Calling all confection-makers!
July 7, 2010 5:42 AM Subscribe
I am interested in learning the art of the macaron. I figure if it's July now, just maybe by Christmastime I can have this thing down pat and completely wow friends and family with my mac fu skills and tiny colorful sandwich-lookin' cookies. But I might need some help from the experienced...
I'm a baking novice. Very much so. But I really like giving hand-made gifts, and I would like to expand my crafting skills out from the limits of the sewing machine and toward the kitchen (the men in my life are just less thrilled by vintage-fabric handbags than the women). If my understanding is correct, macarons are relatively basic in ingredients but kind of a bitch to deal with in terms of very precise technique, and some other hard to control variables. So it might indeed actually take me up till Christmas to master these dealies, but I'm willing to put in the work.
I was hoping ya'll could give me some hints and tips that you may have picked up along the way, or maybe some recipes that you've used that seem to have reliably effective ingredient proportions, or equipment/baking gadgets that you found particularly useful -- as I say, I'm a baking novice, so I'm pretty sure I'll need to invest in some supplies before beginning.
Also, a couple issues I've identified that may pose difficulties:
- I live in the midwest and it's kind of been swampy here lately. My house tends toward being slightly humid, even with the A/C running. The internet tells me this could be a problem for the meringue. Might it be better to hold off my experimenting till drier weather arrives?
- I rent and am stuck with the oven I have, which does not have a window. I've read that when baking the meringues, it's best to not open the oven and just pretty much sit there and watch them till they look ready to come out. Is this likely to inhibit success/cause excess frustration, or is something that can be worked with?
Thank you so much for the help!
I'm a baking novice. Very much so. But I really like giving hand-made gifts, and I would like to expand my crafting skills out from the limits of the sewing machine and toward the kitchen (the men in my life are just less thrilled by vintage-fabric handbags than the women). If my understanding is correct, macarons are relatively basic in ingredients but kind of a bitch to deal with in terms of very precise technique, and some other hard to control variables. So it might indeed actually take me up till Christmas to master these dealies, but I'm willing to put in the work.
I was hoping ya'll could give me some hints and tips that you may have picked up along the way, or maybe some recipes that you've used that seem to have reliably effective ingredient proportions, or equipment/baking gadgets that you found particularly useful -- as I say, I'm a baking novice, so I'm pretty sure I'll need to invest in some supplies before beginning.
Also, a couple issues I've identified that may pose difficulties:
- I live in the midwest and it's kind of been swampy here lately. My house tends toward being slightly humid, even with the A/C running. The internet tells me this could be a problem for the meringue. Might it be better to hold off my experimenting till drier weather arrives?
- I rent and am stuck with the oven I have, which does not have a window. I've read that when baking the meringues, it's best to not open the oven and just pretty much sit there and watch them till they look ready to come out. Is this likely to inhibit success/cause excess frustration, or is something that can be worked with?
Thank you so much for the help!
Make sure you read what David Lebovitz has to say about them.
posted by CathyG at 6:08 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by CathyG at 6:08 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/search/label/Macarons
She went Macaron nuts this spring and blogged all about it.
posted by royalsong at 6:12 AM on July 7, 2010
She went Macaron nuts this spring and blogged all about it.
posted by royalsong at 6:12 AM on July 7, 2010
Ms. Humble at Not So Humble Pie has written a complete guide to the macaron.
posted by freshwater at 6:14 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by freshwater at 6:14 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Not So Humble Pie is definitely the best place to go. She purposely destroyed several batches just so we could see what we did wrong to end up with flat/footless/sticky/hollow macarons.
Invest in a kitchen scale, oven thermometer, and some good aluminum baking pans.
posted by SugarAndSass at 6:56 AM on July 7, 2010
Invest in a kitchen scale, oven thermometer, and some good aluminum baking pans.
posted by SugarAndSass at 6:56 AM on July 7, 2010
The first (and so far only) time I made macarons they came out perfectly. But I live in a dry climate, have an oven with a window, and am very far from a baking novice.
