Tips on Making French Macarons

Making macarons may not be like making a cupcake. It's a little complicated granting you want it to look like ours.. or our french neighbor's (?) Learning the process takes a lot of practice, patience and keen sense of observation.

Here are a few pointers I can share with you:

1. Gather your tools - a candy thermometer, a heavy gauge stainless-steel pot for the sugar syrup, the appropriate size mixing bowl, a french whisk, a sturdy spatula, a piping bag, a piping tip, 2 half-sheet aluminum baking tray, parchment paper, a tamis or a food processor, and a stand mixer or a hand mixer.

A stand mixer is very helpful. If you don't have it, maybe have someone work with you if you're using a hand mixer. Why? so you don't have to do a stunt holding the pot of hot syrup while you're timing whipping the egg whites and pouring the hot syrup into it.. can be dangerous. The sugar syrup must be about but below thread stage when you pull the pot off your stove.

2. Ingredients - Almond flour, powdered sugar, granulated sugar and egg whites (room temperature, and aged for at least a day).

The mixing of the almond flour and powdered sugar is a very important step. both have to be combined properly. Some chefs use a food processor to mix them together to make a very fine  mixture. I use a tamis, a fine sieve. I let the almond flour and powdered sugar pass through the tamis to breakout any lumps and leave the chunky bits of almond behind. Afterwards, I use a whisk, swirling the mixing bowl at the same time whisking the mixture up. It's quite a skill to learn.

3. The Mixing - When you're making the meringue, make sure that it becomes a thick shaving cream consistency - stiff. You should exert a little bit of effort when you try to move the whisk in the bowl. When it's ready, pour the plain egg white, and the meringue into the almond-powdered sugar mixture, beat the mixture with your spatula, mash and fold, and start a clockwise mixing and scraping movement. At about 35 strokes you should observe that the mixture is starting to look smoother. At about 40 strokes, lift your spatula up with a scoopful of batter and let if fall.. it should just stream freely and mixture just folds onto itself. Then you're ready to pipe.

4. Piping - practice a few times using a stencil to get a consistent shape and size. Place the stencil under the parchment paper and just remove it when you're done and ready to bang the baking sheet on the counter. Make sure that the piped batter has enough space between them to have good heat circulation. Rap the baking sheet on an even surface to knockout any air bubbles. The process actually helps the batter cling to the parchment paper to develop the Pied, the ruffled base of the macaron.

5. Baking - since I'm using a commercial, convection, electric oven... I can control better the temperature. I bake ours at 275'F. Use 2 baking sheets to bake. This way the heat doesn't bake the macarons too fast and give you undesirable results. Always check the batter that it has developed a slightly tacky surface. Touch it lightly, it will stick to your finger but comes off very easily. Moist, slightly dry.

6. Most important tip of all, be patient. If you're just learning to make macarons expect to fail the first time.. or two. But do enjoy the cookie you baked. Instead of calling it french macarons you have accidentally, unintentionally made... italian amaretti cookies :)