Macaron Recipe: How to Make Perfect French Macarons at Home

INTRODUCTION

To make French macarons, the key components include mostly almond flour, meringue, and several other tasty fillings. These are actually gorgeous and fragile sandwich cookies that have gained popularity because of their specialty. With proper technique, you can easily make these beautiful sweets at home. The main characteristics of macarons are their crispy outer shell, chewy soft interior, and their bright and vibrant colors.

Although this dessert may look a bit difficult, the truth is that making it is not that complicated. Every single aspect of the macaron recipe you are about to read is mentioned in detail. It not only details the key ingredients but also shares some special tips and techniques to help you achieve a perfect shiny top and the characteristic ‘feet’ (raised edge at the bottom) of the macaron. Will help. If you follow these tips, your macarons will look exactly like the ones on the market and taste great too.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Which is a classic French dessert that always and no matter what the occasion is, remains to never fail in impressing everybody.
• Endless Flavor Possibilities: Customized macarons shells and fillings can also be suited according to your preference
• Fun Challenge : Making macarons demands precision but once you do get mastered in the process, it would be one highly enjoyable and rewarding experience.
• What is beautiful about macarons is that they are made available to the world with diversified colors, flavors, and fillings. Therefore, the next time you bake these, you can produce something new again.

Ingredients

For the Cookie:

• 100 g egg whites room temperature 3 large eggs
• 140 g almond flour 1 1/2 cups
• 90 g granulated sugar just under 1/2 cup
• 130 g powdered sugar 1 cup
• 1 tsp vanilla 5mL
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 800mg

For the Buttercream:

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened 226g
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar 100g
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 tbsp water 30mL
• 1 pinch salt

Instructions

For the Macarons:

1. Combine the almond flour and confectioners’ sugar in a bowl and sift. After this, put the egg white at room temperature in a very clean bowl.
2. Now start beating the egg whites lightly with the help of an electric mixer. As soon as foam begins to form, add the cream of tartar, and then slowly add the sugar.
3. If you want, you can add food color and vanilla essence at this time and mix them well. Now beat the egg whites until strong peaks form.
4. Now start slowly mixing one-third of the dry ingredients into the egg whites. Gradually add the remaining dry ingredients, stirring gently, yet ensuring not to mix so much to allow the air to escape.
5. The batch should be well mixed into consistency as if it was flowing lava, and upon dropping it, it should be able to shape the letter ‘eight’ without breaking.
6. Now you can put this mixture in the piping bag and start piping. Attach a medium-sized round piping tip to the bag nozzle.
7. Now line the baking sheet with parchment paper and pipe one-inch rounds on it (add a small drop of batter to stabilize it before inserting). Tap the baking sheet a few times to release any air inside. Leave it for about 40 minutes, then put it in the oven.
8. Now bake it at 300°F (about 150°C) for 12 to 15 minutes. Rotate the tray after 7 minutes so that each part gets baked evenly. Remove the macarons from the baking sheet only after they have cooled completely.

For the French Buttercream Filling:

1. Take a medium-sized saucepan. Let’s combine sugar and water in the saucepan. Cook it on low flame while stirring continuously until the sugar dissolves completely. After this, increase the flame to medium-high and boil it.
2. Now add the egg yolks to the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat until the mixture becomes foamy and thick.
3. Heat the syrup of sugar and water to 240°F (about 115°C). As soon as it reaches temperature, immediately remove it from the flame.
4. With the mixer still running, slowly pour the hot syrup into the bowl with the egg yolks. Start to add the syrup slowly, allowing it to mix well with the yolk.
5. Now stir the paste well till it becomes at room temperature; the bottom of the bowl used for mixing shall feel cool to the touch.
6. Melt the butter: Place butter in the mixture one cube at a time, and then continue to add more completely before adding the next cube. Add salt and vanilla essence now.
7. Then beat the butter and mixture until it becomes very creamy and smooth. (This will take about six minutes). And if you like, you can even add food color to make it look more attractive.

For Assembly:

1. Pipe the filling onto the backs of half the macaron shells. Then take another shell and place it on top like a sandwich and press it. For best results, let the macarons rest in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 days. This makes the filling soften the inner shells a bit, which makes the macarons taste even better.

Tips for the Perfect Macarons

• Age Your Egg Whites: If you leave the egg whites at room temperature for 24 hours, this makes the meringue more stable.
• Sift the Dry Ingredients: This makes the batter very smooth and no lumps form in the macaron shells.
• Don’t Overmix the Batter: ‘Macaronage‘ is an important step in the process of making macarons. Mix the batter until it reaches a point at which it flows like lava. Overmixing will cause your macarons to fall flat and too little mix will cause their tops to crack.
• Rest the Macarons: The macarons rest before baking, and let the top dry up, which then gives them that shiny surface and that trademark ‘feet’ during baking.
• Oven temperature: Ensure that your oven is accurately at the right temperature using an oven thermometer. When the oven gets too hot, cracking or burning the macarons would be most likely. This is not what you want since you would end up losing flavor along with texture.

Filling Ideas

The macaron filling can be a bit too varied, but it is okay for traditional butter and cream macarons. Here are a few good options.

• Chocolate Ganache: Chocolate ganache is the grand moist and rich dessert prepared using heavy cream and chocolate chips, that’s to say, the most irresistible dessert.
• Fruit jam: Making use of raspberry strawberry or even apricot jam makes the macaron flavorful with a good tartness to the fruit.
• Lemon curd: That’s a refreshing sweet and tangy dessert especially ideal for spring or summer.
• Cream Cheese Frosting: The tangy yet playful filling shines with a sweet shell macaron.

CONCLUSION

Macarons French surely is one of those desserts that might not be considered to be an easy task in the comfort of your home, but at least with some amount of practice and patience, you can easily master this art to prepare that dessert. There is a lot of accuracy in measuring the correct amount of ingredients and carrying out the ‘macaronage’ process correctly.

Once you get a feel of it, you can use a large palette of colors, flavors, and fillings on which you can experiment. Using this macaron recipe will add a touch of Parisian flair to your table, whether for a special occasion or just to impress friends and family. Their beauty and uniqueness will surely win everyone’s hearts.

FAQ’s