Macarons – The delicate French invention.

[Mikeb19]

PH10 Recipe

Appareil à macaron:

- 600g tant-pour-tant (50/50 mixture of finely ground almonds and icing sugar)

- 110g of 'old' egg whites

- 300g granulated sugar

- QS water (QS means sufficient quantity)

- 110g of 'fresh' egg whites

- 3g egg white powder

- QS coloring

Put 250g of sugar in a pot with enough water to make it fluid, then cook to 118 degrees C. Meanwhile, mix the remaining (50g) sugar, the powdered egg white, and the 'old' egg whites. Add the syrup to the whipped whites while mixing to make an italian meringue.

Add the TPT to your meringue, then the fresh whites (un-whipped) and coloring. The meringue should 'fall' and have a smooth and glossy look to it. The batter should be liquid enough that small peaks smooth out, but still hold a bit of shape.

Pipe out the batter onto parchment. Cook in a convection oven (with steam if possible - I usually put another tray in with water to get the oven steamy) at 170 degrees celcius for 11 minutes. Let cool on the tray, they will come off very easily after. I've found they have the best texture when left out for a few hours, PH recommends letting them 'age' in the fridge uncovered for half a day or so.

Then fill with a generous amount of your favourite ganache (or jelly) and enjoy! (I'm not a fan of buttercream)

This recipe so far has produced perfect results every time - the look is exactly like Hermé's (both before and after being bit into), and the taste and texture are amazing. Every time I've made them for the restaurant they've been a huge hit (just a little note - I'm very concious of the issue of 'stealing' recipes in restaurants, there have been recent discussions on these matters - and I make sure to give credit to Pierre Hermé whenever anyone asks about the origin of my recipe, as well I use all original ganaches and flavourings.)

I've also tried adding fruit purées to the batter instead of coloring (of course adjusting the other ingredients) and so far have been successful (although the flavour has been a little weak - will try with fruit concentrates when I have the time). Other modifications is to use other nuts/powders in place of the almonds/icing sugar, or combos of several different powders (almonds, icing sugar and green tea powder for example; or almond, noisette and sugar, might try making some dried fruit or vegetable based powders for the TPT in the future). Hopefully I can get some pics of my macarons one of these days, but work has been very busy.

Edited April 21, 2008 by gfron1 (log)

[Patrick S]

Thank your for posting this, Mike! That's interesting that half of the whites are folded into the batter unbeaten! How are 'old whites' defined? Are whites that have sit in a tupperware container in the fridge old, or do they need to be out of the fridge for some time? Also, do you let these sit out for some time before putting them into the oven?

[Mikeb19]

Thank your for posting this, Mike! That's interesting that half of the whites are folded into the batter unbeaten! How are 'old whites' defined?  Are whites that have sit in a tupperware container in the fridge old, or do they need to be out of the fridge for some time? Also, do you let these sit out for some time before putting them into the oven?

←

Old whites meaning left out to age for a day or so at room temperature. Apparently they make for a more stable meringue. I usually just use old whites left in the fridge from other preparations, it doesn't seem to make much difference - italian meringue is pretty stable already, and the powdered whites also act as a stabiliser.

I was pretty shocked when I first saw the recipe that some of the whites are folded in unbeaten as well, but it seems theres a method to his madness - the extra liquid is needed to 'collapse' the italian meringue (of course it's not really falling, I'm just short on words to describe the process) - just adding more TPT would make it too dry.

[SweetSide]

Wow, thanks for the recipe Mike. I have seen another recipe where you add liquid whites where it wasn't expected. Can't recall where exactly, but it was recently, and it was for a baked nut meringue. Which, a macaron is, essentially.

Also, to note the obvious for many, but in typing you said to cook at 325 celcius and I'm sure you meant 325F. Likely a translation typo from the French -- that would be 617F, a little too hot for a macaron I think! Those pups would dry out fast!

I don't have convection, and am not well versed on translation. Would you say that 350F would be right for a regular oven, or should I use 375F?

Thanks!

[foodie3]

i have a question for those who made several different versions - what recipe did you find to be the most reliable?

