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 love your blog and this has helped me so much!
my first attempt the macarons turned out so badly but i have just made some using your tips and they are so much better than the last lot, so thank you.
Hi Sophia,
Glad that my tips helped you. Macarons are finicky, it takes a while to get them right. good luck!
I’ve been contemplating giving macarons a go for awhile now and reading up on them — so happy to have found your chronicles!! I’m sure they’ll be invaluable to me! Thanks!
Ponto de Teste: Macaron au Chocolat — Prato Fundo Aug 27, 2009 at 8:14 pm
[...] Musings com The Macaron Chronicles: Parte 1, Parte 2, Parte 3, Parte 5 (não, não tem a [...]
While googling macarons I ran across your recipe and gave them a try today. I’ve never made macarons before and they came out perfect the first time. I’m thrilled! Thanks a bunch for sharing your recipes.
Hi, I found your macarons recipe while googling for macarons. You said that leave the egg whites in room temperature for 24-48 hours, did you mean we must separate the egg white from the egg yolk first or just left the egg in room temperature? Sorry for this funny question, because I’ve never made macarons before :p. Thanks
Not quite Pierre Herme’s, but close | Kitchen Musings Sep 20, 2009 at 9:31 pm
[...] Shells See here for Italian Meringue version and here for the French Meringue which was the one I used. I used red powdered food coloring and gold shimmer dust for the [...]
Thanks so much for this post! Ever since visiting Paris I’ve been desperate to try macarons, and am now doing so for a “tea party” my sister is holding. I’ve done a lot of googling research and these tips are definitely amoung the best I’ve found for macarons! Thanks!
thank you! this was extremely helpful!
Hi,
I’ve been going a bit mental with trying to find the perfect macaron recipe to try out. Yours look amazing and I loved reading about every stage of your experiment. I went and bought 2 dozens of eggs and am getting new batches aging overnight with 6 hour differences to try out tomorrow!
Thanks a lot for such an awesome post.
Hi,
I’ve been doing my macaron trials and failed because of runny consistencies etc. Your tips of making the perfect ones are really good. Im excited to start trying again. Thank you so much for sharing
The Beat That My Heart Skipped » Chocolate Macarons Recipe with Lisa Harris Nov 21, 2009 at 5:24 am
[...] you’re still reading – you’ve got the obsession. See Veronica’s Macaron Chronicles for a woman who has even more time on her hands than me: a faultless exploration of what makes [...]
Do you know the right ratio of powdered egg white to fresh? I just tried a batch adding a teaspoon to 7 ounces fresh, and I don’t see a difference….I’ve looked at a number of sites that mention the dried whites (your site’s one of the best, by the way!) but none give specifics.
Oh oh oh! I love you! Oh oh oh! I finally did it!! Oh god!!! They have FEET!!!!!!
Hi! I’ve been doing research on making macarons for our annual holiday cookie baking event! I’ve read every one of your “tips” and am looking forward to our first attempt! I even have my egg whites sitting out on the counter – much to my husband’s dismay!
Thanks so much! Happy Holidays!
Hi! I have a question for you. I was thinking that for a statistics project, since I love love love baking, I’d bake many batches of macarons and see how many develop feet, how many ‘deflate,’ etc.
Is it possible that some of the macarons on a tray won’t develop feet and the rest will, or is it always an entire batch that either has feet or doesn’t?
Thank you so much!
Noa
Noa, if you leave the macarons too ling to dry the feet become lopsided. Normally same batch, same results all things being equal like baking temps.
AR- I’m makeung another post on macarons soon. will look at my notes for ratio.
Congrats, Kris!
Good Luck,Robin!
nice blog…i`m gonna try it sometime
Hi
thank you for a fantastic post!
I am on my eighth try and am really stumped. Does using a fan forced oven make a difference in making good macarons?
Please help!
Many thanks
yohann
I love using convection – if that is what you mean by a fan-forced oven and my shells look better.
Hi Veron,
I’ve been using a combi oven (steamer/convection) but using only the convection setting. Do you still set the temp to 300 – 310F? or do you set it to 20F less than what is called for because of the fan?
Thank you so much for your help!
I’ll keep persevering!
Yohann
Thank you so much for this recipe!
