Macaron Notes

Much has been written and shared by other more experienced macaron bakers. Here are some tips/useful hints that I’ve collated for my own record.

General

• Use 24 hours aged egg whites in room temperature (cover with cling wrap and poke a few holes and let it sit overnight). You must age your egg whites to achieve a harder macaron shell that doesn't break easily. Alternatively age egg whites in air tight container in refrigerator for 4-5 days. Alternatively, microwave egg whites for 10-15 seconds or adding roughly 10 grams of dried powdered egg white to the fresh egg whites.
• Measure all your ingredients (using digital weighing machine helps) and shift your dry ingredients (ground almond and sugar) for a smoother and less lumpy texture.
• Whisk on low until foamy then gradually add sugar 1 tbsp at a time.
• Fold flour in quick folds then slow down (50 strokes max).
• For more even baking time and consistency of looks, outline baking paper with circles as a guide when piping. Alternatively, dust circle ring in cocoa powder and then imprint onto parchment paper.
• Batter is ready – when you pipe, the top will flatten down on its own. If there is still a small bleak, give a few more folds.
• Rest piped macaroons for 30 min – 1 hour until shells harden a bit on outside (dry and not sticky to touch).
• Use bottom fire with ban at low temperature, about 150 degrees or so that the top will not crack. Depending on oven, may have to stagger temperature downwards.
• Use powdered colouring not liquid otherwise result in soft mushy shell.
• For finer texture, pulse grounded almonds with icing sugar to avoid lumps.
• Can either fold egg whites to almond flour or vice versa. I tried both methods but personally find it easier folding almond flour to egg whites in batches.
• To stop baking paper from moving around, pipe small amount of batter at back of four corners of baking paper.
• If you want to sprinkle them with anything, you must do it right after piping while the batter is still wet.
  

Piping Macaron shells

If you like to watch a professional, click on the You-tube video here. Its pretty quick but at least you get the general idea. If you have more practise, you'll probably find a style that works best for you.

Removing baked shells

• Some people swear using slipat mat. For me I found it better using parchment paper (Glad Bake brand).
• If have trouble removing them from baking paper, pour drops of water under parchment paper while still warm or place entire parchment paper on top of damp cloth. But don’t leave them like that for too long otherwise will get soggy.

Storing

• Once baked, if not using right away, store cooled shells in air-tight container out of the fridge for a couple of days.
• Filled macarons can keep in the fridge for around a week.
• Ungarnished shells freeze well (wrapped well and store in a sealed container) and fill them (straight from freezer without defrosting) 1-2 days before serving.

Consumption

• Macarons are best eaten a day or two after making and filling them, the flavours continue to develop over this time. Freshly baked macaron shell (eaten straight from the oven) taste very sandy!
• Store filled macaron in an airtight container in the fridge. Let it warm up in room temperature for 15-30 min before eating.

Happy feet?

If you are wondering about the slight discolouration at the tops - that's because I was experimenting at painting some shells with 1tsp of coffee + 1 tbsp water, not too successful - coffee solution must be thicker, next time :) But am very happy with the shape this time around.

You can read and read, probably deem yourself a ‘pro’ at making macarons but until you get your hands ‘dirty’ and make them yourself can you truly declare ‘I have made macrons!!’

Seem to be on a roll – its only January and I’ve finally managed to make two items sitting way-bottom of my long list: fortune cookies and now, macarons.

Must say that since I have made this, it is not as tedious as I thought it would be. Probably been put off by the long instructions and to-do and not to-do tips - too many things to remember!!

Funny as it may sound as lots of people have trouble with getting the all prominent ‘feet’ for macarons, for me – I was confident on getting them at word go but what troubled me more was my piping skills. Wasn’t sure how to pipe them out and its funny how all recipes do not really focus on this point too much – circular motion? from the centre out? getting tip off nicely at the end? How la…especially getting a nice even round smooth dome plague me. And taunt me they did. Finally pint point the cause and that is getting right batter consistency before piping! While I still feel a little uneasy piping them, I’d guess it’s a matter of practise and getting more confident with it.

Interestingly, found it more difficult to remove shells from silicon slipat mat compared to using parchment paper (use Glad Bake brand). Have always thought that nothing could ever fail the slipat mat, guess I was wrong!

Macarons are seriously sweet stuff. Though I love desserts, still find these sweet SWEET! So against advice from others (read from various blogs and sites), I reduced the sugar slightly and also use brown sugar instead. I’ve tried both normal and dark brown and manage to get the all important feet but do excuse the poor piping skills ya.

When you are new to making macarons, temptation to eat them straight out of the oven is too great to resist. Well, do give it a go but expect a sweet sanding experience – actually doesn’t taste nice at all. Don’t despair at this stage thinking you made a mess of it all as it takes time for the taste to develop and when you marry them with filling – m-mmm, yummy is all I can say. Of course a good cup of coffee/tea will help enhance the experience because even though sugar is lessen, it is still sweet.

