Sorry @Naty , I've never made them, but I have been wanting to give them a try.
Hi @Naty,
I've made macarons using David Lebovitz's recipe and they always turn out great! My advice is to try and fold in the almondmeal & icing sugar mixture as gently as possible and to let the piped macarons sit out for at least 20' to develop a crust before baking.
Thank you very much for your reply caketownathens and for the recipe!
I have read different articles on wether to bake them on a siltpad, silicone mat, or patchment paper. What do you use? What are your thoughts on sny of these?
Also on using italian merengue vs the confectioners sugar and egg whites?
Thanks
Naty, I've never tried them with italian meringue, just plain ol' eggs whites and confectioners sugar...
I always use parchment paper and never had problems. It helps if you pipe a tiny bit of the mixture on each corner of your sheet pan before placing the parchment paper on top, to keep it from sliding around as you're piping, same as you would if you were baking choux buns. If you're not confident with piping equal sized rounds, you could always use a cookie cutter or other round object to trace circles on your parchment paper as a guide (just make sure you turn it over so you won't be piping directly on the graphite).
Also, I forgot to mention before: make sure you sift the almond meal a couple of times before you add it to your mixture. I grind my own, but even store-bought can sometimes be too coarse, and you don't want bigger chunks of almond in your batter!
Good luck!
The craftsy class "Macarons, Madeleines and more" with Colette Christian is fantastic! I've been able to troubleshoot by asking her questions directly through Craftsy as well. I can't say enough nice things about Craftsy and that class. Once you buy it, it's yours forever too. Good stuff!
I made those with my kids. That was my first try at them ever and they came out great! They always intimidated me but now I'm not sure why! They use a few ingredients and bake quickly.
Tips: use a template, this helped me get even sizes.
Let them rest! Mine ended up resting for 2 hours cause the electrician showed up but they still baked perfectly. Watch them like a hawk, (a least your first time) they bake quickly and ovens bake differently. My lower oven burns almost everything if I don't watch it where as my upper oven bakes nicely.
Have fun! I was nervous that I'd waste such an expensive ingredient (almond flour) but I fretted for nothing. I actually made my own almond flour because I had almonds already but had to buy it anyway because mine seemed to have a lot of moisture.
oh yeah! Tap the air out before letting them rest. I forgot and A few of mine had air bubbles but were still really cute.
I bought this book when I first started macarons: https://www.amazon.ca/Macaron-Recipes-Ultimate-Bridgette-Conners-ebook/dp/B00QMPAMPU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499582941&sr=8-2&keywords=macaron+recipe and a recipe has never failed me!
A few tips:
-I sift the flour/icing sugar mixture 3 times
-I let the macarons shells sit for at least 40 minutes before baking
-I tried baking them on a silicone pad and I didn't like it as they took longer to bake so I always put them on parchment paper instead.
Hope this helps! Macarons are one of my favourite desserts!
Your Hello Kitties are precious, @Callmecakelady ! Those are the first "shaped" macaroons that I've seen.
@Naty Kind of. I used a template for the rounds but for the ears I marked my template where I wanted the ears and just sort of eye balled it. I used a #4 Wilton tip to get a thinner line and filled in as needed.
@SandraSmiley thank you
I have made them both ways. I think the Italian meringue is a little more stable macaron. The best tip is not to stir them TOO much! Just until the mixture falls into a ribbon then STOP!
Thank you Classiccake. I love IM use it all the time for my IMBC. Is the taste and/or texture different vs. using the confectioners sugar?
Also was thinking of adding a bit of powdered gelatin or powdered pudding mix to flavor the shells. Do you think this would work? I guess i would have to decrease the sugar and not the almond flour, so it would not be as sweet?
Thanks
I don't recommend adding anything to the shells. The flavor comes from the filling not the shells! The shells are tempermental enough without changing the recipe.
I think the IM gives the macaron a little bit of a chewier texture inside of the outside crunch.
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