Macarons are the most charming of sweets. Small, delicate, beautiful, porcelain exterior, and surprise interior. This is my basic macaron recipe with a simple vanilla buttercream filling. You can of course fill the shells with whatever suits your fancy (chocolate buttercream or ganache, pistachio buttercream, cream cheese frosting, jams, the list goes on!). Enjoy!
Macaron Shells
Ingredients:
270 g powdered sugar
150 g almond flour
150 g egg whites, room temperature
¼ tsp cream of tartar
50 g granulated sugar
Gel food coloring (optional)
Vanilla Buttercream Filling
Ingredients:
1 stick (8 Tbsp) salted butter (if unsalted, add ½ tsp salt), room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (or whatever extract flavor you like!)
Macaron Shells
Sift almond flour in a fine-mesh sieve and powdered sugar together into a large bowl. Repeat at least 3 more times. Throw away the tiny clumps at the bottom of the sieve each time (otherwise your shells will have bumps; this whole process is to ensure a uniform consistency of almond flour/powdered sugar).
Wash your stand mixer bowl and whisk with soap to get rid of ALL oil residue (oil will ruin your meringue) and dry thoroughly. Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until frothy. Then, slowly and gently add granulated sugar. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form. Add gel food coloring if using.
Whip at high speed until stiff peaks form and a thick, glossy meringue forms. Stop whipping immediately when your stiff peaks are formed!
Add half the almond flour mixture to your meringue and fold to combine with a spatula. Remember, folding is different than stirring and prevents air bubbles in meringue from popping. (Folding is simply scraping the sides and bottom of bowl and then flipping the batter on top of itself repeatedly.) You want to aim for about 35 folds to combine everything.
Add remaining almond flour mixture and fold another 35-ish times until batter is homogenous and as runny as lava. The batter should drip off your spatula as you draw a figure “8” without the batter breaking. The figure “8” should remain on the surface of the batter without immediately sinking in.
In a large pastry bag with a ½ inch piping tip, pipe 1 inch circles onto parchment paper or silicone baking mat on a cookie sheet. (You can place printed circles on paper underneath your parchment to use as a guide. If you don’t have a printer, draw circles on paper by tracing a spice jar.) Tap the cookie sheet a few times on the counter to release air bubbles in the piped batter. Use a toothpick to pop any remaining bubbles at surface.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and place the oven rack one level below center. Let piped circles sit for 30-60 minutes (with a fan running preferably) to “dry out” before baking. When they are ready to bake, you should be able to gently touch one of the circles without it feeling sticky because a dried skin has formed.
Bake one sheet at a time for 15-18 minutes. Test doneness at 15 minutes by gently trying to wiggle the top of a shell. It should not wobble independently from the shell base. If it does, it needs another 1-2 minutes. When done, cool shells in the fridge before removing (they may stick if you don’t cool them first). Use an offset spatula to remove them cleanly.
Vanilla Buttercream Filling
In stand mixer, whisk room temperature butter on high for 1 minute. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and whisk on high for another 3 minutes. Buttercream should be almost white and very fluffy. Use immediately. (If not using immediately, whip buttercream on high for 1 minute before using to maximize fluffy texture.)
Macaron Sandwich Assembly
In a large piping bag with a ½ inch piping tip, add freshly whipped buttercream. Pipe a circle onto the center of a cooled macaron shell. Leave a border on the perimeter of the shell to leave room for buttercream to expand when pressing into a sandwich. Sandwich with another cooled macaron shell. For best flavor, refrigerate assembled macarons for a day before serving (let sit at room temperature for at least an hour before serving).
Note: for gold speckles like my macarons pictured in this post, mix edible gold dust (here's what I use!) with a drop of vanilla extract (must contain alcohol to work). Dip a small paint brush in the mixture then flick the mixture from the bristles onto the macaron shells.
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