The Elusive Macaron

I’m an easily bored baker. I could easily make something delicious, but not be interested in making it ever again simply because there’s too much in this world to try and eat!

However, the one thing I make again and again is the French macaron. This infamously famous cookie is made with a mixture of almond meal, confectioner’s sugar, and beaten egg whites, and often has either a buttercream or ganache filling.

A mocha macaron I made.

Naturally, people are getting a lot more creative these days. I decided to be as well, and made a macaron cookie laced with peanut butter, and two different fillings: strawberry cream cheese and banana curd, courtesy of James DiStefano of Rouge Tomate.

The recipe can be found here.  The site is called Passionate About Baking, and it’s clear that yes, she is!

Here’s how I went about it. I’d say that by far this has been the best macaron recipe I have followed, which gave the most consistent results.

1) I ground up slivered almonds in my tiny little food processor. You can also buy almond meal at somewhere like Kalustyan’s on Lex.

The finer the meal, the better your macaron will look.

2) I then mixed it together with the powdered sugar and two tbsp. of peanut powder and a pinch of curry powder.  Recipes recommend doing this in a food processor, but if, like me, your food processor is annoyingly small, just thoroughly mix it in a bowl by hand.

Try sifting the confectioner's sugar beforehand to avoid lumps.

3) While all of this was going on I was beating my egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar. Any time I make macarons I make sure that my egg whites are at least a few days old, and at room temperature. This seems to make getting macaron feet even easier. After adding some granulated sugar, here’s what they will look like, stiff peaks and all…

Mmmmm glossy!

4) Here comes the trickiest part – mixing the egg whites and dry ingredients together. You don’t want to be too easy on them so as to produce a stiff batter, but not so vigorous that you’ll end up with macarons spreading out and touching each other. It’s recommended to add the dry ingredients to the whites in two batches, and to take it slow.

Test the batter by flicking some of it onto a piece of parchment. If it "flows like magma" and spreads out, you're good to go!

5) Now it’s time to begin piping, which is in itself an art. I’ve found that by gently squeezing the bag and then quickly releasing the pressure, I can get a nice little round macaron shape that doesn’t have a pointy top. Just a smooth surface. Make sure you put these on parchment paper or, if you have one, a silpat (your best friend, I swear.)

Look how cute they are!

6) Waiting for the macarons to develop a skin is another crucial part of the process. I had to wait for at least an hour for them to be completely dry and not leave a sticky residue on my finger. Of course, the hotter and more humid it is, the longer it will take. Now it’s time to slip them in the oven.

As you can see, not ALL were a success, but at least they all have feet!

By this point I had ready a strawberry cream cheese frosting and a lovely banana curd.  I filled ‘em up, and here’s the result!

Such a cutie, isn't he?

All of the cuties together!

I recommend everyone give these little suckers a shot. They can be bratty at times, but eventually they’ll listen to you ^_^.