Making French Macarons
By Betsy Mikel in Food on Feb 10, 2011 8:00PM
The illustrious French macaron: those little cookie sandwiches that aren’t quite cookie and aren’t quite sandwich. Macarons have a finer-than-eggshell thin crust, a chewy inside and are typically consumed in precisely one and a half delicious bites. The Parisian pâtisseries have secrets that we will never know (it probably has something to do with their above-quality ingredients), which gives their macarons that much more of an Mmmmm! factor. But Paris is far, and expensive, so we had our hand at making our own.
We’ve tried before, and failed. There are a lot of recipes out there and many of them are quite confusing. But luckily, we found Macarons by Annie Rigg just waiting to be purchased for $15.95 at our local Anthropologie. We're normally not one for paying full price for cookbooks really anything, but this one was worth it. The pictures are pretty, but the instructions are even better. Rigg really breaks the overwhelming process down and provide a lot of helpful hints and tasty flavor combinations - we made raspberry, lemon, tangerine, pistachio, chocolate and strawberries and cream. And even though her British English was a bit foreign to us (we would never “whiz” anything in a food processor), we understood enough to make some really terrific pieces of edible macaron art.
Here are some tips that we garnished from the Rigg book and from our own experience:
- Having the right tools is key. A food processor for grinding almonds and mixing the almond flour and powdered sugar, a KitchenAid mixer for the perfect meringue, piping bags and an amazing spatula really did the trick.
- If the recipe says to mix for a whole minute or to wait for 15 before the next step, do so. Those instructions are there for a reason.
- When going for the speckled-egg look with the food coloring and flicking toothbrush trick, a pair of gloves will keep your hands safe from stains.
- The tops and bottoms really need to be fully cooled before adding the filling, or else the insides will sink in and crumble and you will have to eat your mistakes (which really isn’t thaaat big of a problem).
- Enjoy the finished product and pass to loved ones as soon as you are able. Macarons don’t stay moist and crumbly for long. Crunchy macarons are truly a shame.
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup ground almonds
3 egg whites
a pinch of salt
3 Tablespoons sugar fine sugar
a piping bag
2 baking sheets lined with noon-stick parchment paper
Directions:
- Blend powdered sugar and almonds in a food processor for 30 second until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
- Beat egg whites with salt until they hold a stiff peak.
- Continue to whisk at medium speed while adding the super fine sugar a teaspoon at a time. Mix well between each addition to ensure the sugar is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next spoonful. The mixture should be thick, white and glossy.
- Add any food coloring or paste that you are using. Dip a toothpick into the paste and stir into the mixture, mixing thoroughly to ensure the color is evenly blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Fold the ground sugar and almond mixture into the egg whites.
- The mixture should be thoroughly incorporated and smooth — this can take up to a minute. When it is ready, the mixture should drop from the spoon in a smooth molten mass.
- Fill the piping bag with the mixture and pipe evenly sized rounds — about 2 inches across — onto the baking sheets.
- Tap the bottom of the baking sheets sharply on the work surface to expel any large air bubbles.
- Scatter any edible decorations, liquid food coloring, etc. onto the unbaked macaron shells.
- Leave the macarons for at least 15 minutes, and up to one hour, until they have "set" and formed a dry shell. They should not be sticky, tacky or wet when tested with your fingertip.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- Bake the macarons on the middle shelf of the preheated oven, one sheet at a time, for 10 minutes. The tops should be crisp and the bottoms dry. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.
- Once cool, add filling.