Macarons can inspire an obsession that cannot be easily shaken. Obviously I am hooked. I developed an interest in these delightful confections after curiously enough, a failed experiment where these little beauties ended up looking like flying saucers :).
Could this have challenged me? This probably did! Right after this debacle, I headed out to San Francisco where I sampled more of these delicacies at Miette and Bouchon. They tasted simply heavenly! I took back with me the memory of a sublimely chewy cookie and its sinful buttercream filling. I think this was precisely when my interest was picked and started to become the inklings of an obsession.
Consequently, I decided to do some research on it. My incessant googling brought me to several blogs whose authors seemed to have also caught the “macaron bug”. It was suggested that apparently, chocolate macarons are the hardest to make. Up until now, I have not quite determined the “why” in my readings. But I suspect that the cocoa and its acidity might be interfering with the egg whites. But I am getting ahead of myself.
I’ve also read that leaving the egg whites out for 48 hours – this idea could elicit an “Eww” reaction from most people - but it does seem that egg whites have natural anti-bacterial properties; besides which I am desperate! So one weekend, I separated around 12 egg whites and let them sit for at least 24 hours. The “Hungry Hubby” (HH) started kidding me that my egg whites would soon crawl off the counter pretty soon.
TEST I : Almond Macaron recipe with 24 hour aged egg whites
I started with a simple almond macaron recipe. I think I must have made a wrong measurement of the powdered sugar because it turned out extremely thick, almost like that of brownie batter. I wanted to throw out the batter but what the heck; I wanted to see what kind of cookies I could get out of that concoction. As I piped out each circle, I noticed that although it spread out a little, it settled nicely into a really fine round-like shape. After letting it sit for 30 minutes to develop a skin on top, I popped it (Okay, I set it carefully.) into the oven at 310F. I waited. After 5 minutes, I saw the beginnings of the requisite “foot”. I quickly hollered to HH, and started prancing around the kitchen. “They’ve got feet, they’ve got feet!” I enthused merrily. I took the tray out after 11 minutes of baking and I couldn’t be happier with how they looked.
TEST II: Pistachio Macarons with 24 hour-aged egg whites
Empowered, I immediately proceeded with the second recipe, the pistachio macarons from the lovely Tartelette. Jenny from “All things Edible” had great success with it too, so I was eager to try the recipe out. Again, I carefully mixed the dry ingredients to the meringue but the batter run a bit more than my first set of macarons. However, they piped quite easily without that dripping. They also developed feet! Enthralled by two successive baking experiments with two different recipes, I concluded that aside from having great recipes and techniques to work with, it must be the aged egg whites. I made chocolate ganache fillings for both.
TEST III: Chocolate Macarons with 48 hour-aged egg whites
I had some egg whites remaining so I decided to be brave and try the chocolate macarons the next day – it would also mean that I would be aging them for the full 48 hours. I debated on which recipe to use. I saw one at David Lebovitz’ website, but I ended up using Sherry Yard’s recipe in her new book, “Desserts by the Yard”.
I had a bumpy start. I accidentally measured the required almonds twice. It became hard to scoop out enough because I put them directly on top of the powdered sugar. I had the stiffest batter yet; I almost couldn’t pipe them out of a 12 pt tip to 1½ inch circles. My wrists were tired after all that and wondered what results I would be getting. Since they were bigger I left them 2 minutes longer, a total of around 13 minutes. Again, perfect feet, perfect macarons!
It looks like no matter what the recipe, the stars were aligned for me specifically to make macarons. This time I decided to fill the chocolate macarons with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Delicious! Initially the chocolate macarons were more like cake inside but the “chewiness” developed the next day.
These same cookies were also easy to remove from the parchment with a flexible spatula.
Sooo … this saw the end of the macaron experiment, right? Wrong!
I wondered what would happen if I used eggs that were aged overnight, or eggs that were freshly separated the morning of baking. Also I would really like to over beat some of the batter just to see what would happen.
