringue eggwhites. This created perfectly beautiful macarons, all of the nonhollow. Each and every single time. Also noticed that crotage is extermely important and as an additional tip I reccomend using a small fan to dry the shells faster if you are like me and have no patience.
Also, after banging the tray, having a small toothpick to burst bubbles from the shells helps to make them perfect and avoid any hollow shels.
Notice that my oven is a electric countertop oven, with a small internal fan the heating element is from the bottom, I use a small insulated anodized aluminum tray. My oven termometer ranged from 148 to 157 Celsius.
Just wanted to leave you my comments. As every oven and ingredients can be different. Damn making macarons can be exhausting! But I manage to make them so good people actually are starting to buy them from me haha.
Also do you think the beating speed has any influence at all in making the meringue? I theorize that its more of an issue for french meringue but not for Italian Meringue as the sugar syrup makes it freakishly stable.
I love making macarons nothing beats biting a macaron and find a chewy delicious non hollow center. And that melt in your mouth flavor, is unique. 🙂
Hello Duncan, i’ve been trying to make macarons for the past 4 months, and unfortunately the results are not outstanding, even though, little by little, i’m getting there. At first i kept trying to make macarons using the italian meringue, just because everybody was saying it was easier and more stable, but i had problems cooking the sugar, so i switched to the french meringue, and my last batch was pretty good. Whow. But i’m stubborn, and i want to try with the italian meringue again, so i kept searching on internet, and i found that a few bloggers were suggesting to cook the sugar to 110° instead of 118°. What do you think? Maybe in my case it would work better because quite a few times i’ve burnt the sugar, and once, while i was poring it into the meringue i realized it was almost caramelized, the smell was really great but…. that was it. Instead of macaroons i got some very sweet, chewy cookies. 🙁 Do you know anything about the 110°-118° debate? Anyway, thanks for your articles, they are really great, and your recipe (even though i got it earlier from another blog) is the one that gave me the best result. 😉
@Conchita: The exact temperature is not terribly important – I’ve probably used anything between 112C and 122C with no discernible difference. I have to ask how it is that you are caramelising your sugar though? Are you not using a thermometer at all and just going by guesswork?
@Raúl: Interesting notes, thanks. I think you are talking in too many absolutes though, given the number of variables at play. A faster ribbon also means you’re closer to overbeating, while a slower ribbon can mean it’s harder to get smooth tops. I’ve never seen a causative correlation between hollow, lopsided and sugar quantity, but the change you’ve made is massive (outside the ballpark for perhaps any published Italian meringue method macarons), so it would certainly be interesting to try that out.
Crusting time is definitely not crucial, as it is influenced by a whole number of other factors, as I have commented on at various times. For some batters/ovens it’s unnecessary, or only needs to be up to say 15mins. In fact, long crusting time can be completely detrimental in conjunction with certain brands of baking paper and certain types of ovens. It all depends.
Hollow macarons are not caused by the annoying air bubbles that can mar the surface of macarons sometimes (but I agree absolutely about the popping 🙂 ).
Duncan,
Do you have any advice regarding the concave bases I am getting when cooking with Silpat?
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w252/TJM82/DSC_0362_zpsc7488a49.jpg
Hello Duncan, thanks for replying to my question.
About the thermometer(s) the problem is that i’m not really lucky with them. I have an old one that doesn’t go behind 220°F ( i guess it’s a meat one), and so far it has been the most reliable than the other 2 that i got from Amazon, a digital one and a normal one. When i got the digital one i turned it on and it was reading 85° C (the T° in the room was 15° C), so forget about it. The other one worked twice, then the 3° time, it got stacked to 90°, but i realized it too late, that’s why the sugar caramelized. 🙁
Yesterday i tried again (i know, i’m stubborn 😉 )with your recipe with italian meringue, using 2 thermometers at the same time, the meat one, the reliable one, and the lazy one. I think i got a T° good enough, i mixed it to the tant pour rant and for the first time i got “The” molten lava, i was pretty happy, i put the tray in the oven and after 6 minutes i saw the feet, YES, but after 12 min. i opened to touch them and….. they were very soft 🙁 so i kept checking every 2 minutes up until 18 min. total, when i decided to take them out. I found something weird: the ones closer to the oven door, were softer and crinkled, like the ones you show in the picture, but the last row looked fine. Then i let them cool and all of them got pretty hard. I put the ganache and after 5-6 hours they had got better. By the way, i have a gas convenctional oven, and the other times, even if not really successful, each tray gave the same results.
Now i have 2 other questions for you: how come the same mixture gives different results? Can it be that i used the proportions of your italian meringue version, but i reduced the icing sugar and the almond flour substituting with cocoa powder? I scaled it down to this: 74g egg whites (37 *2 ) 99g almond flour 99g powder sugar 12g choco powder 99g caster sugar. Too much cocoa powder? I’ve read you tried the Liebovitz recipe, but he uses the french meringue, too easy for me. 😉 Hey i’m just kidding, i’m really bad at cooking, but i’m conceited and stubborn, terrible mixture. 😉 Thanks again for your kindness, bye now.
Hi Duncan,
I’ve tried about 5 recipes (italian meringue) with different formula, already bake for 50 batches or more, I cant even count it anymore, and always failed. And I don’t know where did I go wrong, now I so desperately need help. Mostly my macarons came out with smooth shell but without feet. I’ve tried to bake with different temperatures (oven deck with top and bottom heat, open dumper), let the batter sit to dry, medium dry, or just place to the oven right away. Change the way I do macaronage, change the sugar syrup temperature, double pan, and until now I still don’t get the prefect macarons. Just twice I got my macarons feet, but its all lopsided. Help! 🙁
Hi, this is great. Lovely to see someone advocating the Italian version, I love them!
I wonder if you can help me. I have seen someone produce some truly awesome macarons, and I know they added some unbeaten (i imagine still loosened) egg whites to the batter at the end and folded them in. I am not sure what this does, but those we some of the best I have ever eaten.
Any ideas what’s going on?
@Conchita: your average digital kitchen thermometer should usually be sufficient – as long as the tip can be submerged far enough (1-2cm usually). A laser thermometer is a little trickier with clear liquids, but still works reasonably well. And a good old sugar thermometer should work too. Mixed shell success across a baking tray would usually indicate a problem with the tray (perhaps uneven steel) or oven temp/fan strength. Don’t reduce the sugar when you add cocoa powder — just deduct it from the almond meal. You’re probably ok with the quantity you used.
@Drafty82: overcooked or overmixed or both.
@Liel: Almost certainly, the heat from below is just too weak, despite everything you’ve tried. Perhaps preheat the tray and then slide the baking paper with the raw shells onto the hot tray.
@Jasper: It’s common to add egg white to the dry ingredients before adding the meringue. I sometimes add extra egg white to the batter if it’s looking too thick – but you have to then be careful to avoid mixing too far.
They other day i made some macarons and the look good, the macarons had feet and a good shell but after letting them cool for hours i started to removed them for the silpat and they were completely hollow from the feet and shell. they had absolutely nothing at the bottom, nothing was attached to the silpat (just the circumference) and there was nothing chewy inside. Why could that be?