Macarons - French Style (With Photo)

[Trissalicious]

Name of Recipe: Macarons

Ingredients:
125 grams almond meal
150 grams icing sugar (not icing mixture)
100 grams caster sugar
100 grams egg whites (from around 3 eggs)

Preparation:
1.  Grind the almonds and the icing sugar (I am sure you can use caster instead) on speed 10 for 10 seconds.  
2.  Clean out TM bowl and attach the butterfly attachment.  Place the egg whites and whip on speed 4 for 4 minutes.  Add the caster sugar after 2 minutes.  Whip the whites until stiff peaks.
3.  Add the almond/icing sugar into the TM bowl with the egg whites.  And mix on reverse + soft speed for 10 seconds.  (add the colouring if using any - I used green gel)
4. Place the mixture in a piping bag and pipe on baking paper or a silicon mat
5. Dry the macarons for around 30 to 45 minutes.  
6. Bake at 150 c (fan forced) for 13 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, cool and fill with piping.

Photos:

Tips/Hints:
For the pistachio buttercream (did not use the thermomix for this) - check here
http://trissalicious.com/2010/07/18/macaron-tower-for-baby-james/

Members' comments
cookie1 - Well, despite Trissa's wonderful instruction I made a lousy lot of macarons. It was a wet day so I had trouble drying them and also I didn't read Trissa's recipe on here (only the one we got from class) and I ground the icing sugar/almond meal/cocoa for 45 seconds instead of about 10 and it started to melt together. The TMX was just too powerful. I pressed on and have ended up with dull macarons with no foot, but they still taste yummy. They have all the lumpy, melted mix through them that makes them look like Cookies and Cream. I wasn't going to waste the mixture. I ended up putting the heater on to try and dry them. Hopefully the next try will be a big improvement.

W...e..l..l. I had another go at the macarons. I'm getting worse not better. But again they taste absolutely divine.
These ones aren't shiny and they have no heel which is disappointing. They also cracked a bit when I was cooking them, but I lowered the oven temperature for the second tray and that was better. But I will persevere, as soon as this lot are eaten.

DD decided she could do better than me so she made some on Sunday. Not a great success either. They can be very hard to get exactly right. Even the weather can effect them.
We really love them so will keep trying.
I made pink and filled them with buttercream flavoured with a few defrosted raspberries. The tang with the sweetness is lovely.

passionflower - Ok so I have had about 80% rate of success with this recipe today, COULDN'T whip my egg whites in the Thermie though at least I think speed4 is too high ended up doing them by hand Shocked.
They didn't turn out perfect but they were very nice crunchy on the outside and nice and soft in the centre. They are very temperamental and I have learned lots from this experience, will deffo do them again with some more adventurous flavours, I kept them simple this time in the name of practise.
I only have one piping bag and I was to lazy to wash and dry it after piping the macarons so my filling is a bit messy.

Sarah - Brisbane - Well, after tasting a macaron for the first time just last week, I started looking for recipes as its disgusting what thy charge for them. Now, they taste wonderful, but they are a lil flat. I am wondering if the extra liquid from the food colouring made the mix a little wet and if i perhaps increased the dry ingredients a little it might be better next time. I am hoping t master them so I can do a Macaron tower/tree for Christmas eve dinner.

cookie1 - When I attended Trissa's class in Sydney that was one thing she said to be wary of. I've actually just bought some oil based powders to use for macaron colouring.I hope it all works out for you.

kathleenm - my macs don't come out right. They're flat and cracked. The mix is thin and won't fluff up no matter what I do the eggs are fresh. I tried it 4 times now and only once did it work (the second time) HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sarahm - Well they worked great, rose and got little feet and then when I rotated them they went FLAT! NOOOOOO!!!!
They had a perfect crispy dome and were lovely and chewy and quite hollow in the centre. I'm not quite sure what went wrong??
They were a bit big, quite big actually, so maybe they got too heavy? They also seemed to take too long to cook, so I turned the temp up from 120ish to 135ish... Maybe that did it??? Definitely trying them again, they were so much easier than I thought they'd be... The piping SUCKED though, so I might buy one of those syringe pipers.
Sarah used the recipe from superkitchenmachine.

[JulieO]

Wow Trissalicious, they look fantastic! 

[cathy79]

When I saw your blog, I was really hoping you'd convert your Macaron recipe soon.  I've never been game to try them, but will have to now - no more excuses!

[CreamPuff63]

they look good enough to eat! i bet they tasted divine as well.

[cookie1]

Thanks Trissa. I think I will have one more try with macarons before I come to your class. At least I'm getting better each time.
I was out recently and someone had made them and they were so proud of them, sadly they were really 2 meringues put together. But they did look lovely as they were lots of colours.

[Thermomixer]

Good to see you have started using your TMX - but OMG - why not try something difficult to begin.  Have you sent Adriano Z some to try? 

[cookie1]

 

[bluesed]

They look very pretty.

I have never tried to bake macarons but only merengues and i was wondering how is the texture inside the macarons when baked?
 Are they soft or crisp. Im just wondering because baking only for 13 minutes i imagine they will still be soft inside.
When i bake merengue i usually bake them around 2-3 hours untill completly dry.

[cookie1]

They are a totally different texture bluesed. Quite soft but sort of a bit crisp on the outside. They have a sort of 'heel' on the base where they have risen only a little bit. You can actually see this in Trissa's photo. They don't have the large air holes of a meringue.  They are left to dry before baking so that the surface dries out and isn't sticky to touch. A good macaron is divine.
I have used heaps of egg whites and almond meal trying to achieve all this, pracice makes perfect. Trissa has inspired me to try again.

[bluesed]

Thanks, I will have to try to bake that some day when i have a lot of leftover egg whites.

[Trissalicious]

Hi Bluesed and Cookie1!

Yes the macarons are a bit crispy on the outside and chewy (thanks to the almond meal) on the inside.
http://trissalicious.com/2009/10/26/daring-bakers-october-challenge-lemon-lime-macarons/
Check this post of mine to see how they look inside.

Cheers
Trissa

[Daisyflower]

I have a question - what if you have nut allergies - what alternative ingredient can you use - instead of almond meal?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Daisy

[cookie1]

Gosh, that is difficult. I will try to remember to ask when I go to the class, to see if you could still make them.

Welcome to the forum Daisyflower.

[Frozzie]

oh i love macaroons and luckily can get them at pretty much any local bakery (advantage of living in the land of divine food)...will have to try this and have a look at the french macaroon cookbook i got too to see if there is a diff and finally get around to making them...oh so yum

btw the best macaroons have a very thin crisp outer shell and a soft center but not gooey but its kind of like soft cakey meringe in the middle of the biscuit type part...with a cream or jelly in the center..depends on flavour and who makes them..there is so much variety with these..you an also do mix and match..half/half..  I once saw A macaroon for 8 euros..but it was from one of the finer french patisserie houses!!

...got my mouth watering lol!

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Goodness!  It would want to be a very special macaron for 8 euros.