To keep most parameters the same, I used the same recipe for all of them. I used the following recipe:
Basic Macaron Batter
125 grams almond flour
225 grams powdered sugar
3 egg whites
25 grams of sugar
Pinch cream of tartar.Preheat oven to 300 °F (I used 310°F to compensate for opening and closing the oven door).
Run the almond flour and powdered sugar through a food processor and sift twice.
Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat at medium speed. Slowly add the granulated sugar and continue beating until the whites attain medium-peaks and are glossy.
Add your dry ingredients slowly to the meringue taking about six additions all in all. (See folding requirements below)
Pipe the batter to a diameter of an inch. And let rest for 30 minutes before baking.
Bake for about 11 minutes or until done, turning the sheets halfway through.
Folding requirements:
Test IV: Overnight egg whites on the counter. Beaten to “flows like magma” consistency.
Test V: Overnight egg whites on the counter. Beaten senseless.
Test VI: Morning-of egg whites. Beaten to “flows like magma” consistency
Test VII: Morning-of egg whites. Beaten senseless.
RESULTS. I noticed that the quality of the macarons weren’t as good as the ones I made with the 24-hour and 48 hour-aged egg whites. For one thing, the tops tended to sink into the “feet”, more so when the batter was over-beaten. When the eggs were fresh (separated on the morning-of) the crust appeared to be thinner and more fragile. It was also obvious that they couldn’t hold their nice circular shapes and tended to get deformed. For mixtures that received more folding, they still formed “feet”, but the feet had bigger holes and the top tended to separate and curved inward like mushroom caps.
Most of the macarons were difficult to remove with a spatula. I noticed that the bottoms were not crusted over (which would actually make them easier to detach). I had to peel the parchment away from the macarons because to exert any force on these little ones would make the top crack.
In summary of what I’ve learned so far (or to spare you from my ramblings above):
1. Make sure to measure and sift your ingredients properly. I’m not yet too fanatical about sifting because I do have problems grinding my nuts to powdered form – but I do make sure clumps of powdered sugar are broken up. I started measuring my ingredients accurately to the last gram after my first test yielded an amount of powdered sugar that was suspect.
2. Fold in your dry ingredients in at least 4 additions. Do not dump the whole thing into the beaten foam or you might end up with a runny batter.
3. I used a circle template by drawing them on the reverse side of my parchment paper. Resist to the urge to follow the outline with your tip, just keep your tip positioned about ½ inch above and in the middle of the round guide, the batter is going to spread out more evenly into the circle you want. If you have trouble controlling the flow of your batter and it keeps linking to two mounds together as you move about piping, chances are you’ve got an over-beaten mixture.
4. Rapping the sheet pan before baking had no effect on your end product. They do get rid of bubbles if this develops in your mixture.
5. Fresh egg whites develop thinner, more fragile skin which tends to break easily when you try to remove the macarons from the parchment paper. If your macarons stick, peel away the parchment paper rather than force the spatula to lift the macarons out. However, with the 24/48 hour aged-egg whites, the spatula slid easily under the macaron to detach them with no problem at all.
6. Moisture plays a vital role in macaron making. Whether in the egg whites, or in the air it definitely affects the quality of these French cookies. My initial conclusion as to why the aged-egg whites yielded almost invincible macarons was because they had less moisture content due to evaporation but still have the same amount of protein bonds. That was probably why I have seen macaron recipes that called for some dried egg white powder to be mixed into regular whites. Meringues have a tendency to weep, so even if you have beaten your batter to the right viscosity, your mixture might still get runny if the protein bonds break down – but if you have less moisture to begin then it would not be a problem. I figured the large holes and sunken caps of macarons from the “deliberately over-beaten batter” were because the protein bonds were not as dense and they were separated by water that would evaporate leaving those gaping holes.
I have researched this topic in Harold Mc Gee’s book. Though he did not specifically say that egg whites could safely be left at room temperature for a long period of time, he did mention interesting information of its composition. There are three proteins that are deemed effective in maintaining the integrity of the egg white. First is Ovotransferrin, which binds tightly to iron, making it useless to bacteria that thrive on it. Second is Lysozyme, which digests bacterial cell walls, and third is Ovomucin, which inhibits viruses. It’s quite amazing, is it not? What is contained in something as simple as an egg? There’s still the obvious fact that when macarons are baked at a temperature of over 300 F, every type of bacteria is eliminated.