I made my first successful batch of macarons today using your helpful instructions. I also added the contents of 2 cranberry, strawberry and raspberry teabags. The smell from them is gorgeous and I’m very proud of the little feet! xD
Yohann – I set to 285 F.
Congratulations, Kat. So glad that my instructions help. It’s always exciting to see those little feet.
Whuhuuu! Finally got it right, feet and everything! I didn’t see your updated recipe Veron and when I used it…fantastic.
Thank you so much Veron, after 9 tries it’s all worth it!
Hi Veron, today – 28 Dec, 09 is my 7 times to make macarons, I used your receipe, but still failed… the only different thing is that I didn’t add “cream of tartar”, I am going to buy it tomorrow and try it again (how much should I add?). I would like to ask if I should put the tray at the bottom of the oven?? and each time when I see the macaron rises up, I was very exciting,,, but once after around 7 mins. they all dropped down (and of course I never seen the foot). When I read your link talking about how happy you were (to say “they got the foot”), I wanted to cry… because I can amagine how happy you were and I look forward to experience such day. Again, thank you so much for sharing your receipe!!!!! I will try & try & try again until success. Will e-mail my 1st successful macaron’s pic to you. (^.~)
Eva, you might be overmixing the batter , try mixing less. Cream of tartar is just a pinch, 1/8 tsp. will do. Put the tray in the middle of the oven. Have you seen my macaron tutorial on youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bri6xnDBl9I
Hi Veron, thank you so much for sending me yr. tutorial on Utube, it doesn’t help a lot! I found out the batter you made is much thicker than mine. But, the condition of egg whit is almost same as yrs, is that because I made too little?? (I am trying about 1/4 of your ingrediant). Or, the added 1 drop of vanilla & 1 drop of coloring water would affect the batter? One last thing I will change next time is to grind almond by myself instead of almond powder. I do hope I can make it successfully. I’ve wasted too much (ingrediant) and that’s sad!!! (*.*) Again, thank you so much for yr prompt reply & useful tips!!! I’m from HK and I do want to fly to yr kitchen to learn how to make macaron.. hahahaa… Wish you a Happy New Year!!!
Hi Veron, I just finished trying the 8th time of Marcaron making,,, of course failed again.. I tried not mixing them so much today, but still failed. I want to ask ,,, if you think it’s because I didn’t wait until the surface of Macaron dry before put them into the oven? I just don’t know what to change & make it success. The batter today is much thicker than before and I thought I can make it this time…. but….
ummm… don’t know what to say now… will keep you informed tomorrow,, thank you for reading my comment! (^.~)
Eva – you need to wait for the tops to dry if you are using French Meringue.
Veron, thank you for your tips again!!! I just finished the 9th time trial,,, and this time, I waited for 3.5 hrs until they got really dry on the surface, but still failed… no “foot” again, they shrink once I pulled them out from the oven. But, the happy thing is that they are much tasty this time,,, even though they don’t have “foot” & not pretty, but I do think they are tasty… heheee.. I will keep trying. (maybe I will buy some almond to make almond power by myself tomorrow. (^.~) Again, thank you so much!!!
Eva, I know how u feel. I tried making macarons and only finally got it right after try 12!!! Once you get it, you really do get it right. My breakthrough came when I used Verons updated recipe at the end of the blog above. follwed it to a T, and amazingly came out beautifully!
Sometimes, we just have to “let go” and not be too stressed to find success. : )
Eva – 3.5 hours for the tops to dry is extremely long. Is it very humid where you live? Sometimes the problem is almond powder, although the macarons have feet, they would crack and look bumpy. If you can find valencia almonds this work best as they are not greasy.
.
Yohann – I’m really happy that my updated recipe helped you. I realized that it is more foolproof specially when a lot of folks cannot grind the almonds fine enough. And you are right, sometimes we just need to “let go”
hi, i’ve seen your macaron tutorial on youtube but i can’t seem to get my batter to have the same sticky consistency. when i leave my piped shells out to dry, instead of hardening, the air bubbles pop & i get holes in my batter… also, a funny liquid layer appears at the base of each piped shell when i leave the piped batter to rest ): am i over or under-beating?
thanks!
