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in Baking· cookies· Kids Cooking· RECIPES· Teatime

The Perfect French Macaron Recipe – with tips and tricks to help

macarons titleRémy wanted to make macarons for his teachers Madame Francoise and Miss Lisa to say thank you for a great year. What he doesn’t realize is quite how difficult these dainty little French delicacies are to make – it’s that lovely belief in the magic of cooking that he has, simple throw some egg whites and sugar together – et voila!
boxed up and ready as a gift
So this recipe is for you Madame Francoise and Miss Lisa – you have given Rémy an amazing third grade year, which he will forever remember as both challenging in the best possible way and always enjoyable. Merci! Macaron Recipe

You will need

Silicone Mat Macaron Cookie Sheet or non-stick parchment paper
baking sheet
piping bag with round nozzle

For the filling

3.5 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon espresso (optional)

For the macarons
180g confectioner’s sugar, sifted
100g ground almonds
3 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
40g baker’s sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder for dusting

Rémy calculated 6 x 8 = 48, divided by 2 = 24 macarons

remy separates eggs

What to do
1. First make the filling. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put in a medium bowl. In a small pan bring the cream to a boil and pour over chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute to melt the chocolate. Add the butter and coffee and stir to a smooth consistency with a whisk. Set aside to cool.

weighing almond meal adding confectioners sugar adding almond meal to KitchenAid food processor

2. Place the sifted confectioner’s sugar and almonds in a food processor and process for a couple of minutes. Sift into a large bowl and discard any lumps.
macaron (1 of 1)-113. In the bowl of a stand mixer whisk the egg whites until frothy and add the cream of tartar.

macaron (1 of 1)-13Whisk until soft peaks and add the baker’s sugar in thirds. macaron (1 of 1)-15Continue to whisk until stiff white peaks form.
macaron (1 of 1)-14Remove bowl from stand mixer and slowly add the sifted almond/sugar and fold in completely by hand with a spatula.
macaron (1 of 1)-16The finished batter should be the consistency of thick magma – too runny and you have over folded it.

4. Place the silicone baking mat on the baking sheet. Fill the piping bag with the batter and pipe out the macarons onto the silicone macaroni mat.
piping macaronsTap the bottom of the baking sheet on the countertop – this will settle the macaron batter and release any large air bubbles. Dust half of the macarons with cocoa powder.
dusting macarons with cocoa

5. Preheat the oven to 350F. Let the macarons stand at room temperature until they form a skin – about 30-60 minutes.
dusted macarons

6. Turn down the oven to 275 F. Bake the macarons for 10 minutes then turn the baking sheet and bake for another 7 minutes (17 minutes total).
macarons into oven

7. Remove the macarons from the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes before placing the silicone baking mat on to a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

sandwich macarons8. When cold, gently lift the macarons off the macaron mat (pushing up from under the silicone mat helped ease them off without breaking or leaving the bottom stuck to the mat although it was tricky and we did have a couple of causalities). Using the chocolate filling sandwich together in pairs.

macarons on cake plateTips and Tricks

Weigh out all your ingredients using an electric scale.
Sift the sugar and almond meal – discard any pieces too large to fit through the sieve.
The older the eggs the better – some recipes call for leaving the egg whites out overnight in a bowl covered with a paper towel.
The piped batter shouldn’t have peaks – work towards the edge of the macaron.
Don’t skimp on the time it takes to form the skin before baking – they should not be sticky but dry.
Gently squish down any peaks or bumps once the batter has formed a skin before baking.
Some suggest using double baking sheets to cook the macarons – this is if your oven cooks very unevenly, it made no difference for us.
Bake in the center of the oven and don’t use a convection oven.
Let the finished macarons cool completely before removing them from the silicone mat.
Refrigerating the finished macarons for 24 hours gives them a better texture and flavor – but we are never that patient in this house.
Dust plastic soldiers with confectioners sugar for a snowstorm on the battlefield of Remy’s kitchen.

kitchen war zone

When I asked Rémy if he had enjoyed baking macarons he replied, “I only bake them so I can eat them!”remy eats macarons

 

Filed Under: Baking, cookies, Kids Cooking, RECIPES, Teatime Tagged With: Battlefield in the Kitchen, egg whites, Eggs, French, Kerrygold butter, Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer Pink, KitchenAid, KitchenAid Food Processor, macaron mat, macarons, macarons tips and tricks, perfect macarons, Stand Mixer, teachers thank you gift

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