At this point, everyone has been exposed to the beauty of French macarons. Whether you’ve watched in awe as Blair Waldorf scarfed down boxes of pistachio macarons in an attempt to forget Chuck, seen them sprinkled across the internet, or you’ve had the fortune of noshing on them yourself, you’re aware of how French macarons make for a beautiful dessert.
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There seems to be an overwhelming number of macaron recipes available on the web, each doling out a slightly modified set of directions. Some may instruct to add wet to dry, while the next recipe strictly orders for dry to be added to wet. Luckily, I’ve done the dirty work for y’all and found the recipe that yields perfect macarons every time.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 11-13 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours
Servings: 20-25 macarons
Ingredients:
2/3 cup almond flour, sifted
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
Buttercream filling, recipe found here
3 Peeps
¼ cup Cadbury Mini Eggs
1-2 Cadbury Creme Eggs
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
Directions:
1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Save the yolks for another recipe folks.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
2. Add the granulated sugar to the egg whites.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
3. Whisk the egg whites and sugar mixture by hand to combine.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
4. Time to fire up the Kitchen Aid mixer. Beat the sugar & egg mixture on medium speed (4) for 2 minutes, then medium-high speed (6) for another 2 minutes, and then finally beat on high speed (8) for 2 minutes.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
5. While you’re waiting for the eggs to beat, mix the sifted almond meal and icing sugar together until evenly combined. Make sure not to forget about your egg whites though, they are very finicky.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
6. Your meringue—egg white & sugar mixture—should be glossy and be able to hold stiff peaks when you lift the whisk out of the bowl.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
7. Add all of the almond meal & icing sugar mixture at one time. Using a spatula, fold the mixture 35-40 strokes by working the spatula from beneath the mixture upwards, then squashing the mixture with the back of your spatula.
Note: The idea is not to vigorously mix or beat the batter, or else your macaron shells won’t bake properly.
8. The batter is ready to be tinted with food colouring when it flows like slow lava from your spatula.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
9. Separate your batter into bowls. Use one bowl for each different colour of food dye.
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10. Add food colouring and mix gently. Again, we don’t want to deflate the meringue and ruin our cookies, so mix minimally.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
11. Fill a piping bag, or Ziploc bag, with your batter. Make sure to use a different piping bag or Ziploc bag for each of your different colours.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
12. Pipe your macarons into small toonie-sized circles on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
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13. Use your finger to gently push down the small peak left from your piping tip.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
14. Tap your baking sheet 3-5 times to pop all of the air bubbles. You can be somewhat aggressive with your taps, so whack it to give it enough force for the the air bubbles to escape.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
15. Leave your meringues to set at room temperature for 30 minutes. If you skip this step, your meringues will not bake or rise properly, and you will not get those beautiful feet. While you’re waiting, set the oven to 350°F.
16. After 30 minutes, the surface of your meringues should be tacky to the touch. Slide those bad boys into the oven and bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the sheet and bake for another 6 minutes, keeping an eye on their progress for the last few minutes.
Note: Baking time can vary so watch for the feet to form, the cookies to rise, and for them to look… baked.
17. Let cool for a few minutes.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
18. In the meantime, prepare your buttercream filling using this recipe. Separate into bowls and colour with food colouring. Again, the number of bowls depend on how many different colours of filling you will be using.
19. For Cadbury Creme Egg macarons, cut up the Creme Egg and mix into the buttercream filling.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
20. For Cadbury Mini Eggs macarons, chop up the Mini Eggs and mix into the buttercream filling.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
21. For the Peeps macarons, chop up the Peeps and mix into the buttercream filling.
22. Pipe the filling onto a macaron shell and then top with another shell.
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
23. Finish up the rest of the macarons and then snap a million photos to show the world that you’re Ladurée‘s #1 competitor.
Cadbury Mini Eggs Macarons
Photo by MacKenzie Chee
Cadbury Creme Eggs Macarons
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Peeps Macarons
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
Peeps in their most edible form, because when was the last time you heard someone say, “I could really go for some Peeps right now”? Never, that’s when.
Et voila, c’est magnifique
Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe
This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart’s Basic French Macarons Recipe.
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Photo by MacKenzie Chee, Edited by Hana Dibe, Design by Shira Beder
To explore the world of macarons, check out these Spoon articles: