Macarons – The delicate French invention.

[Patrick S]

4. I used insulated baking sheets, which probably slows the rate at which the bottom of the macarons heat up. Maybe that's a factor.

A: No insulated baking sheets at all...just ordinary paper, anti-adherent

As I've said, I myslef might be the problem. I guess that I've first noticed it when piping, because they never loose the peak after piped and I was expecting them to look glossy and peak-free....

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When I piped mine, many of them had "peaks" too. I got rid of most of them by banging the baking sheet on the table.

Regarding the mixing of the nut/cocoa/sugar mixture into the whites, yes do this by hand, not mixer. I have no way of knowing how thoroughly you did this, bit when I have undermixed in the past the macarons didnt come out right.

[filipe]

Regarding the mixing of the nut/cocoa/sugar mixture into the whites, yes do this by hand, not mixer. I have no way of knowing how thoroughly you did this, bit when I have undermixed in the past the macarons didnt come out right.

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I've read somewhere (i've just lost the account of how many articles/posts on macarons I've read the past few weeks) that one of the "secrets" was the exact point of the mix between the meringue and the dry ingredients. It also said that when it "flow like lava" that would be the time to stop mixing....

When u do yours u feel like having any lava?

[Patrick S]

Macaron batter should "flow like lava", a thick lava, but that's not much help in practice. I just look really closely at the batter and keep folding until it looks completely homogenous -- no streaks, no clumps of nut/sugar mixture-- and then keep folding a little bit more.

[Patrick S]

They're only so-so. The recipe calls for 24 minutes at 320, which makes these more dry and crispy than I like. I did a few at 17 minutes and they also seemed a little to crispy. I filled them with lemon cream.

[Ajl92]

Regarding the Italian Meringue version as opposed to the classic way I have done them in the past I can definitely agree with a previous poster that those babies dry fast! I was amazed how there was a skin almost instantly after piping and they were feeling really dehydrated less than 30 mins. after piping so much so that I felt rushed to get them in the oven before they became almond meringue bricks.

As far as the NYTimes recipe that I tried last night (I actually colored them red and filled with raspberry) I will say that I preferred my Healy and Bugat chocolate macarons just slight over this recipe, though I can see that it would be much easier to get more consistent results using the hot meringue that forms a perfect skin so quickly potentially eliminated cracking and wrinkling altogether. I baked mine at 330 for under 20 minutes and they did come out quite dry, though the interior was almost wet when I took them out. After a day they were nice and chewy inside, but the flavor tastes a lot sweeter than some of the others I've tried. I'll have to try a cocoa variation tonight on this recipe and see if I get a more tender result from the addition of cocoa powder (also I imagine the bit of brown sugar may also keep them more moist for the chocolate?) because I really liked these as a sort of fancy brownie.

I may post a picture of my pink (wanted a christmas red color) raspberry macarons later on.

[cdh]

I've got a question for the wiser macaron makers in the audience-- I put together a batch of batter today using the 10:6:5:1 ratio discussed elsewhere, and egg whites that had been left on the counter for about 24 hours. The first batch I piped out and let rest for maybe 10 minutes and put into a 325F oven to beautiful results.

The second and third batches didn't do quite so well, and I'm wondering if anybody has any ideas why. The cookies in the middle of the tray formed perfectly... domes on top and feet underneath. The ones on the outside edge of the tray cracked on top and didn't grow feet. It looks like the foot is a result of the dome catching the expanding hot air and lifting itself in one piece straight up... when that doesn't happen, you don't get a foot.

Now the question is why did my first batch work out perfectly and later batches act funny??

[Ajl92]

I tried another chocolate macaroon recipe. This one is from David Lebovitz. Interestingly, these did not need to rest at all to form feet. They can go into the oven right after piping. A couple of observations:

Baking for the specified time and temp (15-18@375F) makes the cookies too dry and crispy. 11-12 minutes was better, but still a little too crisp. I'll want to try some more variation on time and temp to see what happens.

As others have reported with various recipes, these macaroons developed large voids. I like this recipe well enough, it pipes well and looks pretty good, but I must say that texture and flavor-wise, PH's recipe is still my favorite at this point.

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I would like to add a very big endorsement for this exceedingly simple recipe.

I tried once again this afternoon to make the Healy and Bugat chocolate macarons I had success with on my first and second ever attemps last february, but they failed miserably once again, regardless of how long I let them sit to form a skin. They looked more promissing in the oven, but they shriveled, deflated, and are too chewy again, with no delicate crust I guess the kitchen may be A LOT more humid?

Anyways, the first recipe I made with whites that have been sitting out for a couple days, and then I remembered this post about the macarons that don't sit out to form a crust and I tried them, and I have to say that I have never had such an easy time getting near-perfect results!! I mean, I was just mad that I can't get these things to turn out and I whipped these up, grinding the cocoa, sugar, and almonds altogether without sifting and just took two whites from the fridge and beat them over a flame and they cam out almost perfect, with a nice crust and I didn't let them sit AT ALL. I notice a trend, however that the sweeter (the more sugar and less almonds) the macaron is, the easier it is to get a crust. I liked the taste of the Healy&Bugat macs just a bit better, but these are so easy and such great results that I don't know if I'll ever risk wasting the almond flour again with anything but this recipe.

P.S. I had a similarly easy time getting perfect-looking results for non-chocolate macs on the NYTimes recipe I posted earlier, but they are just TOO sweet and sugary tasting and not nearly as tender as I would like. If looks were everything I would go for them everytime, but I think there has to be a happy medium here. Using italian meringue sure does speed up the drying process though!

Edited December 23, 2005 by Ajl92 (log)

[Patrick S]

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I certainly could be wrong, but I would assume that if you have macarons in the middle of the sheet looking fine while those at the edges don't look fine, that the problem would somehow be related to the temperature variation on the baking sheet. I've never experienced this much variation on one baking sheet, but I always use an insulated sheet, which might keep temperature variation to a minmum.

Of course, the fact that your first sheet turned out fine shoots some pretty big holes in this theory.

PS- I removed the "tn_" from the image url so the full-size image will be displayed.

[cdh]

Hmmm... The first batch did start out on a baking sheet at room temperature, while the latter batches started on a warmer sheet.

I wonder if the warm sheet made them just slightly warmer than they're comfortable with, and the ones in the middle were insulated by their surrounding bretheren enough to avoid cracking...

Really should have taken snaps of the problem sheets too... but I only got the pretty ones into the camera. We'll see if the problem recurs when I make the next batch.

[cdh]

Did another batter today. Whites sat out 36+ hours. 10:6:5:1 ratio.

All batches came out perfectly.

This time around I heated the oven to 350F, then decreased the thermostat to 325 when putting the tray in. I also threw the tray into a snowbank between pipings to cool it down.

Lots of beautiful cookies now!

Edited December 24, 2005 by cdh (log)

[Gary]

Inspiration hit at my house. I just had to try macaroons again. They came out pretty good. I was worried about the "wrinkles" midway through the baking process. The wrinkled tops seemed to settle out a bit so they aren't as noticeable as the last time I baked macaroons. I used the CDPH recipe and left the egg whites out about 3 hours.

My only gripe about this recipe is there was a LOT of work and I only got 10 cookies. I got excited and piped them a bit on the big side (2" or so). Has anyone had luck with doubling (or tripling) the PH recipe?

Thanks,

Gary

Edited December 31, 2005 by Gary (log)

[Patrick S]

Inspiration hit at my house.  I just had to try macaroons again.  They came out pretty good.  I was worried about the "wrinkles" midway through the baking process.  The wrinkled tops seemed to settle out a bit so they aren't as noticeable as the last time I baked macaroons.  I used the CDPH recipe and left the egg whites out about 3 hours.

My only gripe about this recipe is there was a LOT of work and I only got 10 cookies.  I got excited and piped them a bit on the big side (2" or so).  Has anyone had luck with doubling (or tripling) the PH recipe?

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I haven't doubled that recipe, but I have made large batches of macaroons using using other, very similar recipes without any problems.

[Patrick S]

Here's what I got using the recipe Nicole Kaplan posted. The recipe I used was 1/8th, and I added 30g dutch-process cocoa:

Almond Mixture

250g powder sugar

250g almond flour

30g cocoa

Italian Meringue

250g sugar

187g egg whites

[CanadianBakin']

They look fantastic! I'm definitely going to give them a try. Just have to make a trip out to get some ground almonds. How do you find they compare to the PH ones you like?

[Patrick S]

They look fantastic! I'm definitely going to give them a try. Just have to make a trip out to get some ground almonds. How do you find they compare to the PH ones you like?

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I think they come out looking a wee bit better than the PH recipe, but I don't find they are superior in terms of texture or taste. However, this might be just a matter of finding the perfect time and temperature for baking, and the perfect amount of cocoa. I used 30g, which is a lower ratio of cocoa/other ingredients than the PH recipe. The ratio of cocoa to all other ingredients in the PH recipe is 1/20 (25/490g), while I used 1/31 (30/937g) in Nicole Kaplans recipe. Oddly though, if you look at the very fine details of the macaroons I just made, they look more like those in CDBPH than those actually made with the recipe in CDBPH.

[Gary]

More macaroons today. This time I made 'em smaller... a bit over an inch in diameter... just like the recipe says. The domes came out good (no wrinkles). They were a nice balance of crunchy and chewy. I got more cookies out of the recipe without having to double it. One sheet was dusted with cocoa powder and the other with powdered sugar (a nice contrast on the cookie).

Stuff I learned:

- Insulated baking sheets are important. I burnt a whole sheet worth of macaroons.

- Egg whites need to be beat fairly stiff.

- Macaroon size should be just about an inch in diameter. Too much larger and they start to wrinkle around the edges during baking. Maybe other recipes will allow larger macaroons. I used the CDPH version exactly.

- Crunchy and chewiness goes away after a couple days in the refridgerator. The larger ones in the photos below were made New Year's Eve. 48 hours in the fridge made them sort of soft. They lost the crunchy and chewy factor.

Here are some photos. Enjoy!!

LARGE -VS- SMALL size macaroons

Large ones made a couple days ago. Notice the wrinkles.

Cocoa powder dusted macaroon

Powdered sugar dusted macaroon (a bit lopsided... but tasty!!)

Edited January 3, 2006 by Gary (log)

[iii_bake]

Dear Gary,

I have not worked on the large macaron, but i experienced the wrinkles when i started my macaron project..the causes ( with my own observation) were the resting period and the stiffness of the white.

However, from where i live, we have Le Notre, a branch from Paris and their large macarons wrinkle as well.

I am certain that it is always perfect in Paris, large or small. I surely noticed that when i was there and also from the readings that Le Notre and PH have the process of sorting out imperfect Mc (which are not to be sold).

Le Notre here sells wrinkles Macarons, rough ( not smooth) top macarons, uneven sizes etc.; especially during the festive seasons where they sales sored.

I once wondered if it was because we lived in an Asian country and they thought we might not be that particular or sophisticated, any ting sandwiched together would sell!

OOps ...no negative thoughts for the New Year.

Good luck with your project and thank you for sharing the info.

[Mel]

Query on egg whites.....as I think they might be the root cause of my macaron woes (I must admit that it has been months since I made them...not sure if that is due to frustration or pregnancy has taken away all my energy & left me sleeping more than my cats ). What is the best way to tell when you're stiffly beat whites have gone too far or when they are beat too little? I realize this is nebulous to explain but does anyone have a guide they use to determine they definitely have either over or under beat? I'm worried that even if my egg whites stand at attention, maybe I haven't beat them enough...on the flip side, I've had times where i beat them so badly they seem to "break" into separate pieces..... Back to the other side, some say they shouldn't be stiff but gently droop at the top. Advice is always appreciated!!! Thanks guys!!

[Patrick S]

Query on egg whites.....as I think they might be the root cause of my macaron woes (I must admit that it has been months since I made them...not sure if that is due to frustration or pregnancy has taken away all my energy & left me sleeping more than my cats    ). What is the best way to tell when you're stiffly beat whites have gone too far or when they are beat too little? I realize this is nebulous to explain but does anyone have a guide they use to determine they definitely have either over or under beat? I'm worried that even if my egg whites stand at attention, maybe I haven't beat them enough...on the flip side, I've had times where i beat them so badly they seem to "break" into separate pieces..... Back to the other side, some say they shouldn't be stiff but gently droop at the top. Advice is always appreciated!!! Thanks guys!!

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I always beat the whites or meringue as stiff as it will go. Sarah Phillips has a page on judging whites. One rule of thumb is to keeping checking the whites' stability every 15 seconds or so once they start to get semifirm. Eventually you reach a point where you check a couple of times and see that they arent getting any more firm, and that's when you know you can stop. Plain, warm whites will get to this point very quickly, while meringue takes much longer.

[ruthcooks]

Query on egg whites.....as I think they might be the root cause of my macaron woes (I must admit that it has been months since I made them...not sure if that is due to frustration or pregnancy has taken away all my energy & left me sleeping more than my cats    ). What is the best way to tell when you're stiffly beat whites have gone too far or when they are beat too little? I realize this is nebulous to explain but does anyone have a guide they use to determine they definitely have either over or under beat? I'm worried that even if my egg whites stand at attention, maybe I haven't beat them enough...on the flip side, I've had times where i beat them so badly they seem to "break" into separate pieces..... Back to the other side, some say they shouldn't be stiff but gently droop at the top. Advice is always appreciated!!! Thanks guys!!