Hi Veron & Yohann!!! I have to tell you my very good news that my Macaron got foot” finally….. I cried out even though they don’t look perfect this time. I want to give two of you a big big kiss!!!! {} I will try to make perfect Macaron again tomorrow, I promise to upload a pic for you!! (^.^) Yes, it’s very humid in HK,,, but this time, I only wait 1:45 for them to get dry. and this time I used another almond power. I guess it may be the reason of improvment. Thank you so much!!! Wish you a Happy New year!!!
Hi Terese – I have never seen that happen before. Could it be the almonds are greasy. I see a thin film of oil sometimes develop on the surface of the batter when I ground my almonds too much.
Hi Eva! Yay, what a great way to start the new year. They will only get better with practice.
Hi Veron! Yes the macaron gods are delighting people over the world with improvements shown on NYE! After countless attempts with several recipes, I’ve finally stumbled upon yours and yes! A large dosage of macaron aura seems to emit from me now lol.
Anyways, my batches still show signs of cracking (doubt it is overmixing though) and hardly any feet
I leave them to dry for about 2 hours and only a couple are smooth in dome-shaped. My temp is set to about 150C and it seems that less cracking appear over lower temp. Any advices on this?
Rome, do you use pre-bought ground almonds or do you grind the almonds yourself. I find some pre-ground almonds contain flour in them and they crack. Overmixing can cause them to be more moist, drying them for 2 hours is too much.
Hmm I’ve checked the ingredients listed on the packaging of my almonds and it seems to only contain natural almonds, though I do not fully trust what is written.
I’ll attempt to grind the almonds myself when I’m much more free! As for the drying part, I only obtain a non-tacky batter at about 2 hours.. Maybe I’ll try a shorter time period. Thanks so much once again
what watt are the egg whites to be put in at for microwaving the egg whites? does this work as well as aging or is there a difference?
Just made my second attempt at the macarons, I used the microwaves egg whites, and they worked a treat thank you !
That’s great Max! It really doesn’t matter the wattage just imagine you are trying to evaporate water from the albumen but not cook the eggs.
I have the problem with my macaron and I really need help!!
I don’t know why they take too long to dry and create the required surface. What might be the reasons that makes macrons take extra time in creating the required dry surface? I have had made some successful macarons but I am still having some mistakes.
Note: I loved your articale and I am going to use aged egg white on my next patch.
Finaly, with your recipe the surface was dry with in 10 min…the feet was nice the tase was beutful… BUT ;( when I sequeeze them in the parchment there is a tip on the top in the macaron and will not go!! I use to wait for 5 min the the top tip fade…
Help!! what should I do with the top tip?
Haitham! The tip is easy to fix, you can reduce your almond by 5 -10 grams, or give your mixture a few more turns with the spatula. You can also use a wet paper towel to flatten the tips.
Veron, do u have a particular technique in piping? I still can’t seem to get them to look alike!
Thanks a bunch
Veron…Thank you so much.
You have made a big improvment to my macaron. Here is a pictures on my output beteen 7th and 9th of JAN. Just copy the link below and enjoy [Peperment, Choco, raspberry and Coffe] :
http://alfaris.net/up/v.php?p=47/alfaris_net_1263017515.jpg
Hi there – just started my love affair with macarons. I think I’ve finally cracked the shells, now I’m struggling with fillings. Ganache fillings are fine, but there’s only so many chocolate fillings you can do. How for example would you do a lemon filling? I find my buttercream becomes too soft at room temp, and gelatine based fillings make the shell go soggy after a while. Any tips, hints or books you could recommend, or indeed any expert advice? Thanks!!!
I tried my first ever batch of macarons using your recipe and instructions – and they came out almost perfect! They raised nicely, they have feet, they didn’t stick to the parchment paper. I think the batter was just a bit too thick, since some show a small “peak” where I stopped to pipe the batter. But small problem really, considering I had never made them before! Thanks for all the advice!
Thank God I’ve found this blog
Nice blog, Veron…
My second trial, they have a little feet, but the surface crack.
Wish me luck…by the way. Is that OK if I link this blog to my blog ? Thanks for sharing Veron….
I came from Indonesia, and loves to make macarons. At first trial, my macarons like saucers without feet
I’ll try your update recipe. Hope, my macarons can be as pretty as yours and have beutiful feet off course