French Macaron

There are so many blogs, videos and tutorial out there about making french macaron, I'm not about to repeat a long winding post. This is more of a note to myself about the ratio I used that works.

Macaron Ingredients: (makes about 23 - 25 1.5" macaron shells)
65 grams almond flour
65 grams powdered sugar
45 grams extra fine granulated sugar
50 grams egg whites aged*
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar OR 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
GEL color of your choice

*aging egg whites (separate egg yolk & egg white 24 hours in advanced). 

Buttercream filling:

50 grams butter, room temperature

50 grams icing sugar (or less, depending on your liking)

1 tablespoon of strawberry jam (or any jam to your liking)

Instructions:
1. Set aged egg whites out on counter until it reaches room temperature.

2. Mix almond flour and powdered sugar together and sift through fine mesh. Set aside.

3. Whip egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar. Once the beater starts leaving tracks in the egg whites and the bubbles have tightened up in size, add granulated sugar 1/3 at a time.

4. Once all the sugar has been fully incorporated and before reaching stiff peaks, add 1-3 drops of gel colour to your liking. 

5. Whip until stiff peaks form. It should have pointed peaks when the whisk is pulled out.

6. Add a third of the almond/powdered sugar mixture into the egg whites. Gently fold it into the egg whites. Then add the rest of the mixture and fold.

7. Stop folding once the dry ingredients have been fully incorporated and the batter has reached a “lava” like sticky consistency. 

8. Transfer batter into a pipping bag and pipe the batter to evenly sized circles on parchment paper which is placed on top of baking tray. Remember to leave good spacings in between the circles.
You can draw template with circles on parchment paper and flip it over to pipe on. 

9. Bang the baking tray tray several times on the counter to rid of excess bubbles. Use a tooth pick to pop any remaining bubbles.

10.  Let it rest on the counter for 20 - 30 min until a “skin” is formed (when touched with finger, the batter will not stick. This will prevent the shells from cracking during baking. 

11. Preheat oven to 160C / 320 F. Place the tray on the middle shelf and bake for 12-14 minutes.
*Bake only one tray at a time.

12. The tops should be crisp and the macarons should have formed their signature crinkly “feet.” Allow to cool completely on the baking sheet before removing from parchment paper.

13. For the filling, beat the butter until white and add in icing sugar. When they are fully incorporated, add in the jam of your choice until just combined.

14. Transfer filling into a pipping bag and fill the macaron shells with filling.

15. Leave the macaron to mature in the ridge in an airtight container and let them mature for 24 hours.

Enjoy!