leoni

I disagree. I only make them French-style (no bain marie), and I don't leave my egg whites uncovered. I am usually using older (frozen) whites, but I don't leave them out to lose water content, and I have a 99% success rate (the 1% failure is usually because I knock out too little air from the final batter). ← could I get your recipe?

1) Could you please explain what happens to the proteins from aging that makes them more suitable to make macarons if moisture loss isnt the only reason? Or point me to a resource that I could read that would explain it? 2) Could you also explain the general theory for heat management on macarons? 3) You suggested that weak heat is generally the cause of a bad rise. What's the purpose of putting shielding underneath the macaron tray? 4) If an angled baking sheet, or oven is the cause of lop-sided macarons, why do the macarons all tilt in multiple directions instead of one? 5) What causes cracks in the macarons where the "feet" ooze out from the cracks instead of from below? I don't think overmixing is my problem since I've tried both over and under mixing and I would like to assume that I've pintpointed the sweet spot (flows like magma, nipples smooth out in 30 seconds, and pale like ivory), but it's probably heat management. Is there a theory behind macaron heat management? I would have thought shielding underneath is to stop strong convection currents (the type of heat that rises) and encourage radiation heat (heat that bounces off the walls from all directions). But is there a general theory behind this? (ex: strong heat needs to come out from underneath to encourage a strong rise, a crack in the oven door allows steam to escape, etc.)

He only requires 3 days in the fridge with a cover of plastic wrap pierced with a few holes. This is how I age my whites. ← One more thing, in his recipe does he whip them straight out of the refrigerator or are they let to room temperature before whipping? Edit: I'm sorry I just realized that the recipe you just mentioned is using the italian meringue method. When I used the italian meringue method I used fresh eggs. Aging wasn't even necessary at all. I will still stand by my hypothesis unless someone has any disagreements: In order to make macarons the french style, the eggwhites must be aged in a manner that they will lose water content so the proteins are more concentrated when using a specified amount of mass in order to increase the structural strength of the macaron. (Unless using the bain marie method)

Also, I wanted to ask you helpful people a few questions (cooking for me is about understanding logically the science behind it rather than the results themselves) 1) Are there any advantages of using the french method over the italian meringue method? It seems to be less reliable and more time (to age the whites) to make. Some people have suggested that it is sweeter using the italian method, is this true? If it is, can you lower the powdered sugar/granulated sugar content and add more almond meal to compensate? 2) And for those who use the french method, what is your success rate? What's the secret? Is your success rate 100% or there are times that you just can't explain why they failed?

He only requires 3 days in the fridge with a cover of plastic wrap pierced with a few holes. This is how I age my whites. ← You know you are probably right, but I just refuse to accept this as voodoo that some people can get the French method to work and some can't (with a 50% degree failure rate as Duncan from Syrup and Tang says). There has to be a key factor here that I'm missing and I don't think it's humidity since I make sure the macarons are bone dry before cooking. (I've even tried waiting until the next day before baking). Can anyone experts on this subject matter explain why the French method works for some and doesn't for others? There's also the bain marie, I dont know if this partially cooks it so its halfway set, but as for the egg whites, I'll try the refrigerator with a few holes in the plastic... can I get a link to your recipe jumanggy over PM? I buy my almond meal at Newflower, which is actually Sunflower, but they call it Newflower in texas because Sunflower was already taken. I've also seen it at whole foods.

by the way, I live in the United States in Dallas, a pretty major city, but I really can't find any unadulterated powdered sugar or powdered eggwhites in any of the major grocers. What kind of specialty shops should I be looking for these kind of ingredients?

