If you’re like me, baking can be scary. But I’ve been feeling a little bit brave and wishing that I was in Paris, so for my first cooking blog-xperiment, I took on…..

The Fabled French Macaron!

Read this post to follow me through my failures and mistakes that eventual led me to the triumph of these little beauties. Or just get my current favorite recipe here .

The Background

So if you’ve seen me in the kitchen, you’ll know that I am the Queen of Improvisation. I tryout different recipes, come up with new ideas and just throw assorted foodstuffs together with various results. I’m not afraid to experiment because I usually find that one of three things happens: (1) Epic, beautiful and tasty success; (2) Something that at least tastes good even if it looks dubious; (3) A tragic mess/learning opportunity.

This ethos usually hold true in the kitchen. Except for BAKING. Yes, I said it baking. Baking is chemistry. It is precision. It requires a firm, yet delicate touch and a preternatural understanding of how dough or batter is supposed to feel. None of this is my forte.

Despite this I have been baking since I was a youngster of 7 or 8 (maybe younger?), but I have also failed at baking almost just as long. I am often reminded by my family of my hockey puck cupcakes (I forgot the eggs or something) and the pumpkin pie that “strings” in it (I didn’t strain the pumpkin enough). This track record, combined with my busyness the past few years and my desire to cut down on sugar and sweets, have kept me out of the baked good game.

But with the experiment I undertook for this blog post, I went outside my safe bubble non-baking to produce the ultimate baked good. The Macaron.

STEP ONE: The Research

I’m still in graduate student mode, so my first step was to hunker down and read everything I could about macarons. Or at least as many internet tips and tricks as I could. Foodgawker and Epicurious are my go-to sites and unsurprisingly, everyone is obsessed with these tiny treats, so there was a lot to go through.

From this research I got the basic idea down. Macarons are meringue-based almond almost-cookies that sandwich so sort of delicious filling and are allowed to sit long enough for the two to become one. (Spice Girls anyone?)

The filling is the straightforward part because it’s just jam or curd or buttercream or anything that would taste good sandwiched in almond meringue (skip to the end to find my suggestions about this).

The almost-cookies or “shells,” as the rest of the world calls them, are the tricky part. Technically (as in the technique used to create them) they are pretty straightforward. Create a sweetened stiff peak meringue and then combine that with a mixture of ground almonds and powdered sugar. Pipe on a cookie sheet. Let them sit for a while to form a non-tacky coating. Bake for a given time. And then you have shells. Deceptively simple, because the magic happens in the details. Or at least that’s what I discovered in my repeated attempts and the photos of what people were calling macarons on the internet. It’s not a macaron if it doesn’t have a smooth top and “feet.” This photo illustrates what that means.

See the feet, the crinkly bits on the side.

STEP TWO: Failure the first

Brimming with macaron-knowledge I decided I just needed to jump in. I decided on a recipe that had a lot of nice cup measurements and produced about 30 shells. A can’t quite remember where it came from and wouldn’t actually want to link to that site anyways, because I don’t want people to assume that my failings were a result of that nice person’s recipe.

Equipment used: hand mixer, large air-filled cookie sheet, ungreased parchment paper, food processor, piping bag with just a coupler acting as a tip.

Ingredients: almond meal (store-bought, but ground in my mini Cuisinart to ensure that they were fine enough), powdered sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, granulated sugar, vanilla

Some stirring, mixing, and messing up my kitchen later… I got these.

Failure the first-- looks are deceiving!

What went right: They look pretty with their nice feet. The color was what I wanted

What went wrong: Looks are deceiving because they were GIANT and hollow. They were also sickly sweet, which was kind of disgusting.

Verdict: FAILURE because I piped them too big, mixed them too much, and too much sugar!

STEP THREE: Failure the second (failing harder)

So I tried to fix those failures in a second batch. I stuck to basically the same recipe and equipment focused on the things I believed went wrong. So I reduced the sugar. I made my macaron template smaller then I wanted my finished product to be because they spread a bit. And I mixed less. Things seemed to be going ok, until it took FOREVER(meaning more than an hour) to form that protective film that contributes the successful shape of the macaron. And even when I put it in the oven, I was doubtful that the film was properly formed because some of the shells were still a bit sticky. I was right to be nervous because what I got were these.

Sad, but tasty feet. Especially with chocolate ganache.

What went right: they were the right size. They tasted better (probably because I added a little bit of lemon zest) and were soft and chewy on the inside.

What went wrong: I’m showing you one of the better ones above, but on the whole they had sad little feet, some were almost non-existent, some of them even had cracked tops.

Verdict: even bigger FAILURE. This time I think I didn’t mix enough, but I felt like maybe I was missing something else. So I decided to move on to….

STEP FOUR: More research (YouTube is the best thing)

I went back to research mode and focused on tips, tricks and suggestions that might make a difference. I had three findings from this research, which made a big difference in the end

Youtube: Seeing what the various mixtures were supposed to look like instead of just guessing when they were ready was really helpful. My favorite tutorial is this one provided by Entertaining by Beth.
Food Scale: I found that my downfall might be my inability to be precise. I bought a food scale and started using a recipe that had weight measurements instead of cup measurements. Science!
Sifting: I thought I was doing enough with grinding the almond meal in the Cuisinart, but I saw everyone was sifting too (which I’ve always dismissed as an unnecessary step—tsk tsk me!). So I decided that sifting was probably something I should try.

I have a few other tips and tricks at the end of this post, that might have helped as well.

STEP FIVE: Tentative Success?

Confident in myself and my new food scale, I started on another batch of macarons. I was careful with the ingredients, down to the last gram. I also solved the problem of sweetness with a new recipe with a slightly different ratio. I added an extra egg white, the same amount of granulated sugar, but a bit more powdered sugar. The recipe made more shells too. I also focused on getting the mixing exactly right the way the YouTube video showed. Following a successful resting period where a film was formed withing about 30 minutes and about 16 minutes of baking here they are!

The successful (if a little bit browned) shells

What went right: they have feet; they taste delicious; they are soft, but a bit chewy on the inside. I’m so pleased!

What went wrong: Sadly some of them look a tiny bit overdone since they took on a little bit of golden color. I think this is the result of my fear that they would not be fully baked.

Verdict: A TENTATIVE SUCCESS. So these are not absolutely perfect macarons, I admit that readily. I could only eat/force on my friends so many macarons, so that where this experiment ends. I will be experimenting a little more when I go to visit my parents and can use their lovely kitchen and all the baking equipment there to see if that makes a difference as compared to my rinky-dink little apartment kitchen and electric oven. Stay tuned to my blog, twitter and instagram to see what happens

Top tips:

Use weight measurements, instead of volume, because weights are more accurate.
Room temperature eggs help with the meringue. If you are too impatient to wait for them to come to room temperature, just put them in a bowl or cup of warm water and let them sit for a few minutes. Surprisingly effective and time-saving!
Sift the almond meal and discard or pulverize the larger pieces of almond. This creates a smoother batter and more even tops.
YouTube is really helpful to get an idea of what the batter is supposed to look like at various steps in the process, but really you just need to get hands on and try it out yourself. You can’t be afraid to jump in. You can always make another batch if things go wrong.
Make your own macaron template by drawing a bunch of tiny circles on a sheet of parchment paper and placing it under another sheet. I suggest making the circles about 1.25” and dark enough so that they can be seen through the second sheet of parchment paper.
Use a Wilton #12 tip on a disposable or a washable piping bag. Pipe at the center and just squeeze until the batter just reaches the line on your template. They should look like little domes.
Let them rest after piping and make sure they definitely have a non-tacky film before you put them in the oven.
Fillings: really anything tastes good in a macaron. I tried a chocolate truffle mixture, raspberry jam, a raspberry buttercream and a lemon buttercream. They were all delicious. I liked the truffle mixture because it really solidified in the center of the macaron. The buttecreams were nice because they really melded with the shells. Because the shells can be sweet, a tart filling is nice, so the lemon buttercream was my favorite. Again, I liked how the jam melded with the shells, but it was very sweet in the end.
Let them rest again. All manner of sins can be forgiven if you let the sandwiched macarons rest for 24 hours in the fridge. Everything just merges together and makes something extra special.

If you made it this far through my long, long, post, I am proud of you. Thanks for visiting my blog and this post! Leave your questions, thoughts, suggestions, and funny stories about your own baking adventures in the comments section below.