Stay tuned for this ongoing saga in The Macaron Chronicles!
UPDATE : Instead of aging the egg whites as stated above, you can refrigerate it covered for 2-3 days in the refrigerator. You can also microwave the egg whites for 10 seconds in the microwave and have the same results.
UPDATE: 12/18/2009 New recipe:
140 grams almonds
200 grams powdered sugar
40 grams sugar
100 grams egg white
*If your egg whites have too much water content you can add 1 g of egg white powder.
I haven't attempted macarons yet because I find them intimidating, but I'm going to print this up and keep it handy for when I finally do take the plunge. Such useful tips!
I second Lisa – I haven't made these elusive cookies yet, but when I do, I will come back to your post for reference!!
In classic form, I started with the hardest kind – chocolate, and I finally got them to work on the 3rd try, but I've tried them with both the french and the italian meringue and it doesn't change anything as far as I'm concerned other than the texture which is less smooth with french meringue somehow. I'm going to have to put up that post at some point, about the macarons. Congratulations on a wonderful job, they're not easy things to master, but you look like you've got them beat.
You are fantastic Veron! You could run America's Test Kitchen for Cook's Illustrated!
You are really swinging these little babies. I'm beginning to think I should try them.
Your macs look beautiful! Unlike my pathetic first attempt at them, hahaha! Do you have a bakery or something? If you don't I suggest you open one coz I'll be your loyal customer numero uno!
Thank you for sharing all that fantastic information. I've so far proved awful at making macarons (though I'm wonderful at eating them), and your post is both incredibly meticulous and inspiring. I shall be trying my hand at them again. I've also been playing with fondant lately and now that I've realised what kind of patience it entails, I am finally learning to enjoy it.
kudos!Your macarons look lovely!!! btw, what tip did you use to pipe out the meringue batter?
I've been completely intimidated about trying to make these, but your post gives me courage — and will help avoid some of the pitfalls. Thank you!
Wonderful post and it made me mad to have a macaron or ten.
I don't know how you find the energy to do these experiments. You're amazing! =) If I ever tackle the elusive macaron, I will definitely refer to this post for tips and guidance. Thanks for all the info.
PS: Is that a ruffled dish from Miette?
Hi Lisa – I was the reverse, I did not think they were hard at all until I tried them the first time and they came out flat. That's when I found out how finicky they were. Hope you try them soon.
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Hi Deborah – Let me know how it turns out when you do attempt them.
Thanks Hilda- glad to know there is not much difference between the two methods. I do like the slightly textured top rather than one that is too smooth.
Thanks Tanna – what a wonderful compliment. There's nothing I would love better than to be in Chris Kimball's shoes
Thanks Maria – No I do not have a bakeshop but I dream of a little pattisserie of my own someday
Thanks Eggy – I'm so envious that you are attending a macaron festival. I'm finding out that I love decorating with Fondant, too.
Thanks Mandy – I used a Wilton #12.
Thanks Lydia – I hope you try them out soon!
Hi Judith! Macarons are like brownies , you can't have just one.
Thanks Mary! I get my energy tasting all those little macarons coming out of the oven . And yes, I got the ruffled plates from Miette- I can tell you visit their pattisserie often
Veronica,
You got bit by the macaron bug too!:) I love you careful documentation – and it's such thrill when a batch comes out well, even if you're not sure you replicate it yet! I think yours look beautiful – Paris worthy for sure!
I found your blog through Anita's. I am intimidated by macaron making, yours looks beautiful!
Wouldn't you just know that the heavenly chocolate ones are the hardest to make?!
But, honestly, Veron, I really admire your tenacity in researching and testing until you get everything figured out in the macaron making process. I'd say you've definitely achieved success…but I still look forward to the ongoing research you will share in future installments to this Macaron series! 
Veron – what a great batch of experiments! Shades of Harold McGee!!! Isn't baking great therapy for our obsessions?
