Macarons
Macarons are beautiful little pillows of delight. Soft and light and we’re probably lucky that they are also so expensive to buy (or we’d eat more). We have made these unsuccessfully more times than we’d like to admit. You need only to look at the progress below (the early quarantine is at top) in our month of trials – we are slowly figuring it out!
Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites (from large eggs), separated at least 24 hours in advance and kept in the refrigerator
- 210 g powdered sugar
- 125 g almond flour
- 30 g regular granulated sugar
Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together and set aside. Next, put the egg whites in a standing mixing bowl. Start beating them at medium/high speed with your mixer. Once they start to get bubbly and white and you see the whisk is lightly leaving marks, add a tablespoon of the granulated sugar.
Continue beating and add the remaining sugar slowly over the next minute or two. The eggs will now be white and fluff but not stiff enough. Continue beating at high speed until peaks form and remain up when you take out the whisk (stop the mixer before trying this!). When the egg whites are ready, you’ll notice that they seem dense and creamy and not as bubbly anymore.
Now is the time to put your electric appliances aside. Your egg whites are delicate and you must treat them gently. If you wish to add color, now is the time to do so. If using, gently fold in the color using a spatula: slide your spatula on the side of the bowl under the egg whites and bring the bottom up to the top. Repeat this until the color is evenly blended. DO NOT whisk as it will deflate your egg whites and your batter will be ruined.
Using a folding motion, start mixing in the dry ingredients a little at a time (you should add the whole thing in 4 or 5 additions). Carefully blend everything together, always sliding the spatula to the bottom of the bowl and back up to make sure no pockets of dry ingredients remain. The batter should have a lava-like consistency when it’s ready.
Try to pipe the macarons into the same size cookies. We bought a silicon baking sheet just for macaroons on Amazon after a few tries.
Slam the pan down a few times on a solid surface to flatten the cookies and work out the bubbles. Let the macarons sit until a film develops (about 20 minutes). You’ll know it’s ready when you touch the surface and it won’t smear.
Bake the macarons at 300°F (150°C) for 14 minutes. The average cooking time is between 13 and 18 minutes. From 12 minutes on, watch closely, and avoid opening the oven door before that. The macarons are ready when they look dry and matte and seem firm on their crown when you lightly tap on them.
Match the cookies up to similarly sized cookies. We like to fill with buttercream frosting. For these lemon macarons, we will add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest to the frosting. These have a bit of zest and juice in the cookie as well, which was added during the batter folding.
When these turn out, they are just amazing. When they don’t, go to Trader Joe’s and buy their frozen version. They don’t taste the same, but they are still pretty. Enjoy!