The humidity is definitely going to be an issue. Wait a few months and bake other things in the meantime. Summer = stone fruit baked goods, like peach pie. Mmmmm.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:07 AM on July 7, 2010
The humidity is definitely going to be an issue. Wait a few months and bake other things in the meantime. Summer = stone fruit baked goods, like peach pie. Mmmmm.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:07 AM on July 7, 2010
Best answer: Hold off until a less humid day, but the biggest piece of advice I can offer is let the egg white age for a minimum of three days at room temperature (just cover a bowl with plastic wrap) - it sounds like a recipe for salmonella but push that out of your mind if you want to make perfect macarons - the whites whip up perfectly to the shaving-cream consistency and maintain their stiffness which leads to a perfect foot.
posted by banannafish at 7:10 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by banannafish at 7:10 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: You are really over thinking this. The ingredients for macarons are fairly cheap, sugar, almonds, and egg whites. You will learn quicker by baking a batch than you will by reading. Humidity, ovens, and old egg whites all make a difference but the biggest thing is learning how to get the meringue right so that it will spread properly when baked and the only way to learn that is to start baking. I would agree with CathyG and read David Lebovitz's blog post and then go out and buy the ingredients from his recipe for chocolate macarons and start baking. The great thing about macarons is that the ingredients for the meringue are cheap enough that you can keep making practice batches until you get it right.
posted by calumet43 at 8:56 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by calumet43 at 8:56 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Annie's Eats also just posted a guide to macarons. Good luck!
posted by just_ducky at 9:34 AM on July 7, 2010
posted by just_ducky at 9:34 AM on July 7, 2010
Novice-y baker people I know online and in person seem to have the best luck with Tartelette's guide. I've seen enough gorgeous macarons from people who aren't super finicky or anal the way most successful bakers have to be but used her guidelines to make me think when I get around to making my own I'll be going her route.
posted by ifjuly at 11:27 AM on July 7, 2010
posted by ifjuly at 11:27 AM on July 7, 2010
Oops, this was actually the post I was thinking of, and it was one in a line that seemed to all come together around then, that points to here.
posted by ifjuly at 11:32 AM on July 7, 2010
posted by ifjuly at 11:32 AM on July 7, 2010
I made macarons obsessively all last winter and considered opening a shop. Then I went to France last fall and ate about a million of them. I polished up my skills with pastry school classes from a woman who worked for Pierre Herme. My work, tips and tricks are documented here and there on my blog. Now I'm waiting for them to get passed up by whoopie pies so I can have them back.
Sifting your ingredients and weighing them is a must, and like others said you have to let the almond flour dry out overnight and your egg whites sit out overnight.
If you don't have a convection oven, you're going to have to play around and see what works to have them bake right. It's gonna take a couple batches. Finding the right consistency is hard. I have to make mine on top of my pizza stone and rotate the pans half-way through. You have to learn what's right for you and your oven through trial and error.
Make a template with sharpie on parchment for your cookie sheets. Put another layer of parchment on top and pipe on that. Slide out your template and save it. I made a ton of cookies before figuring this out.
Fill them in the rule of 3's! No one likes an understuffed macaron.
posted by IWoudDie4U at 12:37 PM on July 7, 2010
Sifting your ingredients and weighing them is a must, and like others said you have to let the almond flour dry out overnight and your egg whites sit out overnight.
If you don't have a convection oven, you're going to have to play around and see what works to have them bake right. It's gonna take a couple batches. Finding the right consistency is hard. I have to make mine on top of my pizza stone and rotate the pans half-way through. You have to learn what's right for you and your oven through trial and error.
Make a template with sharpie on parchment for your cookie sheets. Put another layer of parchment on top and pipe on that. Slide out your template and save it. I made a ton of cookies before figuring this out.
Fill them in the rule of 3's! No one likes an understuffed macaron.
posted by IWoudDie4U at 12:37 PM on July 7, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the advice and links, all. I will definitely a) wait till the weather dries out, b) invest in thermometers and a digital scale, and c) not stress out about the prospect of many failed attempts.
posted by hegemone at 6:21 AM on July 8, 2010
posted by hegemone at 6:21 AM on July 8, 2010
I haven't read through all the answers yet but what really helped me are David Leibovitz's (sp?) macaron recipe. Only thing I did was switch around the ingredients. I love macarons in the store but when I make them at home I often find them overly sweet. So I swapped the powdered sugar and almonds (or pistachio) ratio and everyone around me is obsessed with them. I just blogged about the pistachio ones today... www.thesweetart.com
they're really finnicky and it's all about having your oven at the right time, and mixing correctly, and not overfolding. But it's fun, in my opinion. Good luck!
posted by picarosado at 7:21 AM on July 9, 2010
they're really finnicky and it's all about having your oven at the right time, and mixing correctly, and not overfolding. But it's fun, in my opinion. Good luck!
posted by picarosado at 7:21 AM on July 9, 2010
PS. The only way I get good macs is if I leave the egg whites out for at least a day first... Also, the oven temps messed mine up for a long time until I finally went with Tartelette's 12 minutes at 280 degrees. You really don't need to open the oven before then!
posted by picarosado at 7:23 AM on July 9, 2010
posted by picarosado at 7:23 AM on July 9, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Shepherd at 6:06 AM on July 7, 2010