French Meringue Macarons
The perfectly textured macaron to satisfy your elegant dessert cravings and provide you the bragging rights of making this tricky dessert!
Equipment
- electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment
- spatula or bowl scraper
- clean piping bag and a medium round tip (#803 or #804)
Ingredients
- 135 grams almond flour or 1 1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp
- 195 grams icing sugar or 1 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp
- 100 grams egg whites, room temp about three large
- 38 grams granulated sugar or 3 tbsp
- 7 grams egg white powder (albumen) or 2 tsp, see note
- 1/4 tsp powdered colour or minimally use gel colouring, a couple smears should be enough
- filling of choice
Instructions
- Make sure all of your equipment is clean and dry before starting.
- Using a food processor, pulse the almond flour and icing sugar together until fine. Set aside.
- Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or alternatively you can use a hand mixer). Sift the granulated sugar, egg white powder and powdered food colouring onto the egg whites. If using gel colouring, wait until the egg whites have been whipped to soft peaks before adding.
- If using gel colouring, whip on high until soft peaks form. Add in the gel colouring sparingly and continue whipping until very stiff peaks form. See note on soft and stiff peaks.
- Sift the processed almond and icing sugar mixture over the meringue and start the macaronage. Using a spatula or a plastic bowl scraper, fold the batter into itself to combine the two mixtures while pushing out the air from the meringue. Repeat until the batter is thin enough where you are able to form a "figure eight" shape with the batter, but thick enough so that the figure eight doesn't dissipate right away. The mixture should resemble slow flowing lava.
- Once you get the figure eight shape, immediately transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip by placing the bag into a tall glass and folding the edges over the rim (or alternatively you can eyeball it and cut your own hole if using a plastic disposable bag). Fill the bag with the batter.
- Using a macaron template, pipe the batter onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper (or clean and dry silicone baking mat). If you plan to add toppings to your macarons, sparingly sprinkle them on the piped shells now and remove the template from underneath the parchment.
- Firmly tap the baking sheets onto the counter to remove any air bubbles from the macarons. Set the shells aside at room temperature to rest and "dry" for 20-30 minutes, or until a smooth layer develops on top of the shells and they are not longer sticky and smooth to the touch.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and bake the dry macarons for 8 minutes, only baking one sheet at a time. After the 8 minutes is up, quickly open the oven door to release some heat and rotate the baking sheet in the oven. Bake for another 4 minutes. If the edges of the macaron start to brown, remove them immediately.
- Cool the shells for 20 minutes before removing them from the parchment paper. Get the shells ready for filling by pairing up shells similar in size. Fill each macaron by piping a dollop of filling onto one shell and sandwiching it down with another.
- And that's it! Filled macarons can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for about three days.
Notes
- Soft peaks: you can remove the whisk and the meringue will form a peak that droops
- Stiff peaks: once the whisk is removed, the meringue will form a peak on the surface that holds its own shape and stands up without drooping
- egg white powder or albumen is easily found at gourmet cooking stores (or online)
- unassembled macaron shells can be kept in the freezer for up to a week before assembling, just make sure to bring them to room temp beforehand!