The Trials and Tribulations of Macarons

I don’t remember how I was struck by the stupid idea to make macarons.

It was June 2015. I don’t think I had ever even had a macaron — but of course, rather than make something for the millionth time like cupcakes or revisiting the lemon tart recipe I found in seventh grade, I decided to do the most excessive thing.

I pulled a Martha Stewart cookbook off the shelf and flipped to the macaron page. The domestic queen listed three flavor variations: plain, chocolate and strawberry.

So I decided to tackle the notorious dessert. It went…poorly.

To say the very least.

“The first time you make macarons,” my grandmother told me as I pouted at the cracked dog biscuits. “You don’t try and make three different flavors.”

Obviously! Which is why, a month later, I made attempt #2 and baked three different flavors. It went better. Some hollows, some lopsided feet. I Googled my little heart out reading blog after blog offering advice.

Silpat or parchment? Aged egg whites or fresh? Italian or French meringue?

Again and again and again I tried and failed a little — my shells regularly ended up wrinkly and soggy on the bottom, but people still complimented the taste.

That’s the thing about making macarons. They can look like absolute garbage and they’ll still taste like little mounds of heaven.

A year later, I asked my sister if she wanted macarons for her birthday. She said yes and asked — nay, demanded — I make vanilla bean, peppermint and pistachio macarons.

How much did I hate her? So much. I hated (read: loved) her enough to shell, blanch, peel and grind over 100 pistachios, hammer those little peppermint candies and scrape the sticky pods out of a vanilla bean.

Pictured above, the vanilla bean and peppermint macarons I made that turned out okay but by no means are they perfect.

It took me one year, 320 mediocre cookies and 36+ hours to figure out I was under-mixing my macaronage the whole time! Not only that, I had been baking them at too low a temperature and wondering why the bottoms were soft. Baking 101, Alicia. Come on.

Precisely 40 turns of the spatula later (Martha said to do 37 but you know what? Even a queen can be wrong sometimes) I noticed something different about the final batch of the day, the dreaded pistachio flavor.

They were smooth!

It’s the little things, friends. Unlike the batches of yore which stayed hard, grainy and had pointy bits, these were little discs of joy. Despite the drama of spilling some of the mixture from the pastry bag onto the mat and having to scramble to get it onto another baking sheet and mat, they looked gorgeous.

And they came out perfectly.

Success!

And what would a food blog post be without two thirds of it devoted to my personal journey and a little footnote of a recipe below? Here’s what I’ve found works for me. Macarons are notoriously fussy (just like me!) so what I’ve found success in might be your downfall. But it bears repeating that your macarons will never, ever taste gross. The key is to work on the aesthetic.

Adapted from Gwen’s Kitchen Creations

INGREDIENTS

Makes about 30 filled cookies — 60 individual cookies

• 100g egg whites (3–4 eggs), aged overnight
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• 50g granulated white sugar
• 200g confectioners/powdered sugar
• 120g almond flour (for pistachio macarons, use 72g almond flour and 48g pistachio flour)

NECESSARY MATERIALS

• Food scale — macarons need precise weighted measurements. Going by volume does not work.
• Stainless steel bowls — plastic bowls can retain moisture which will ruin the consistency.
• Fine mesh sieve/colander.
• Hand or stand mixer with whisk attachment — unless you are Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, I don’t recommend whisking by hand.
• Baking sheets. See notes.
• Parchment paper or Silpat sheets — no wax paper, tin foil, Pam spray, or anything else will do. You don’t need to grease the pans or paper/Silpat.
• Gel food coloring — water-based food dye will alter the consistency of the macarons.

DIRECTIONS

1. The night before (or two), separate 102–103g egg whites from yolks. Cover the whites with a paper towel and leave on the counter. See notes.
2. Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar into a bowl at least twice and discard any large clumps. See notes.
3. Put your egg whites into a separate bowl and using a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy (Kitchen Aid stand mixer level 4), about ten seconds. Add in cream of tartar and 1/3 of the sugar and whisk on low for 2 minutes. Add in another 1/3 of the sugar and whisk again for 2 minutes on medium (Kitchen Aid 6). If using food coloring, add it in now. Add in the remaining sugar and whisk for 2 minutes on medium (Kitchen Aid 6) again. The mixture should form “stiff peaks.” If it takes longer than this, bump it up higher (Kitchen Aid 8). See notes.
4. Add the egg white and sugar mixture to the dry mixture. Using a spatula, fold the mixture exactly 40 times so that it is well incorporated. See notes.
5. Gently scoop mixture into a piping bag. Pipe circles onto lined baking sheet — you will want to use a template. See notes.
6. Lift the pan by the shorter sides and tap it against the countertop a few times. This gets rid of bubbles in the middle of the cookies.
7. Set a timer for 30 to 60 minutes to allow a “skin” to form. See notes.
8. Bake at 300 for 23 minutes. Put the pan on a rack situated low in the oven, close to the heat source. See notes.
9. Allow the macarons to cool completely before removing. Fill with jam, buttercream, ganache, or whatever your heart desires.

NOTES

General: Macarons are more difficult to make when it is humid outside, but there are some ways to avoid trouble. Pay attention to the weather on the day you plan on making them as well as the day you plan on aging egg whites. I believe having AC negates this issue, but if you don’t have AC, I believe having a fan blow on the macarons as they dry helps as well as baking them at a lower temperature for longer.

Baking Sheets: Some people “double up” their baking pans because the bottom of their oven is hotter than the top, causing the bottoms of the macarons to brown and not cook correctly. This requires a bit of trial and error to figure out if this is necessary. I find mine don’t brown enough, so I skip this.

Dry Ingredients: This baffled me for ages. Should I sift and then measure the weight, or measure the weight and then sift? What I do is sift the almond flour into a bowl on a scale rather than measuring 120g and then sifting as there is usually 1–2g loss due to the large clumps. Same goes for the powdered sugar.

Egg Whites: Egg whites should be aged at least 12 hours before baking begins, depending on humidity. The more humid it is, the longer you will need to let them sit. Aging them helps make the meringue more stable. Aging also makes the eggs lose some moisture and thus, some weight, which is why I suggest going over 2–3g and gently scooping out whatever is needed to get to 100g rather than being under. If for some reason you don’t have time to age egg whites, they can be microwaved for 10 seconds on medium power, but it is always better to age them naturally.

Stiff Peaks: When you have stiff peaks, the meringue will look like a heron’s beak when you lift the whisk, not a parrot beak. A little downward tip is okay. The Kitchn has a great visual guide in addition to the birds below.

YES! STOP MIXING!

NO! KEEP MIXING!

Mixing: Why 40 times? Because Martha Stewart said so but she was wrong. To mix properly, gently scrape around the sides and then down the middle. The motion should look like the Greek/Russian letter Phi/Ef: Ф. If it’s undermixed, it will be lumpy and your macarons won’t be smooth. If it’s over-mixed, it will be runny and they’ll spread. Take a spoon and put a small amount on parchment. If it stays in a lumpy shape and doesn’t get smooth, keep mixing. If settles and gets smooth, it’s perfect. If it spreads out before it settles, it’s over-mixed. See the troubleshooting link at the bottom.

Piping: Take a tall drinking glass and put the piping bag in it, with the tip folded so no batter will escape prematurely. I don’t advise using a Ziplog bag. I use a Wilton 1A tip in a pastry bag. You’ll also want your circles to be piped from the middle — not in a circle. Put the tip directly on the parchment or silicone mat vertically and squeeze, letting the batter push the pastry bag away. It takes practice! Here are some templates. Scroll down to “Les Gabarits.” I use the 3.5cm template.

Skin: This has to do with humidity. If it’s not humid, you’ll only need about 30 minutes. If it’s very humid, you’ll need as much as an hour. When the skin has fully formed, the tops and sides should no longer be sticky to the touch.

Baking Times: Again, this has to do with humidity and the fact that every oven is different. Also worthy to note, if you use a lot of food coloring, add a minute or two.

TROUBLESHOOTING

These will help address some of the problems encountered when baking macarons. It’s trial and error again: based on what goes wrong, you can figure out what to do next time! You can find a lot of troubleshooting guides out there but these have been my saviors: 1, 2, 3.

Good luck!