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Start checking them before they are done by starting to turn the bowl upsidedown: if the egg whites slip toward the edge of the bowl, beat some more. When you can completely turn the bowl upsidedown without the whites moving, they are done. Remember to scrape the sides and beat a few more turns before you test.

[miladyinsanity]

I got flat ones, like the pistachio ones somebody posted earlier in the thread.

I think I undermixed the batter. But it was shiny, and rather thick. And flat too.

Now here's the thing: I like the flavor, but it's waaaaaaaay too sweet for me. Does anybody know what cutting down the sugar will do to a macaron?

[Patrick S]

I got flat ones, like the pistachio ones somebody posted earlier in the thread.

I think I undermixed the batter. But it was shiny, and rather thick. And flat too.

Now here's the thing: I like the flavor, but it's waaaaaaaay too sweet for me. Does anybody know what cutting down the sugar will do to a macaron?

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I also think that most of the macaron recipes I've tried have been too sweet. Lebovitz's recipe, for instance, has 165g of sugar to 125g almonds/whites/cocoa. Herme's recipe, by contrast, has more almonds/whites/cocoa than it does sugar (250g sugar/265g almond+egg whites+cocoa). The recipe posted by Nicole Kaplan is intermediately sweet, with a ratio of 500g sugar/467g almond+egg whites+cocoa (assuming 30g of cocoa). To put it another way, DL's recipe has a sugar-to-other stuff ratio of 1.32, PH's has a ratio of 0.94, and NK's recipe has a ratio of 1.07.

I recommend trying Herme's recipe. Its the first one I tried, its still my favorite, and I think the sweetness level is just right.

[Stephanie Wallace]

This can't be missed, from Chocolate & Zucchini. A report from a "molecular gastronomy" seminar in which Hervé This discusses the physical characteristics of the macaron, and the chemical properties that determine them. Any francophones want to translate this for us?

HTML version

[bleudauvergne]

Here's part:

After presenting various ratios which are found also in English versions of the same, they discuss the Results in Section III:

This is a translation as best as I could get it:

Discussion of the qualities of a good macaroon:  smooth, round, thin base, good consistency, that is moist but not sticky inside and which at the same time has a resistant crust on the outside. 

Lucile Brigand brings her sample, and notes that if the almond powder and italian meringue are mixed too much this gives an undesired hard and crunchy result. 

Macarons made with Italian meringue give a smoother result.

Freshly ground almonds done with a 'cutter' produce humidity.

Philipe Salamon notes that in certain establishments, the almonds are passed 7 times through the grinder - a finer powder produces smoother macaroons.

July and August macaroon making often produce bad results, crunchy interiors, and the round forms bake to an oval shape. 

A participant asks why they are not prepared in moulds. 

Michel Kremer brings an example of his own macaroons and notes that they are not crunchy. 

Alba Pezone notes that Gérard Mulot cooks them at 210°C in an pulsing air oven, for  8 minutes, a technique to harden the shell. 

The various pastry chefs in attendance discuss the various results obtained by various oven conditions, and note that a pastry chef that is changing kitchens must spend a certain amount of time to return to being able to produce good macaroons again, described as the "pastry chef nightmare". 

The prefered way to cook them is 'ouras' open, 'ouras' closed produces crunchy macaroons.  (I have no idea what 'ouras' means, sorry, L). 

To avoid traces of the implement used to dispense the batter and make the top perfectly smooth, some pastry chefs hit the pan. 

A description of the method in which the macaroons are made with an Alsacian anisbredle is presented, where the drying takes place overnight, which produces a base. 

This remark leads to the question:  What is a good macaron biscuit (not from the perspective of taste but structure) ?

It is agreed among the participants that it must have a light base, that the top cannot have traces of the spoon or the scooping processs (that is that it must not have a "point"), that it shouldn't be too 'squat', that it must stay moist in the middle, and that the base itself cannot be too spread out. 

The discussion of the use of aged egg whites proceeds, with the question from a participant about whether the macaroon was invented in order to use old egg whites. 

Italian meringue gives more contrast in texture, while Swiss meringue gives less. 

Some pastry chefs appreciate the method of lightly moving the sheet upon which they are cooking, but the top crust should not significantly move from the base.

[RuthWells]

I doubled the Pierre Herme recipe this weekend and made my first-ever non-meringue macarons!

Next time I'm going to whip the egg whites a bit stiffer in hopes of getting a more pronounced dome on top -- I was a bit skittish at Ms. Greenspan's description of the whites' remaining wet and glossy, and I think I under-whipped just a smidge.