Basic French Macaron Shells

French macarons can be difficult to perfect, and often take a few tries to get it just right. This recipe will ensure that you get a shell with a crisp and smooth exterior, that's chewy on the inside, and sits atop of the classic macaron "feet".

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Ready in: 1 hour

Serves: 96 shells (48 full macarons)

Ingredients:

• 205g icing sugar

• 190g almond flour

• 144g egg whites - split into two batches of 72g each

• gel food colouring (optional)

• 190g granulated white sugar

• 60ml water

Process:

1. Pulse the icing sugar and almond flour in a clean food processor about 16 times. You don't want to over blend it because the almonds will start to release oils. This step ensures that the almond flour is ground as fine as possible.

2. Sift the blended icing sugar and almond flour through a fine sieve into a large mixing bowl and discard the crumbs that remain in the sieve, don't push them through.

3. Add one batch (72g) of egg whites into the icing sugar and almond flour. Mix this into a paste with a rubber spatula, you can be quite vigorous at this stage but you still don't want to overwork the mixture. At this point you can add a bit of gel food colouring if you'd like to give your macaron shells some colour. Cover with plastic wrap, and set aside.

4. Combine the granulated sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook it into a syrup until it reaches 110 degrees C. Once the syrup reaches the correct temperature continue cooking it, meanwhile whip the remaining batch (72g) of egg whites in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until the syrup reaches 118 degrees C. This should give enough time for the egg whites to form a frothy consistency.

5. When the syrup reaches 118 degrees C and the egg whites are frothy in the stand mixer, pour the syrup into the egg whites while the mixer is still on, careful not to pour it onto the whisk (this will send the sugar syrup onto the sides of the bowl and won't incorporate into the egg whites). Continue whipping until the meringue reaches room temperature (about 5-6 minutes). When the meringue is ready, it should be glossy and flop over onto the whisk.

6. Add a small amount of meringue into the almond flour paste and fold it together to loosen up the paste a little bit.

7. Gently fold in the rest of the meringue into the almond flour paste, careful not to knock all the air out that you just incorporated into the meringue. Continue folding the mixture until the batter has a "ribbony" consistency. To test this, lift up the spatula, the batter should ribbon off back into the bowl and sit on top of the batter (it shouldn't immediately melt back into the mixture and disappear).

8. Transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip and prepare two baking sheets with clean, dry parchment paper. In order to make the piping process easier and more consistent, you can draw small circles on the bottom of the parchment paper as a template, or purchase a silicone macaron mat (I've linked the one that I use below).

9. Pipe the macaron shells 1 inch apart on the baking sheets, holding the piping back perpendicular to the surface, and careful not to leave a point or "peak" on the top of each round. After you have piped out all of your batter, lightly tap the trays on a hard surface in order to release any air bubbles beneath the surface of the macaron shells. You can use a toothpick to help pop the air bubbles and smooth the surface of each shell.

10. Let the macaron shells sit out for approximately 30 minutes, until a skin forms on the top of them. This ensures that you get the classic macaron "feet" when baking, and may take more or less time depending on your climate. The skin has formed when you can gently run your finger across the top of the macaron shells without any batter sticking to your finger.

11. Once the skin has formed on the top of your macaron shells, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and bake for 12 minutes. When they are finished baking, slide the parchment paper off of the baking sheet to stop the baking process and allow the macaron shells to cool completely.

12. At this point the macaron shells are ready for the filling of your choice. You can get creative with the colours of the shells and flavours of the fillings, and try out various buttercreams, ganaches, curds, or jams.

Click to Print:

Petra's Cookbook_ French Macaron Shells

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Silicone Macaron Baking Mat (Click for Amazon Link):