Simple Macarons – “Secret” Ratio and Luck to Perfection
The Prompt
It was New Year’s Eve, and my kids wanted to stay up past midnight. I was rather tired around 10PM, but I wanted to be awake while the kids were awake. There was the option to sleep and wake up a few minutes before midnight, but once I get up, it’s very difficult for me to go back to sleep. So there and then, I decided to bake a batch of macarons to keep me busy until midnight.
Great Customizable Cookies
There are so many ways to customize macarons, from the flavors of the cookies to the fillings, to the overall shape and design of the cookies. There is also quite a bit of technique and proper steps to get perfect macarons, but the version that I decided to do requires just the basic ingredients (aka no cream of tartar, meringue powder, etc).
Weigh the Ingredients
Egg sizes differ, and the amounts of whites obtained from them differ as well. It’s simple enough to do 1/2 cup almond flour, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, and 2 egg whites, but you’ll get different results each time because the ratio will change due to the size of the eggs. One day the egg whites will weigh 60g, and another day, they may be 78g, and so on, which makes weighing the main ingredients extremely important while making macarons. I don’t like going with more than 2 egg whites at a time because macarons in large batches tend to lead to a higher percentage of imperfections.
The Weight of Egg Whites Matter
Certain recipes may be extremely specific and call for exactly 58g of egg whites. Sadly for me, I don’t like using a whole egg white and only part of another one, and have no desire to create something, such as a face mask, using whatever egg white is left over. So my version calls for ratios where once you know how much your egg whites weigh, you can figure out the almond flour and the powdered sugar. As a bonus, let’s say you mess up an egg white with half of one falling onto the floor, that’s OK because you’ll just measure the other ingredients based off of how much egg white you can use.
No Need to Memorize a Recipe, Have the Ratios Down
Egg Whites:Almond Flour:Powdered Sugar – 1:1:1.5-2 has been a good ratio for me while making macarons. If my 2 egg whites weigh 65g, I’ll measure 65g of almond flour and 98-130g of powdered sugar depending on how sweet I want the cookie portions to be. I generally go for 1.6-1.75 because I find that hitting the perfect mixture consistency is easier with that ratio of powdered sugar to almond flour and egg whites. So, sample recipe below that I did –
Recipe
Ingredients for Vanilla/Almond Macaron Shells
- 60g egg whites (close to room temperature, not straight out of the fridge)
- 60g almond flour
- 105g powdered sugar
- 20g granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or almond extract, or a combo of both depending on what flavor you’re going for)
- A couple drops of gel food coloring (optional)
Ingredients for Vanilla/Almond Buttercream
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (or microwave for 13-15 secs if straight from fridge)
- 3/4 cup confectioners/powdered sugar (more if needed to make it thicker)
- 1 tsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1/2 tsp almond extract alone, or a mixture of vanilla and almond extracts equaling to 1 tsp)
Tools I Used
- Handheld Mixer (I do not have the strength or patience to whip egg whites to stiff peaks by hand, so electric type mixers is the way to go)
- Small/Medium Mixing Bowls
- Spatula
- Piping Bag and tips
- Parchment Paper/Silicone Baking Mats on top of Baking Tray
Step 1
Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar to ensure no clumps. Optional step is to put it in a food processor to ensure fineness, but I did not do that. No additional things for me to clean, please.
Step 2
Beat the egg whites until early stages of stiff peaks. Beat on low-medium for about a minute and gradually add the granulated sugar in there, increasing speed to medium-high. Once all sugar is incorporated and getting to stiff peaks, put in the extracts and gel food coloring and beat on high for 30 seconds. If you added food coloring, you’d want this mixture a bit darker than the color you intend the cookies to be because the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture will lighten the overall batter color.
Step 3
Fold in the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture into the stiff egg white mixture. Add in about a third of the almond flour/powdered sugar and fold into the egg white mixture with a spatula. Once incorporated, put in another third, repeat, and again until all the almond flour/powdered sugar is incorporated into the egg whites. Ensure that you’re checking consistency continuously. Be careful not to overfold, which will lead to a very spread-y mixture. A good batter consistency/texture will be where you’re able to lift the spatula and batter from the spatula falls into the rest of the batter in a slow, not break-apart motion, where you’re able to draw something for 3 seconds (whether figure 8 or zigzags, etc) and not disappear completely until 10-20 seconds afterwards.
Step 4
Put all the mixture into a piping bag with a round 1/2 – 1 cm tip. Pipe the batter onto parchment paper or good silicone baking mats above the baking tray. Piping the circles should be done straight above, squeezing the batter until it forms around a 3cm circle, each with at least 2.5cm between the next. Tips (or nipples) in the center of these are perfectly fine. They will smooth out.
Step 5
Once the desired amount of circles are piped out, gently lift the baking tray approximately 5 inches above the ground and let it drop. Continue to tap the tray onto the ground (or surface) to let out any air bubbles. Feel free to use a toothpick or something to individually pop any visible air bubbles.
Step 6
Let the raw macarons rest for 30 mins – 2 hours, or however long it’ll take for them to develop a thin film on top where you can lightly touch without getting batter onto your fingers (the “secret” to macaron feet!). This resting period is perfect for you to do the dishes, prepare some fillings, take an online exercise class, write a blog post, or catch up on some TV. So many options!
Step 7
Preheat the oven when the raw batter is close to finish resting, and bake. I preheat mine at 315 and bake for 12 minutes. This may differ with your oven. 300 at 15-18 minutes might work better, or 320 for 11 minutes, and so forth.
Step 8
Make the buttercream while the macarons are baking. Cream the butter until it’s smooth on the edges of the bowl, and then mix in the powdered sugar and milk, and then the extracts. Mix until smooth. Add in more powdered sugar if desired to thicken the buttercream.
Step 9
Once the macarons are done baking, let them cool. They should easily pop off the parchment paper once almost completely cooled. Then pair the macarons based on sizes, and pipe some buttercream, and sandwich them. Enjoy!
Notes
- I did a mix of vanilla and almond, and these turned out rather well considering taking various shortcuts to these.
- The almond flour and powdered sugar I used were Target’s generic “Good & Gather” brands.
- These are rather addictive to bake, and I can’t wait to try other variations.
- I ended up baking a chocolate batch too. I just added around 7g unsweetened cocoa powder and some more powdered sugar, increasing that ratio closer to the “2” of the 1:1:1.5-2 ratio. The chocolate ganache recipe I used was 1.5oz heavy cream, 2oz chocolate chips, microwaved for 45 seconds, and stirred.
- These go sooooo well with tea or coffee!
- The shells are pretty good alone too.
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