Can anyone recommend a good book or recipe for macarons? I had my first macaron at Masse’s Pastries in Berkeley last week, and it was divine! It was a pink-colored lychee-rose macaron—crunchy on the outside, with a chewy interior, and a buttery filling (I think it was buttercream). They are so absurdly expensive though—a tiny little thing for $1.25 each! I want to try making macarons. It’ll be a good way to display Rose’s buttercreams and use up egg whites that inevitably accumulate from various recipes.

michaelnrdx - 12 February 2011 09:04 PM

Can anyone recommend a good book or recipe for macarons? I had my first macaron at Masse’s Pastries in Berkeley last week, and it was divine! It was a pink-colored lychee-rose macaron—crunchy on the outside, with a chewy interior, and a buttery filling (I think it was buttercream). They are so absurdly expensive though—a tiny little thing for $1.25 each! I want to try making macarons. It’ll be a good way to display Rose’s buttercreams and use up egg whites that inevitably accumulate from various recipes.

They’re supposedly difficult to make properly.  David Lebovitz struggled with it here:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/10/french-chocolat/

Michael, I have never made macaroons, but Bruce Healy covers them thoroughly in his ‘French Cookie Book’.  The idea of filling them with a wonderful buttercream is very interesting.  I may have to try them after all.

PS…I would post a link to the book, but I don’t know how.

Janet

If you do try the recipe from David Lebovitz’s website please post how they turned out.  I have been looking at that recipe for awhile and thought I might give it a shot sometime.

I introduced my niece to macarons when we went on a trip to Paris and she loved them. Unfortunately where she lives, there is no where to buy any of these delicious treats, so when I went to visit her we took a stab at D.L.‘s recipe. I have to say, for a first try they turned out really well! We got them to develop feet and everything. We did it at her house and she didn’t have a proper pastry bag, so they cookies turned out a little larger than a typical macaron and we put on a touch too much of the ganache filling, but overall they were a great success and were quickly gobbled up. I love David’s style of writing and his recipe directions were clear and easy to follow. I encourage anyone to make the attempt!

I have my own recipe and I can honestly say that I have perfected the Macaron.  Once you have learned it,  it i s quite easy.  I do not use someone else’s recipe because tha ones I have tried did not work for me.  Also the recipe might not be the cause of a flop.  It can be other reasons usually.  But here is my recipe:

2 egg whites
1/2 cp granulated sugar
2 cup almond flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Pulse the almond flour and powdered sugar if you want your Macaron very smooth looking.  Otherwise they will look like they have goose bumps w/c to me looks horrid.
Whip the eggwhite ,  then add the regular sugar grduall until VERY stiff.  FLod in the ALmondflour half at a time until you have the consistency of “ketchup”..  Pipie using large round tip on baking sheet lined w/ parchment paper.  Let it rest for at least 45 mins. to develop a “skin”.. baked at 315 degrees for 16 minutes..  The filling can be anything.  I do not go for preserved fruit since they are wet unlessit is eaten right away.

More I made:

Do you age your egg whites for a couple of days before using them?

Yes,  I aged them outside their shells for 24 hours.  They were not cold when I used them.

Good.  whatever works for you..  I like my Almond flour and powdered sugar mixture like fine powder.

we can’t all go to Paris,  so we have to settle for what we have here and what we can do about it..

Also the best Chinese food is in China.. Let us all go to China too.

CharlesT - 19 February 2012 01:22 AM

Do you age your egg whites for a couple of days before using them?

Charles, I never heard of aging egg whites. Do you recommend doing that when using only egg whites for a cake or just in this instance?

aging the whites allow them to become thinner (as they age) so they combine better with the other ingredients; personally I think the quality of the almond flour makes a bigger difference for me than whether the whites are aged or not when making macaron.

I prefer to have whites at rm temp when I beat them because you will get more volume that way.  When I’m making an egg foam, I will put the shell eggs in warm water while I’m prepping everything else.

Thank you Jeanne. That’s great to know. I will remember it.

Jeanne - 11 March 2012 06:46 PM

aging the whites allow them to become thinner (as they age) so they combine better with the other ingredients; personally I think the quality of the almond flour makes a bigger difference for me than whether the whites are aged or not when making macaron.

I prefer to have whites at rm temp when I beat them because you will get more volume that way.  When I’m making an egg foam, I will put the shell eggs in warm water while I’m prepping everything else.

THANK YOU… this tip has been around for ages..