MACARON TUTORIAL THREAD

Everything you need:
Almond flour (65g)
powdered sugar (65g)
egg whites (50g)
castor or granulated sugar (45g)
2 tsp white vinegar
GEL food coloring.

Equipment: oven thermometer, sifter, parchment paper, hand or stand mixer.

The MOST important thing about making macarons is MOISTURE CONTROL. You do not want to add any more moisture than you need to, or your cookies will spread in the oven. This is why you have to use gel food coloring.

Second most important thing is FAT control. All the fat in these cookies (the shells, anyway) comes from the almond flour. If you crack your eggs and the yolk breaks into the white, make an omelet—do not use this egg in your cookies.

Third most important thing is PRECISION. You’ll see as we go on, but I measure everything with meticulous precision. That means using a scale to measure ingredients by weight. If you ever see a macaron recipe calling for cup measurements, run in the other direction

The rest of this tutorial will be either through text or video and will be done in real time! So bear with me :)

1. I’m wiping all my equipment down with white vinegar. This is a safeguard against any fat residue on my equipment which could ruin the meringue. After I wipe the equipment, I don’t touch it with bare hands. Probably paranoid, but I wasn’t kidding about precision

Next I measure out 50g of egg white and 45g of granulated sugar (I don’t have castor sugar, which is just superfine granulated sugar). You will have a little egg left over which you can cook up for fun or save for breakfast. Save the yolks if you want French Buttercream!

Usually I use disposable cups for this but I don’t have any so I am measuring the egg whites into glass which less likely to have oily residue on it. Measuring egg whites is a pain in the ass. Just know that.

Into the mixer goes the egg whites and 2tsp of white vinegar. I put it on med-high speed and add the sugar in three batches once it looks like this. Mix it well between each batch!

Then I add the food coloring—just a few drops—and CRANK the speed and let it mix until it is SHINY with stiff peaks. It should look like icing. You should be able to confidently hold the entire bowl upside down over your head and shake it without fear of anything dropping out.

Also—note re: vinegar. You can also use lemon juice. You can also use nothing, if you aren’t worried about the stability of your meringue! It’s not necessary but it makes it more foolproof.

Set that aside and measure 65g each of powdered sugar and almond flour.

Now you have to sift these together. Don’t skip this step even though it sucks! I put an empty bowl on my scale, zero it out, and sift the mixture until the scale reads 130g meaning I’ve gotten all the ingredients sifted together back into the bowl.

Note on this—it’s better to use either a designated sifter or a washable sifter for this. Imagine my horror when I accidentally used my flour sifter for macarons and the final count came out to 145g

lookin good

Now comes the part that actually takes practice—the macaronage. I’m gonna record a video for this part! it might be 2 parts depending on how long it takes me.

piping

Don’t overcrowd them like this! Do as I say, not as I do. I have a million different sizes because they’re going on a cake and I don’t really care if they’re perfect!

Now you have to bang them on the counter or the ground. I lay down a dish towel on the floor and drop the tray from knee height three times.

Afterward I inspect them and if there are any air bubbles at the top i pop them with a toothpick!

(the rest of the thread is under the tweet about banging the tray! sorry!)