Why do you tempt me so? The macaron gods have never smiled upon me before and yet I have such an urge to make more…
Veron, I bow to you! Awaiting for more of your experiences with macaron!
Awesome post! I am so happy you tried them again and with amazing sucess! Quick trick if you want macarons but you don't have 24 hr egg white lying around: nuke them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, and they should act the same in the recipe.
I am never happy with the taste of chocolate ones but I can't wait to read more about your recipe!
Firstly would like to congratulate you my dear Veron, Thety are fabulous and goregous macaroons! We love your tests on macaroons!
Hi Anita! I'm definitely bitten by the macaron bug. I'm flattered that you think they are Paris-worthy!
Welcome Kat! Have you seen my first attempt? They were like cratered pancakes! You learn as you make them – give it a try.
Thanks Belinda – the reason I'm researching this so much is because I think they might be a lucrative market here in richmond for them.
Thanks T.W. – Harold Mc Gee's book always have answers to food science questions!
Oh Bril – make them! make them!
Thanks Anh!
Thanks for the tip Helen! But right now I don't have a microwave.Hmm … might be a reason to reinstate one.
Thanks Big boy's oven- coming from you who make such great macarons, I am tickled pink!
wow! those are lovely looking macarons
Thank you for this very informative post. I've tried my hand on making macarons last Sunday and as expected I failed. I tried 3 batches and I had more better looking macarons using the meringue method and I used powdered egg white. Unfortunately, my macarons never developed feet so success for me is still far away. I'm planning to try them again when I do get the time.
Wow, such determination on your part Veron! It looks like you had great results though. Would you get the same results if you just left the whole eggs in the shell out at room temp, and then separating the egg whites? Instead of leaving the egg whites themselves exposed to the elements?
Hi Anne – when you are ready to try them again mix some eggwhites with the powder – but I'm not sure what the ratio is. I have seen a recipe , I think it was Pierre Herme, that mixed fresh whites with aged whites and a teaspoon of egg white powder.
Hi Marvin – Eggs are difficult to separate when they get to room temperature and you risk getting a bit of yolk in your egg whites which will inhibit the whipping. I think you do want to expose the egg whites to air for the moisture to evaporate and the whites to thicken. I would try Helen's method if I had a microwave.
Wow! You truly do run a "test kitchen," Veronica. What a valuable post this is. Many thanks for all of your effort and tips. I've never made macarons yet, but I know where to come when I do. Fantastic!
We also notice of not using fridge chilled eggs, rather use fresh eggs at room tempreture. Also depends on oven, you may need to cover the top of macaroons to avoid over burn top.
Oh Veron, the next experiment is to try and taste all the different macaroons available, why? we notice a lot of them taste differently!
Thanks Susan! I hope my post will be indeed helpful to you when you decide to make the macarons.
Hi Big Boys Oven! Yes both my aged eggs and fresh eggs were at room temperature of 74F before use. He..he..I know..my almond macaron tops were browned, -I guess I was concentrating on structure first. But I'll try to fix that in my next test.
. As far as different macaron tastes. So far the pistachio macarons tasted the same with the one I had in San Francisco's Miette. I suspect it's because they use all natural ingredients. Maybe some companies use some additives to prolong the life of the macarons. Also it might be the type of almonds used. I know Pierre Herme favors Marconi almonds.
You'll be a master in no time.. whippin up macarons in your sleep!
Frankly, it doesn't look like you've got long to go before you do master them.
She did 99.9% of the work when she was here, but Helene taught me how to make them.. was the first time I'd tried one and quite frankly I'm more than a little shocked at myself for not making them over and over again since she left..
Maybe deep down I doubt I could do it myself – but printing out this post surely will help me.
Thanks sis!
xoxo
wow this is a fantastic post on macarons! i am thoroughly impressed by your determination and wish you the best luck. i agree that humidity has everything to do with it…as i have made many successful batches and many failed batches. even though everythign but the weather was the same!
Fantastic post! This will be immensely useful if one day I have enough courage to tackle macarons. Your macarons look great! Love the little feet.