I tried the italian meringue method and on my first attempt it was successful enough to make macarons (maybe not perfectly professional looking, but atleast no cracks, holes, lopsided macarons etc). I thought about it for a long while and I think I realized what the problem was. The term "aged egg whites" is kind of misleading. I think we need to emphasize that the egg whites need to be uncovered and left there for a few days (not just left there for a few days covered, or partially covered, it needs to be out in the open with a wide top evaporating as fast as it can, and yes lots of dust and nasty crap flies in). I noticed the consistency of the eggwhites after I had left it for about 5 days and it felt so thick it had reduced to probably about 1/5 of its original mass. I was thinking about it, and most likely the protein structure of the macarons are not strong enough using regular eggwhites. My theory, which could quite possibly be wrong (please correct me if I stating something blatantly wrong), is that I could make the comparison that if macarons were a building, and we were originally building the frame with balsa wood, the italian meringue method replaces the balsa wood with steel frames. If we were to use aged eggwhites with a portion of egg white powder, it would be like using lumber, (much stronger than balsa, but not as failproof as steel). My macarons that failed were aged, but covered with a paper towel because I was afraid of the critters that would crawl in, but I also noticed that not much egg white evaporated. It wasn't until the 3rd day that I decided to take off the cover and on the 5th or 6th day I noticed the eggwhites had turned REALLY concentrated, almost into a hard gel. Thanks for all your help guys! I'm so glad this egullet forum exists!

So should I try unadulterated or just replace confectioner's with regular granulated/castor sugar? I've been thinking about it alot lately. Aging eggwhites and whipping eggwhites to stiffer peaks make the domes stronger, to prevent cracking across the domes, but my cracks lately in my latest attempt were holes from the side... perhaps it has something to do with the heating process. Either I need to add bakingsheets DIRECTLY (I've been putting the baking sheets a rack below) below the macaron sheet, or take them all away all together....

I was wondering if anyone could please help me troubleshoot the problem with my macarons? Is this problem I'm getting a common newbie mistake? This is my 7th attempt and every attempt no matter what I change I keep ending up with this problem: The problem is that they keep cracking at about the 2-3 minute mark if I'm propping the oven open at 350 degrees F and where the "feet" are supposed to come out from the bottom, they are coming out the cracks and the holes. I'm using the syrup and tang's recipe. If anyone has any suggestions (especially there is some really great talent here) I would greatly appreciate it as this is my favorite dessert treat I've failed every attempt at making it! edit: 80g confectioner's sugar (has cornstarch) 50g egg white (aged or not this keeps happening) 65g almond meal 40g castor sugar I'm using the french method. And yes, even though this batch is very brown, the problem happens at the 2 minute mark even if I take it out earlier this problem is already occuring. I have tried lowering oven temperature, shorter baking times etc, putting sheets in racks below letting it sit for atleast 1 hour before baking, etc, but I'm all out of ideas, I'm starting to wonder if its my ingredients since I've tried recipes from 8 different sources and the sample problem keeps arising... does anyone know what the key factor is in developing the feet from the bottom and not cracking? I have also tried barely folding the batter at all but the problem also occurs

conventional oven 65g almond meal (bobs red mill) 80g confectioner's (walmart brand, I know, I'll use better qualty when I nail it) 40g superfine granulated sugar 50g egg white (no powdered but aged atleast 24 hours)

Hi guys, I've read almost every macaron article online as well as in this forum, but after many attempts my closest to macaron success has resulted in this: The main problem is that they are tilting. The recipe is the french style macarons, NOT the italian meringue using the hard/soft ball method. I used the recipe from syrup and tang for this one. I did a google search for "macarons tilt during baking" and I read that someone said it was because of undermixing. I thought about it and it made a bit of sense that if after piping the batter the macaron mix did not ooze into a dome it probably was undermixed. So I began mixing the batter more (and this time I may have used medium peaks instead of stiff peaks for the egg whites) and all the attempts resulted in cracking macarons (all of these were used with egg whites ages for atleast 24 hours and they formed into a dome shape). The cracks I'm referring to are more like fissures, a single crack and the "foot," which is supposed to push from the bottom, actually oozes out from the fissure. You can kind of see this happening in the bottom left macarons on my pan. If anyone has any suggestions I would HIGHLY appreciate it! Thanks so much!