"How to Bake French Macarons" by Kayla G.

Likely, people do not know what French macarons are. Many identify them as the “pretty patty” desserts. Well, I would like to clear up all of the confusion. Macarons are French cookies made out of almonds and meringue. They are not called “macaroons”. Macaroons are coconut cookies. French macarons are simply made out of egg whites, sugar, powdered sugar, and almonds.

            For many people, macarons are difficult to bake (ex. Kristine Estrada). They take a lot of patience and effort to make. To be honest, the first time baking macarons will result in a flaw in some way. Macaron recipes online and in baking books are helpful, but most of the time, they do not address common mistakes with baking macarons. With my guidance, hopefully you will be able to bake them without a problem on your first time. (:

If you are actually considering using this guide for baking macarons, then please watch this video. You will find it beneficial because it gives you a visual on how to perform some of the needed tasks.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1zbAOQ3EI

Things You’ll Need:

Electric Mixer (hand mixers are fine as well)

2 large bowls (either metal, glass, or pyrex)

Food Processor or blender

Fine Sieve

Parchment Paper

Cookie sheets or any flat baking pan

Piping bag (Disposable or reusable) (No Ziplocs)

Ingredients:

Please be precise with your measurements. Every detail in the recipe is crucial! I had to learn the hard way.

2/3 cups almond meal or fine almond flour (Have no worries. I will teach you how to prepare them)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

3 large egg whites

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Food coloring or Gel food coloring

-Gel food coloring can be found at Michael’s or Walmart at the cake section where Wilton products are found

Total Time Duration: Approximately 2 hours (for first timers, likely 3)

Directions:

For dry ingredients:

1. Sift 2/3 cups of almonds. To sift almonds, it would be easiest to use a food processor or blender to break down the almonds. If you want to avoid the brown outer shell of them, then you may use almond slivers, but it doesn’t make a difference in the recipe. Pour the grinded almonds into a fine sieve, and use and spoon to separate the almond flour from the almond chunks into the large bowl that is going to be used only for dry ingredients. When you’re done sifting, pour the fine almonds into a large bowl.
2. Sift 1 ½ cups of powdered sugar into the same bowl that the fine almonds are in. To sift powdered sugar, put the sugar into the cleaned out fine sieve, and let the sugar sprinkle its way into the bowl.
3. Gently mix the two ingredients. Do not press onto them, and do not mix quickly.

Beating the Egg Whites: Here, you will learn how to beat your egg whites until stiff with a mixer. Stiff egg whites are egg whites that look shiny and fluffy. They become larger in size when beaten because the mixer creates air in the egg whites.

1. In another large bowl, separate your egg whites from the yolk, and only leave the egg whites in the bowl. It is imperative that your egg whites do not have any bits of egg yolk or eggshells. If there are any bits, then start over and separate more eggs into another large bowl. The bowl has to be either glass, pyrex, or metal because any other type of bowl will not allow your egg whites to become stiff for the next step. If you use plastic or any other type of bowl, you are risking the chance of failed stiffened egg whites. Plastic bowls are known to attract grease and fats. Grease and fats prevent egg whites to become stiff.
2. With only 3 egg whites in the bowl, beat them with a mixer. As you are mixing the egg whites, you will notice them becoming foamy. At this point, gradually add the 5 tablespoons of granulated sugar as you are mixing the egg whites. Soon, you will notice your egg whites growing in size and creating peaks. They are meant to look fluffy and bigger than before. Stop mixing when the egg whites are stiff. To tell if they are stiff, do the bowl test. Flip your bowl upside down, and check if nothing moves at all. If nothing moves at all, then they are considered “stiff”. If they are still moving, then continue mixing and do the bowl test again. This is my favorite part of baking macarons! (:
3. Next, you can color your egg whites. If you are using food coloring, then only use a maximum of 3 drops.
   Warning: Food coloring does not provide the best color for macarons. It is better to use food gel.
   If you are using food gel, then only put a drop or two of it. Too many drops of food coloring or gel will ruin your macarons. This is because coloring is not part of the original recipe of French macarons. Typically, macarons get their colors from the ingredients used, such as the color green for green tea macarons. Do not worry about putting too little of coloring for the macarons because a little comes a long way!

Mixing the ingredients:

1. Now that you have two separate bowls of dry ingredients and wet ingredients, it is time to combine that two. Pour about 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl. Use the folding technique to mix the ingredients. Always be gentle with the ingredients. For help on the folding technique, go straight to 2:37 on the YouTube video link shown at the top of the guide.
2. When done mixing 1/3 of the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, repeat the process by first pouring another 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
3. Repeat the process with the remaining dry ingredients.

Baking the Macarons:

1. Align parchment paper on your cookie sheet or baking pan. Sadly, wax paper cannot do the job. I have learned from experience. You need parchment paper. If you have multiple cookie sheets or baking pans, then use them! Baking macarons take a while, so it would be best to fit as many sheets as possible in the oven to save your self some time. Do not forget to align all of the sheets or pans with parchment paper.
2. In a piping bag (a.k.a. pastry bag), disposable or reusable, twist the tip and place the bag into a cup that can stand strong. Using this method will help you at pouring your macaron batter into the piping bag. Do not use Ziploc bags because they for me are hard to work with. Using gallons bags are acceptable, but their shapes are not like real piping bags. It becomes messy and difficult to work with them.

   

   
   

   Macaron Batter

   WAIT for 30 minutes!

3. Pour the macaron batter into your bag.
4. Twist the open end of the bag, and untwist the tip. Make sure the bag has approximately a .4-inch tip.
5. Pipe out 1in. diameter sized macarons onto the parchment paper. It will take some practice getting used to piping out the batter. Make sure no cookies touch! If they do, then with your best ability remove them from the sheet.
6. After piping out the batter, grab the sheet or pan, and carefully bang it against the kitchen counter. Hitting the sheet on the counter will get the air bubbles out of the cookies.
7. To get rid of the peaks on the cookies, you can dip your finger in water, and gently tap the tips down. Do not put a lot of water on your finger. The water can ruin the macarons.
8. Leave the macarons out untouched for 30 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 280°F.
10. After 30 minutes, place the sheets into the oven. The macarons will remain in the oven for 15-18 minutes.
11. After the first three minutes on being in the oven, open the oven slightly for a few seconds to let the air out. This will allow excess humidity to exit the oven. Make sure you have a timer to keep track of time.
12. After 15 minutes of being in the oven, take the macarons out. Give them time to cool down.
13. Once they’re cool, gently remove the cookies from the parchment paper. They should not be difficult to remove. If they are still sticking to the sheet, then place them back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes.
14. When they’re removed from the paper, pair the cookies with those that fit well with each other in size.
15. For the filling, I find it easiest to use Nutella. It’s tasty, easy to use, and I am always too tired at this point of baking macarons to make my own filling. You can use any filling that you wish! There are many websites that show you how to make your own flavored fillings for macarons; however, that cannot be found here.

Thank you for reading this very long and descriptive guide on how to bake French macarons. I hope that this was very helpful, informative, and not boring for your interests!(:

Do not let this picture fool you! The colors are pretty, but only because they are filtered! Credit: @kisforkani This is what failure looks like! I put too much food coloring in this batch  These were supposed to be orange, but food coloring is not very strong. Instead, these ended up light brown. I decided to change it up, and I used blue butter cream frosting as the filling. You can fill your macarons with anything you like!(: