Oh French Macarons, you delicious but evasive little treat. These little beauties can be made at home, as long as you have the right recipe and correct technique. With a little practice, your macarons will look and taste impressive.
Here are a few tips that help make the macaron process easier:
- Preferably use a convection oven or an oven with a convection setting.
- Google “printable macaron template” to get a free printable guide to slip under your silicone baking sheet as an outline for the perfect 1.5″ circular rounds needed for evenly piping out the macaron batter.
- Use a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe 1½ inch rounds onto the silicone baking mat following the template.
- Stand your pastry bag up in a tall glass to balance it while filling it with the batter
- Gently poke any bubbles or holes with a toothpick before baking
- After piping the macaron cookie rounds, let the tray sit out for twenty minutes until the tops look drier than the cookie.
- Only use gel food coloring so as not to alter the texture of the batter, and when possible, add the coloring in at the egg white beating stage.
- Measure ingredients precisely using a digital scale. There is no estimating in French Macarons.
- Don’t make macarons on a rainy or very humid day.
- Folding the ingredients into the right consistency takes practice. Use a flexible spatula to scrape the side of the bowl and pull the mix towards the center 50 times. Do not over fold the mix into a runny texture, like a pancake mix. It needs to be thicker.
- After baking, let Macarons stand one day for optimal taste. Store in an airtight container for up to five days or freeze them.
- Fresh almond meal makes for the shiny and smooth appearance. The almond meal should fit through a mesh sieve. If not, grind it in the food processor until it does.
- Use an oven thermometer to precisely gauge temperature
Need a fool proof French Macaron recipe? Try our go-to Quite A Kitchen French Macaron Batter Recipe.