Recipe adapted is from HappyFlour who I believe based hers from Tartlette (who I am sure everyone in the blog-sphere would concur with me that she is one of the gurus at making macarons). Anyway big thanks to Happy Flour for sharing her experience and tips which I found helpful.

Basic recipe

Ingredients (Swiss Meringue method)
80g egg whites (at room temperature)
55-60g soft brown sugar

80g ground almond
130g icing sugar
½ tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Age 3 egg whites in a bowl covered with cling wrap poked with some holes and leave in room temperature overnight. Alternatively, kept in airtight containers and placed in the fridge for 4-5 days. Bring to room temperature before using them.

2. Prepare ground almond ahead. Strongly recommend this as it will reduce your baking time considerably less. Store bought almond are not powdery enough, so sieve and pulse in food processor. If necessary, add some of the icing sugar so that ground almonds stay dry and fine. Note that if you process nuts too long this activates their natural oils and may get slightly lumpy which you want to avoid.

3. To maintain consistent macaron size bites, press round cookie cutter into some cocoa powder or flour to imprint onto silicon sheet. Note that you may need to twist the cookie cutter on the sheet for the imprint to be more visible.


4. Shift icing sugar and ground almond and set aside.

5. To save time and washing, pour egg whites and sugar into mixing bowl, place it over saucepan of simmering water and stirring constantly until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to touch (about 55 degrees C). Once mixture is ready, remove hot water and whisk mixture on medium speed.

6. If adding colouring (use coloured powder), add in when egg batter reaches soft peaks including the lemon juice.

7. Continue to beat until medium stiff peaks (but not dry).

8. Gently fold in the sifted mixture in 4 portions into the meringue. Do not over fold. (Batter should be slightly thicker then cake batter. Tartlette suggest not more than 50 folds.)

9. Final test is to place a dab of batter on a plate and it should slowly sink back without leaving peaks. If it does form peaks give the batter a few more folds.

10. Spoon batter into a piping bag and pipe it within the round imprint which had made earlier on. Bang tray down a few times to get rid of any bubbles remaining in piped batter.


11.Let the macarons to rest for about 30-1 hour. Depending on environment – hot, cold, humid, etc. timing may vary. Basically shells of piped macarons will dry out and not be wet/sticky to touch - lightly tap the top to check.


12. Preheat oven to 150C degrees.

13. Bake a tray at a time using lowest rack for 20-25mins, depend on individual oven. (Happy Flour shares her tip which I followed - For my table top oven, I switch to bottom fire with fan mode so my macarons are bake properly without any crack. After baking the 3rd tray, I leave the door of the oven eject for a while then I put in the 4th tray. This allow the temperature to drop slightly.)

14. Remove macarons and cool on a wire rack. If have trouble removing, pour drops of water under parchment paper while still warm or place entire parchment paper on top of damp cloth.


15. Store in air tight containers until ready to be filled. Can be kept at room temperature for few days. Once filled, keep in fridge. Can also be frozen in freezer.


16. Garnish macarons 2 days before eating. Keep them in fridge and bring to room temperature (15-30 min depending on type of filling) prior to serving.

To avoid this being a lengthy post – I’ll post up my summarized tips/advices gathered from other more experienced macaron bakers :)


For filling – Used whipped ganache as I wanted to offset the sweetness. Will probably give buttercream a try next time.

Chocolate Coffee Ganache recipe

50g whipping cream
1 tbsp instant coffee
150g whipping cream, cold
100g chocolate (used 40g white chocolate and 70g dark chocolate) – Note that white chocolate is sweeter so play with this combination depending on sweetness, colour and filling you prefer.

1. Heat up 50g cream. Do not boil.
2. Dissolve coffee.
3. Immediate pour into bowl with chocolate. Let sit for about 1 minute before stirring to melt chocolate.
4. Pour in cold 150g whipping cream and stir until well combined.
5. Refrigerate mixture overnight.
6. Whip until firm the next day.


Useful references/links:
Tartlette
Mercotte

macTweets

1st attempt – based on full recipe using caster sugar. ‘Super Wow’ on sweetness.

2nd attempt – testing with combination of soft brown sugar and dark brown sugar. Not as sweet, much better.

3rd attempt – used soft brown sugar only because dark brown sugar deepens colour of shells. Focus more on piping more even smooth shells. This time prepared proper filling and it was SUPER YUMS! Master Prince would give his two thumbs up if he was not too busy stuffing his face - also he was simply thrilled as he was allowed to have coffee (used decaf).

Macrons with chocolate coffee and hazelnut filling.

Simply delightful, really taste like a ferrero rocher macaron!!