I'm also too timid to attempt them so am particularly impressed by your efforts. Such lovely photos.
What a complete and useful study of making macarons. I am impressed with your persistence and effort into it. Looks great!
You've perfected them this time, well done, they are so pretty
Great job!!!! I am a terrible macaron maker. The mix is always too thick or too thin. Just can't get it right. I'll keep trying though
I wish i had the acomplished results like yours when i tried macaroons.. mine looks terrible… so well..not like macaroons at all!! Congratulations.. the all look just fabulous!
always use fresh almond powder!
Hello,
I recently took a pastry class with Greece's most celebrated pastry chef, Stelios Parliaros, on meringue, and his macaron recipe is based on Italian meringue, since this is the recent development in France too. He promised that it works every time. I will be posting the recipe on my blog soon, so I will drop you a line. He also suggests leaving the egg whites in the fridge for 48 hours prior to using and letting teh macaron make a crust, which takes approx. 45 minutes.
awesome job!
i followed the recipie to the t but…
my batter is too thin to pipe properly? any clues as to why?
Your macaroons look lovely! I just tried my first batch, and while they have the correct crispy outside, gooey inside & shiny smooth top.. they haven't got feet! Your article really gave me some idea of what might have went wrong, so thanks a heap! I'm dedicating my next batch to you. ;OD
Hi Veronica,
Thanks so much for this detailed test! I have a company here in Austin (wwww.luxesweets.com) that does these. Even after making them for a year now, I still have on days and off days. There are a few tips and tricks you listed that are awesome and I will definitely try them out tomorrow in the kitchen. Something to note: if you are trying to make different colored macarons with food coloring, use a gel or powder instead of liquid. The liquid is like adding water to a meringue and just kills the height. Thanks again!
Great tips. I am impressed by your tenacity!
Hi, thank you for the recipe and the wonderful instructions
I tried baking your macs and though they look good (kinda like yours) I find them a little too chewy.. it’s the first time I’m EATING a macaroon so I dont know what to compare it to, is it suppose to be chewy?? or perhaps I did something wrong
if you could please help me figure it out, I’d appreciate it very much.
thank you
Hi Lital,
I find that it can get too chewy if you cook it too long and if your oven is running to hot. Also if you did not beat air out enough of your whites when you fold in the dry ingredients it will taste more meringue like. There is a fine line between not beating enough and beating too much.
Hi Veronica,
I did bake them more than you suggested, about 15 minutes also, baked on a 160C I think it's around 320F… but I also opened the oven door a lot… how can I know when I'm over beating the meringue or beating too little?? my batter was lumpy and almost like a brownie batter… they didnt come out like yours
are they suppose to taste like a cookie? or a Madlen? they're also not so very high almost flat (the second batch) why is that?
thanks
Try baking it a 310F. It's hard to describe the consistency of the batter. I'm going to make another step by step – hopefully soon and take a picture of the batter when it is just right. If your macarons are flat you probably overbeat it. Also do you grind the nuts yourself? you have to be careful that it is not too greasy.
oh… well, I didnt grind the nuts myself but they are freshly grind, and they also were frozen, so I left them on the counter to get to room temperature and then sifted them with the icing sugar 3 times. could be that they were still too greasy… in that case what do I do to make them less greasy???
by the way, they are SO soooooo sweet, could they be any less sweet?? what will happen if I'd reduce some of the sugar?
thanks for your help
Love your detailed test notes, Veronica! I've made several attempts and all seems to be good: I get feet, shiny tops, flows "like magma". Except one thing: After they've cooled and I bite into one, there is a space between the top "crust" and the chewy part. Are they cooling too fast? Or am I doing something else wrong? Maybe the whites are too stiff, but I don't think so. Thank you!
thanks! You really helped me work out my problems, I'm going to add a link to you on my blog…
Hi Veronica, I would like to thank you for the post on your macarons, it has helped me tremendously. I have attempted macarons four times and this time I have succeed, all thanks to you.
Hi every one,
I have wondered that could I use pastry cream and coffee essence as a filling for macaroon?