French Macarons

French Macarons are the new cupcake - remember when cupcakes were all the rage for about a minute and a half? I never understood that fad, not being a huge fan of cupcakes, but the macaron trend, I can completely get behind. These bright crunchy sweet cookies are a triumph of airy egg whites and sugar. They are, however, pretty tricky to get right until you know the secrets. I tried several recipes and methods until I got what I deem to be the perfect batch. So I had to crack a lot of eggs while ending up with some flops that while tasty, were certainly not macarons.

I'll start by sharing some dos and don'ts that I learned before going on to the recipe so you can more confidently select other recipes you might like to try. This one is for you Carmen H.!

The really critical things are - texture, temperature, time and and more time.

First things first - the egg whites. I read an article that claims you need to 'age' the egg whites. I'm not sure about the veracity of that but I do know that you need to measure your whites by volume and they must be at room temp, not like 20 minutes out of the fridge warm. I let mine sit out for several hours. I also use a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup egg whites instead of 3 egg whites. For me (using small eggs) this was 5 egg whites. Significant difference.

Second, any recipe that doesn't call for making the meringue with hot sugar, just dump. I think this was perhaps THE best predictor of this recipe being top notch.

Third, you have to let the macarons set on your baking sheet before baking until they they are dry enough on top that nothing sticks to your finger when you lightly touch the top. This is also extremely key, since it's what will allow the cookies to get a great rounded top while rising to create the 'feet'.

Fourth, The texture of the batter is critical. It has to be thick enough that it maintains shape allowing it to rise but not so thick that it doesn't smooth out. When putting the batter into your pastry bag, it should just start to ooze out of the tip. If it runs out, it's too thin, if it doesn't ooze at all, it's too thick.

This batch was too thin:

and it turned out like this:

Tasty but destined to turn into crust for a pie.

Yours should look more like this:

and turn out like this:

On to the recipe! I based it on this one (the most successful of all and repeatable too!) 

• 1/2 cup (3 to 4 large) egg whites, at room temperature, divided

• Food coloring (optional)

• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour (5.3 ounces) (you can grind your own or purchase at Bulk Barn or health food stores)

• 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar (5.3 ounces)

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 3 tablespoons water

Method:

1.  Pour half the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer. Add the almond extract and food colorng to the other half of the egg whites and stir well (don't worry if the coloring doesn't blend, it will when you fold it) Sift together the almond flour and powdered sugar and set aside.
2.  Bring the granulated sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, increase the heat to high, insert a candy thermometer and boil, undisturbed, until the syrup reaches 240 degrees (soft ball stage).
3.  Meanwhile, beat the whites in the mixer with the whisk attachment over low to medium speed until foamy, then increase the speed and continue until they hold medium-firm peaks. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly pour in the syrup, being careful to avoid hitting the whisk attachment. Beat the meringue on high until the peaks are firm, about 2 minutes, then set aside to rest for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour the unbeaten egg whites over the almond-sugar mixture and top with the meringue; fold everything together just until the almond flour mixture is evenly incorporated. Now's the important part - judging the thickness. You should be able to drop it in a thick band and it should be very slow to lose it's shape after dropping back into the bowl.
5. Put half the mixture into a pastry bag with a 1/4-1/2 inch plain round tip. If it doesn't slowly ooze out of the tip, return it to the bowl and give it a few more stirs. It's far easier to thin the mixture with a few extra stirs than to start over again, which you'd have to do if it's too thin.
6. Pipe into rounds on a silpat lined baking sheets holding the bag vertically above the sheet - don't touch the tip to the sheet, allow it to drop. (I also tried a batch with parchment paper, which works but is more difficult to peel off after they've baked. Set the sheets aside in a cool dry place until the tops are no longer tacky, depending on humidity this can be 30-60 minutes. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!
7. To bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the center of the oven. Only bake one sheet at a time. Place your baking sheet on top of another empty baking sheet and bake 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, open the oven door, rotate the sheet and bake another 4 minutes. Do this one more time or until baked - total time should be about 12-14 minutes. Slide the silpat onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for an hour before removing from the mat. The extra pan gives it a less direct and more even heat since it acts like a little cushion of hot air under the pan with the cookies. Opening the oven allows it to cool ever so slightly but enough to get your feet going.
8. Gently peel the silpat from the macarons - I found that it works better to hold the macaron and peel the mat away. 

When completely cool (I allowed overnight at room temp) match up macarons for size and fill with your choice of fillings using a pastry bag. I used an apricot filling and a lemon buttercream - to us the lemon buttercream was a far better choice since the tartness was a great contrast to the sweet meringue cookies.

Not sure if you can tell from this photo but I tried one tray using the convection setting at 325 degrees and one using the standard bake setting at 350. I recommend against using convection since it bakes too quickly and browns before it gets dry enough to bake fully inside.

Also next time, I would use a mat with a circle template to get more even sizes since I completely freehanded this one!

Please Give it a try and let me know what you think! Also feel free to ask any questions you may have, here on the comments, on twitter or on facebook or email!