[Mikeb19]

Wow, thanks for the recipe Mike.  I have seen another recipe where you add liquid whites where it wasn't expected.  Can't recall where exactly, but it was recently, and it was for a baked nut meringue.  Which, a macaron is, essentially.

Also, to note the obvious for many, but in typing you said to cook at 325 celcius and I'm sure you meant 325F.  Likely a translation typo from the French -- that would be 617F, a little too hot for a macaron I think! Those pups would dry out fast!

I don't have convection, and am not well versed on translation.  Would you say that 350F would be right for a regular oven, or should I use 375F?

Thanks!

←

Yes, sorry. I did make that mistake during the translation, not to mention my math skills are a little off.... Should be 170 degrees Celcius for 11 minutes (338F). For a traditional oven PH recommends 250 degrees C for the first minute (to get the initial rise), then an additional 7-8 minutes at 190 degrees C. I've only cooked them in convection ovens so I can't personally guarantee the method, however PH's recipes so far have been solid so I would trust it.

Edited May 2, 2006 by Mikeb19 (log)

[Patrick S]

i have a question for those who made several different versions - what recipe did you find to be the most reliable?

←

I don't know which is most reliable -- the ones from ala cuisine, Nicole Kaplan, and JGarner are all pretty reliable -- but I'm sure the least reliable is the one from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. Don't get me wrong -they are my favorite recipe, they seem more moist and chewy and less crunchy than the other recipes, but they often develop cracks and wrinkles and sometimes dont develop feet.

Edited May 2, 2006 by Patrick S (log)

[Patrick S]

JGarner's recipe, converted to grams, is as follows:

128g almond flour

28g light brown sugar

184g confectioners sugar

10g dutch process cocoa

90g egg whites

Whip the whites with 35g of the confectioners sugar to stiff peaks. Process together the remaining ingredients, sift them, fold them into the meringue, pipe out the macarons, let them sit for 30 minutes, and bake.

[bripastryguy]

Well, I just tried a recipe from Jon Krauss at FPS and it was published in Modern Baking along with a recipe for a new age carrot cake. It used a boiled syrup cooked to 248F. Alittle more work than some other recipes but they came out awesome. I made black sesame seed(using at as a garnish for my green tea dessert) and others I topped with grain sugar. They are awesome and seem to be the easiest to remove from parchment. here is the recipe:

Macaroons (FPS)

187 1/2 grams almond flour

187 1/2 grams confectioner's sugar

62 1/2 grams egg whites

90 grams egg whites

1 gram salt

187 1/2 grams sugar

50 grams water

10 grams glucose

Bring all ingredients to room temp.

Sift almond flour with confectioners sugar and let dry. Fold in first amount of egg whites and mix in completely.

Boil sugar, glucose and water to 248F Whisk egg whites and salt to soft peaks. Pour syrup over while running and whip stiff but still shiny. Fold meringue into almond mixture until it becomes slightly runny. Pipe quarter size bulbs on parchment paper and bake right away @300F for 10-11 mins. Let cool then freeze immediately.

[iii_bake]

Anyone has the idea ... why some macarons are glossy and some are matte.

iii

[Qui]

Anyone has the idea ... why some macarons are glossy and some are matte.

iii

←

I think it's the degree of mixing of the batter... undermixed batter will have peak and matte... overmixed batter will be glossy but flatter... so the goal is to get to a nice balance... that is, smooth surface with nice sheen, at the same time tall and has "feet"...

hope this helps!

[kitchenmage]

I just made macarons for the first time. I'm not so intimidated anymore, the flavor is wonderful, some of them have feet and everything!

I am happy with everything except for my piping technique, which needs work, or maybe the batter isn't exactly flowing like magma, or maybe my 'largest tip' is still too damned small or something. Or maybe all of the above.

I have to pipe around in a circle -- like an "@" symbol -- and even some of the ones that were rested the right amount of time (based on the feet) have holes in the middle where the swirls didn't all meld together. I assume they are supposed to have some holes in them, but I'm getting the crushed/collapsing tops on an awful lot of them.

I used PH's recipe from the great demo by the ex-PH pastry chef. (i love the pastry chef demos here!) 325 for 18 min on an insulated sheet. (was that Patrick's suggestion? thanks!)

