How to Make Perfect Macaron Recipe

Preparation

• Prep the ingredients and tools. Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping pastry bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/4” diameter tip, or a Wilton 12. Set aside.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
• We use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it.
• Wipe the tools such as bowls, spatulas, and silicone mats with vinegar if desired, this helps get rid of any grease particles that might be in the tools.
• Measure out all of the ingredients.
• Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set it aside.
• Start preheating the oven. If the large oven is to 310ºF for 60 to 90 minutes, this helps with temperature fluctuations. The countertop oven for 30 to 45 minutes.
• Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the sugar and egg white powder to the bowl if using. If you’re not using egg white powder simply skip it, nothing needs to be changed in the recipe.
• Whisk the sugar and egg white powder so it doesn’t clump up.
• Add the egg whites to the bowl and whisk until the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
• Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
• Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, you are just looking to melt the sugar, no need to bring it to a certain temperature. Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer. Before transferring the syrup, you might consider whipping the bottom of the bowl with a towel so the water doesn’t fall into the mixer bowl.
• With the whisk attachment, start whisking the mixture on low (speed 2 of the Optimum Bon Appetit) for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium (speed 4) for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to medium or medium-high and whip for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. I like to finish whipping the meringue on speed 6 of the Bon Appetit.
• It takes me about 13 to 15 minutes to whip the meringue, but you shouldn’t go by time, go by what the meringue is supposed to look like because a lot of things can affect whipping time, such as the quality of the eggs, the weather, how powerful your mixer is, and more.
• Once the meringue gets glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, and the meringue raising in the centre of the whisk, it might be time to stop.
• You don’t want to overwhip the meringue at this point because that can cause several issues, mainly hollow macarons.
• Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull the whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending to the side.
• Also when you swirl the whisk around in the bowl to collect the meringue, you should feel some resistance from the meringue. And when you look at the bottom of the whisk the meringue collected should be forming soft but defined waves.
• Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
• Add the food colouring at this point, if using. If you were using powdered food colouring, you could add it during the final stages of whipping the meringue.
• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
• Once the dry ingredients have been incorporated with the meringue, you can start squeezing the air out of the batter by pressing it down along the sides of the bowl as you fold.
• How to know when to stop folding the batter: It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency.
• Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, of the parchment paper or silicone mat, it’s ready.
• You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to over-mix. It’s always best to under-mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
• When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
• Transfer the batter to the piping bag. I also like to seal the top with a bag tie, so the batter doesn’t dry out and it gives you more control while piping because there’s no risk of the batter escaping through the top of the piping bag.
• Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the centre of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 to 5 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly at the top.
• Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter or against the palm of your hand a few times each.
• Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles on the surface of the shells.
• Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out before baking if you are resting the macarons. I usually leave in about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
• To do the no-rest method, you can bake the trays immediately.
• In the large oven, bake the macarons at 310ºF, and in the small countertop oven, bake them at 290ºF. Preheat both ovens for quite a bit of time. I pre-heat the large oven for 60 to 90 minutes, and the small oven for 30 minutes or so.
• Bake one tray at a time.
• Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray. This step is not necessary, I don’t rotate the trays in the small oven, but I have to do so in my large oven, otherwise, the macarons will be lopsided. Not all bakers have to rotate the tray.
• I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
• When baked, the macarons will have a deeper colour and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking. Also, try to touch the top of a macaron and it shouldn’t feel soft, if it’s still soft, keep baking.
• Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
• Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
• Store the unfilled shells in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for 1 to 2 months.
• Enjoy!