French macarons are one of the most delicious, melt in your mouth, confectionery treats. I have never had the opportunity to make them and figured it was time to learn!
As with everything in life, practice makes perfect. After a few rounds of tweaking, the first being a complete disaster, we achieved success.
It is rare that you would see failures shared on food-blogs, but we are committed to producing the highest level products and think it is important to show the value of persistence.
The recipe I ended up being happiest with was
Macarons:
-3 egg whites *room temperature
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
-1 tsp cream of tartar
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 cup almond flour
Mixed berry buttercream:
-2 cups room temp butter
-1 pint strawberries
-1/2 pint blueberries
-1/2 pint blackberries
-the zest and juice from one lemon
-1 cup granulated sugar
-2 1/2 cups confectioner sugar
-2 tsp salt
-1 1/5 cup water
Directions:
Mixed berry buttercream
- Combine cleaned, trimmed, and chopped berries into a sauce pan with water, granulated sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer and cook until most of the water has evaporated. Once cool, blend and pass through a mesh to remove any seeds. Place the berry coulis aside for later use.
- Place the butter in a stand mixer and beating on medium until the volume doubles and the color has become more opaque. At this point add the confectioners sugar a half cup at a time. Once all of the sugar has been incorporated add the zest, salt, and slowly start pouring in your berry coulis, a quarter cup at a time. Whip in completely before adding more. *If you have extra set aside for pancakes or waffles.
Macarons
- Whip your egg whites to a foam consistency. Add your granulated sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla, salt, and continue beating until firm glossy peaks are formed. This will take about ten minutes. While the eggs beat, sift your confectioners sugar and almond flour together into a large mixing bowl. Discard any large debris.
- Once the egg whites are whipped add your desired food coloring. *It is important not to introduce liquid into this recipe so use gel food coloring.
- Fold the whites into the almond flour, and sugar mixture. Gently fold as to not over work your egg whites. *This should be about 30 folds.
- Using a piping bag, with a quarter inch tip, pipe 1.5 inch wide rounds onto a silicon mat. These will spread a bit so allow room between circles. Once you have completed piping, place the sheets somewhere cool and dry for and hour to dry. Once the macarons have formed a dry firm layer they are ready to be baked.
- Place your sheets into a preheated 285 F oven for 10-15 minutes. Make sure to rotate halfway through. Allow a few minutes to cool before moving to a wire rack. Let the macarons fully cool on the rack in a cool dry space.
- Once fully cooled, take a little time to match sizes. Not every macaron will be the same. Using a piping bag pipe about a tablespoon of buttercream onto the bottoms and fit them with their tops. Apply a little pressure to help spread the filling equally.
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.
The first round was a complete disaster, but a great learning opportunity.
The second round was much better but not quite there.
The third and final round was a success!