Questions:

Does it get more magma-like if it's mixed more? I think I was a bit nervous about overmixing.

Can you hold the unpiped batter for an hour or so? It seems like the right amount of resting time is about 30 min, and so I want all of the sheets to rest the same amount of time...but the only way to do that is to not pipe them at the same time. (or am I being nit-picky?)

Any other things I should be doing?

These got brushed with either marionberry or toffee nut syrup because that was what was handy. I like the berry a lot more than the other.

Oh, I think I have another option for removing the cookies from the parchment. Iput a cookie sheet in the freezer, pulled it out once the cookies were mostly cool and slid the parchment onto the frozen sheet. a few minutes later, I slid a hand under the parchment and gently wiggled my fingers. The cookies popped right off! The empty pan went back in the freezer for whenthe next tray out of the oven.

[alanamoana]

looks like you could have folded the batter a bit more. don't worry too much. it's the strange part about macarons that you whip up a meringue and then deflate it (mostly), but there's still enough air to cause them to puff up and have little feet.

[nice_guy1812]

I don't know if this has been covered or not, but when I make macarons at work most of them are cracked on the top. I have a feeling that it may be the convection oven that does it but I'm not too sure. Whenever I make them at home they come out looking picture perfect, and I don't have a convection oven at home. The recipe I use starts with an italian meringue which you then fold the almond powder and icing sugar into. Is it the recipe that I should change? If anybody has any ideas or has experienced this problem before, any help would be appreciated.

BTW, turning the fan off on the oven at work is not an option, if that is the problem.

[iii_bake]

I don't know if this has been covered or not, but when I make macarons at work most of them are cracked on the top.  I have a feeling that it may be the convection oven that does it but I'm not too sure.  Whenever I make them at home they come out looking picture perfect, and I don't have a convection oven at home.  The recipe I use starts with an italian meringue which you then fold the almond powder and icing sugar into.  Is it the recipe that I should change?  If anybody has any ideas or has experienced this problem before, any help would be appreciated. 

BTW, turning the fan off on the oven at work is not an option, if that is the problem.

←

I experienced that once or twice and i thought it was the top set/cooked too soon so i put a sheet of aluminum foil on the top rack and the macaron the middle. It came out good.

I can turn off the fan though but i just wanted to check what effected the different baking result. What i discovered was that the heat source from different oven system, the lining of the pan ( double or single), the rack ( top/middle/bottom) play a vital role on the feet and the top.

I baked on very small batch and made notes on these effects..then i can adjust for the baking with best result.

( still somehow trying to find the way to make my macarons glossy)

Hope this helps.

[Patrick S]

Good job. My first macaroons were cracked all over and didn't look as good as yours.

Your batter was slightly too thick. You can test your batter before you fill your pastry bag by dropping a little on a plate. It should slowly (over maybe 30 seconds to a minute) flatten into a smooth surface. If it doesn't, keep folding. If it still is too stiff, you can actually mist a little water onto your batter and fold it in to thin it out. Not too much though -- the shape of the macaroons are very sensitive to the moisture content of the batter: slightly too much, and you have very thin cookies; slightly too little, and you have macaroons with a craggy, irregular surface.

BTW, why did you pipe in circles? I would definitely try piping them with the tip held in place. Try piping with the tip held in place, raising the tip slightly as you pipe, so that you form a little mound. If the batter if just right, it will sink juuuust enough so that the cookies are slightly domed but still smooth.

[LittleIsland]

Patrick, did you ever experiment with ALL dried egg whites? Or how much dried white to add to fresh? I am looking for advice on what adjustments to make when only fresh egg whites are available, for example, adding some powdered whites to thicken the batter.

I know it's a difficult one to answer depending on which recipe one is using, but theoretically would it be possible to start with all fresh whites, add some powdered whites to thicken it and then after folding, just eyeball the batter to thin it out with a touch of water if necessary?

Making sure one has enough old white available is a real pain.

I've had 2 attempts. The first time I used JGarner's recipe but subbed about a third of the almond with dessicated coconut and omitted the cocoa but added a touch of almond extract. I didn't have great expectations because all this was on a whim - but surprisingly, although the texture was too coarse and the tops slightly peaky (batter was thick but very easy to pipe), to my delight as I peeked in the oven, they all baked up with little feet!! Beginner's luck I guess.

