Macarons

alaskanassasin said:

Finished pics?

And here are a few completed macarons.

WeberWho said:

Good looking Macs on top of a nice looking block

Thanks!

I was looking at a Boos but I couldn't justify the extra price. I've had mine since 2015 and as you can see, it is holding up great.

Here are my order details. A great block.

Their description says 1 sided but both sides are identical and the block does not come with a tag stating that there is a top and bottom.

Macarons: How I do it.

Extra fine almond flour 3.4 OZ

10X Ultra fine powdered sugar 5.2 OZ

If you want a flavored macaron, you can add coco powder, ground pistachio ect. I typically add .5 oz of powder.

Take all these dry ingredients and run thru a food processor for a few minutes. This will help incorporate completely and break them down even finer. Then run thru a sifter. This isn't required but does help.

Take 3 egg whites (do not get any egg yolk in with egg white) and start making into a meringue. As it gets to soft peaks, add 1.8 OZ of table sugar. Add a bit over 30 seconds (don't just dump all sugar in at 1 time). If you are making a cherry, blueberry ect, add that color to the egg whites. The only flavor I don't add a color to is a chocolate because the coco powder will turn the mix brown. You don't need to add color but a colored cookie makes you think of that flavor. Bring the egg whites to a stiff peak. Then add the dry ingredients to meringue (I have tried many times to add the wet to the dry but I get better results adding dry to wet). Dump all dry ingredients in the meringue at 1 time and gently stir to combine just enough. Start watching how your mix will flow. You don't want a stiff mix so keep mixing until the mix has a slow movement like lava. If you mix too much, the mix will be runny and not hold shape.

Add to a piping bag and pipe out about a 1.25"/ 1.5" diameter onto parchment paper. I find it helpful to draw circles onto regular paper and place that as a guide under your parchment paper, then remove when done piping. I cut about a 3/8" to 1/2" end on my piping bag. Hold the piping bag a bit above the surface so you force the mix outward some as it goes up. Pull your piping bag sideways so you have a flat top tp your piped mix.

Gently tap or drop your cooking sheet on the counter to bring up any air bubbles and help flatten the tops some. Set aside for 30 min to 1 hour. Check by touching the top, when the mix has a dry skin on top, they are ready to bake.

I bake at 315 degree convection on the middle shelf for 16 minutes. If I have coco powder in the mix, I go 17 minutes. If you have multiple sheets, I bake 1 sheet at a time. When I pull out a done sheet, I leave the oven open so the humidity will drop. I then close oven, allow to equalize for a few minutes and then add another sheet.

Every oven will bake different. Basically, you will ruin a few batches. If you over bake them, the macaroon will chew like an Oreo cookie. If they are under baked, they will leave some large bits of cookie on the parchment paper. If they are really under baked, the top half of the cookie will be hallow. The difference in an under baked to over baked macaron is about 3 minutes and 20 degrees.

When macarons are pulled, lay upside down and pipe in the flavor of frosting you want. Pulling the parchment paper under the cookie helps rather than just lifting the cookie off the paper. 

I use 1 stick of butter creamed with 1 package of cream cheese. Then 3/4 cup icing sugar and add in the flavoring such as blueberry preserves or orange zest. If I'm making a chocolate/ white chocolate, the cookie dry ingredients was .5 oz of coco powder and the frosting gets a half cup white chocolate chips (run these thru food processor so they are tiny pieces). I typically use 8 oz of frosting to use on a batch of macarons. Match up similar size macarons, pipe frosting onto 1 cookie an assemble 2nd cookie.

Put macarons into a container with a lid and leave over night. The moisture from the frosting will soften the cookie.

When done, you will bite thru with a light crack on the outer layer and then velvet smooth and soft inner.

There are so many flavors. Chocolate/ white chocolate is my most requested. Also chocolate/ coffee (instant coffee in the frosting and coco powder in the cookie dry ingredients), Pistachio (ground pistachio in cookie dry ingredients and also in frosting mix), Fruit flavors (color meringue to match fruit flavor) such as lemon, orange, blueberry, raspberry ect. Most of these can be a spoon of preserves in the frosting or zesting an orange or lemon in the frosting mix.

Have fun and keep notes. You will see a trend and adjust as needed.