Macarons have been projected to be tough bakes that are difficult to deal with and having a real bad
reputation for failing. I’m here to refute some of the myths from the experiences of macaron baking
I have gathered over my bakes.
In short, macaron is a French dessert that is made up of mainly almond flour, icing sugar and egg
whites. They are these dainty cookies that took the dessert world by storm and everyone is trying to
replicate them at home, for they are expensive yet addictive. They are so versatile with the array of
flavours you could add to them, be it sweet or savoury.
Below is a fool proof recipe which I use for all of my macaron bakes!
Macaron
baking can go wrong in 4 areas. The ingredients measuring stage, macaronage stage, drying stage and baking stage! (DON’T BE
AFRAID, I’M JUST TRYING TO POINT OUT DIFFERENT AREAS WHERE THINGS MAY GO WRONG)
Your query will be
answered in the FAQs further down this article
**The way of folding your macaronage for both the
French and Italian methods is the same.
** The troubleshooting areas are mostly the same too,
just that some of the Italian methods doesn’t require the drying of shells.
Just
remember, macarons are not as difficult as they are seemed to be. They are
pretty easy once you get the hang of different aspect. Believe me, I have been
thru most of the frustrations and being self taught, I had to experiment with
different possibilities. (I would
consider myself lucky though, I only failed 2-3 times before getting a decent
batch of macaron)
Don’t get
disheartened should your macarons fail and instead of just throwing the whole
batch down the bin, try to figure out what is wrong, what went wrong along the
process? I used to pen down the amount of time I take to whip the meringue, how
many folds it takes to get the macaronage, at what temperature and how long do
I bake them for? These are small details that people always assume they got it,
but many a time, it’s these small details that are making the macarons fail,
not things like “I didn’t sieve my flour twice today”
Most of the
time, it’s easier to troubleshoot should you have a more specific detail to
share. E.g. I have whipped my egg whites for an hour and they have yet to get
to the stiff stage rather than saying I have whipped it for a long time yet it
has not reach the stiff peak.
From there
we can conclude things like, “your egg whites/bowl has oil content that is
hindering the protein structure from forming? Or your definition of very long is just 3
mins, which isn’t enough to form the peaks?
This is how a “properly baked macaron should look
like”
Disclaimer: I never
claim this is perfect. Just a picture for your reference. 
Firstly,
there are a couple of pointers to take note before starting.
1.
Have you read your recipe carefully?
a. Make
sure your recipe gives you measurements in grams. Any recipe that uses cups,
try not to use them (unless you are sure every cup that you scoop up are same in terms of
weight). Not only are there differences between the UK &
US metrics, macarons are finicky in terms of the measurements. It has to be
right. Too much or too little of anything is never good for macarons (that’s where you get
cracked shells, bumpy shells, no feet, spread too much, peaks on the shells and
this list can go on forever), or rather any form of bakes.
2.
Are you doing a French or Italian
Method?
a. (I’m doing French)
b. I don’t like the idea of having to cook a separate
sugar syrup and my macarons feet are no less shorter than the Italian meringue
method. But that’s entirely up to you.
3.
Have you aged your egg whites?
a. (I swear by using aged egg
whites)
b. The
whole idea aging egg whites is just so that extra moisture will be removed from
the egg whites
c. Moisture
are big taboos for macarons
d. I
have experimented and there’s no difference from aging them between 1-5 days.
e. To
age, just pour your egg whites in a container and instead of closing it with
its lid, put a piece of serviette over it and secure it with a rubber band or
tape
4.
Do you have all your ingredients
ready?
a. Try
not to substitute any ingredients in the recipe. (I’ll talk about
substituting different kind of nuts as you read on)
b. Most
importantly, are you ground almond flour still fresh? Does it feel/look oily to
you? If they are, you could toast them in the oven for a bit or if they are
extremely oily (if you kept it in a humid environment/ or for too long a
period), discard them
1.
Do
I have to age my egg white? Is it compulsory?
· Personally, I’m a diehard fan of aged egg whites. I have
tried variations of making them without aging, and results have always been
inconsistent. Fresh egg whites contain too much moisture so how do i age my egg
whites? I leave them in a container and instead of covering it with its lid; i
put a piece of serviette over it so the whites could dry out in the fridge.
People have said age for 3-5 days, but for me, 1 day is good. i have tried
1,2,3,4,5,6,7 days, and i do not see any significant differences in the end
product
2.
Do
I have to sieve my almond flour and icing sugar twice?