Thus heartened, my second attempt was using the Flo Braker reciper posted by CanadianBakin' (half recipe) but it was disastrous, I might have over-folded as the batter was too runny, they spread too much, I couldn't control the flow out of the tube, and the tube was too large anyway. They baked up matte and with no feet. Tasted alright but not as chocolaty as they could have been. Well the kiddos gobbled them up

On templates: I printed off a page of perfectly staggered, 1.25" circles from my computer and placed this under my parchment... so easy.

Edited September 23, 2006 by LittleIsland (log)

[CookieBoy]

Hi guys, here's a couple of pics of macaroon croquembouches that I did at work.

Enjoy

[iii_bake]

Lovely

May i ask...are these from French or Italian Meringue?

My French M Macaron can never get these beautiful light colours?

Any tips for this?

Thnkx

[CookieBoy]

I prefer the Italian meringue version: it's less prone for breakages (well in my experience anyway).

I only colour my macaroons and leave the flavour for the buttercream inside. Just a touch of powdered colours does the trick. You've just got to be really careful, because a little powder can go a long way.... not many people can stomach fluro macaroons.

I see some of you wait a few minutes for the mix to dry a little before baking. I've never done that, but I'm curious to see the difference between baking them direct.

I bake at 100 celcius (which is 212 fahrenheit for the rest of you), when it's able to lift off the tray you're done. After that I sandwich them together with flavoured buttercream, then pop them in the coolroom for 2-3 days before I sell them.

[LittleIsland]

Gawwwwwd those are GORGEOUS CookieBoy!

How did you stick them together, did they break apart and leave hunks of macaroon behind when people went to dislodge them?

{And, thanks May for pointing me right about the powdered whites... this thread has been sooo long and there's been so much to digest, I now remember something like that but every time I want to look back on a tip I have to go back and start reading from the first post again! Agh.}

[LittleIsland]

Coming back to the whites issue, I've been comparing the different amounts of powdered whites to liquid or fresh, and the original Pierre Herme recipe that Wendy posted had 0.25% of powdered whites out of the total weight of whites. Wendy said she tweaked it up to 7.24% of powdered whites out of the total weight of whites. That's quite a bit, however of course she was at the time using all fresh whites as opposed to 2/3 "aged".

So I guess I still have more batches to make, because today's batch AGAIN are a bit too thin and runny. I used the PH recipe posted by Nicole Kaplan, added about 3g of powdered whites but did not reduce the liquid whites which were mostly fresh - as in, broken out of their shells yesterday. First batch out of the oven are flat with no feet. Yesterday's batch, although flat and very dull matte, had tiny feet. Perhaps they need to dry longer - but even before baking they look too flat!

[miladyinsanity]

If yours look too flat before baking, then maybe you're not overmixing the batter enough?

And I always use fresh whites. After the first flat batch and the last one which cracked because I let them dry too long, I've never had problems. I've feet and smooth tops and domes.

[LittleIsland]

I think the problem actually was that the egg whites were not thick enough, so the batter was too runny. Today I used Nicole Kaplan's recipe again but this time adjusted with more powdered whites to thicken them. I think I'm getting there - except the batter was a touch thick and the macaroons do not have the slight sheen that I see on everyone else's cookies. Could anyone enlighten me if this could be because the batter is too dry? Therefore if I added a touch more water to the batter, would the cookies have the sheen?

Also, I'm a bit confused by the number of Pierre Herme recipes posted by people, none of which appear to be producing the gorgeous dark chocolate macaroons in everyone's photos. With Valrhona cocoa which is quite dark, I got the same colour macaroons as those in Patrick's photos of the Nicole Kaplan recipe - very pale brown.

Would someone be a wonderful kind soul and point me to the PH choc mac recipe that everyone is raving about please?

Edited September 28, 2006 by LittleIsland (log)

[s_sevilla]

I gave macarons a try for the first time.....came out perfect except that the green tea I put in there didn't present itself in the final cookie....I'll just have to work it into the ganache in the center.