·
Personally, I do not do that. I
only sieve it once and the only reason is because I’m too lazy to sieve the
second time and that if you are using a fine sieve, nuts that don’t pass thru,
you probably have to give it another blitz.
3.
Does
icing sugar with corn flour affects the end product?
· No! I have tried most of the
icing sugar available in our local supermarket. They do not affect in any way. We
can stop blaming the icing sugar. HAHA :D
4.
How
do I colour my macarons?
· Always use colour paste/ powder!
NO liquid colouring! You do not want to add additional moisture to your shells.
5.
Can
I reduce the amount of sugar in my macarons?
·
Yes & No! You could reduce
the sugar in your meringue slightly but never the icing sugar in the almond
flour mixture. The icing sugar is the once contributing to the structure of
forming the feet.
6.
Can
I substitute almond flour for something else?
·
Yes, you could substitute them
with ground peanut, ground pistachio or any nuts that you prefer.
7.
How
do I know if I have gotten to the right macaronage stage?
· Personally, this is all up to
your own experience with folding. Remember, FOLD & not STIR! I would say for
3 egg whites, I’m doing anything between 40-50 folds.
· When your macaronage holds a
“V”shape, resembling viscous molten lava, you are good. STOP!
8.
How
long do I have to dry my shells?
· You could dry them either in an
aircon environment or just dry it with a fan. It can get anywhere from 30 mins
to 1.5 hours. It’s not about the timing here, it’s the environment you are in.
So gauge by touching the shells and not the time.
·
It’s also untrue
that you can’t bake macarons when it’s raining. Due to the humidity, it could
take slightly longer to dry. You could aid the drying process with a fan/aircon
9.
How
do I pipe round and consistent shells every time?
·
I have always done it free hand.
But you could go ahead, get a piping tip and trace the circles on the parchment
paper. Or you could get a template online.
·
Do a mental count while piping,
like “1,2,3”than lift up. That way, you know your batter is almost the same
amount in every cookie.
· I always pipe my macarons at an
angle instead off straight up. It reduces the chances of peaks on top as well.
10.
How
do I know if the shells are ready for baking?
· Once they are no longer tacky
when you touch them, you are good to go
11.
Why
do my shells not dry even after a couple of hours?
·
There are a couple of factors that
contributes to this. You could have over mixed you macaronage? Meringue is not
stiff enough? Egg white has too much moisture?
·
That’s why I emphasis it’s
important to write down the timing/ no of times of action you did in a
particular step for easy troubleshooting
12.
Why
does my batter have a peak after I pipe and rap on the bench?
·
You have under mixed you
macaronage. Give it a couple more folds.
·
A quick check would be to scoop a
spoon of batter onto a plate. Peaks should disappear in a good 5 secs. If they
don’t it’s probably still slightly under mixed
·
REMEMBER, do a few folds at a
time. You can never undo extra folds. Do not waste you effort after coming this
far J
13.
Why
are my piped shells rough and uneven?
·
You almonds might have been under
blitz. It needs to be really fine!
14.
Why
do my piped shells spread?
·
You have over mixed your
macaronage. They should stay roughly the same size as the batter that you have
pipe. If they get super shiny and spread, you know it’s over mixed.
·
I would say throw the whole thing
away. I never had any good shells with over macaronage.
15.
Why
do my baked shells crack?
1. You
might have your meringue over whipped. Too much air was incorporated into it.
2. Folding
time too long (Over mixed)
3. Shells
not dried before baking
16.
Why
is there no feet?
1. Too
little sugar (This is what happen when you reduce the sugar)
2. Over
mixed macaronage
3. Under
mixed macaronage
4. **You
should get the feet 5-8 mins into baking.
17.
Why
are my shells hollow?
·
Bang the baking sheet a couple
more times before resting
·
Hollow shells are caused by air
pockets when piping (That’s why I pipe at an angle)
18.
Why
do my shells have a sunken centre?
·
It’s not getting enough heat from
the bottom. You could move the tray a
rack lower or use a slightly thinner baking sheet
19.
Why
does the shell stick to the parchment paper?
· They are under baked. (if the
shell shows sign of browning, lower your baking temperature and add a couple of
minutes. Either that, or you could tend a foil over it)
·
Un-aged egg whites. Too much
moisture
·
A gentle reminder to always let
your shells cool down before yanking it off the baking sheet
· They should look like the picture
below. (Clean base that comes off the parchment paper without much effort)
I hope this short write up will help you all clear
some doubts. Should you have any further queries, feel free to drop me an email
at mybakingcottage@gmail.com
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