Basic Recipe — French Meringue
The base recipe for macaron shells made with a French meringue.
Ingredients
| 90 g | aged egg whites (3 whites from large eggs) |
| 1 pinch | salt |
| 40 g | crystal sugar |
| 200 g | powdered sugar |
| 110 g | almond flour |
| a few drops | pink food coloring |
Instructions
- Beat the egg whites to a foam with the pinch of salt and add the crystal sugar a little at a time. Keep beating until a glossy, firm egg-white cream forms. Don't get carried away, because there's a risk the macarons will turn out dry and brittle. If the whites start to release water, you've overdone it and must start over.
- Add the coloring and stir lightly.
- Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar 2-3 times until you get a perfectly fine powder. Measuring is done AFTER the ingredients are sifted. Personally I weigh out about 10 grams more at the start and then measure again to be sure everything is as it should be.
- Add the dry ingredients to the whites in 2-3 additions and fold carefully until you get a thick batter that should fall from the spatula in smooth ribbons. (see tip 5)
- Fill the finished mixture into a piping bag with a round tip and pipe onto baking paper.
- Leave the macarons for 30-40 minutes to dry so they don't stick when touched.
- Heat the oven to 150°C and bake the macarons for 15-16 minutes, then remove, let cool for 5 minutes and transfer onto a metal rack to cool completely.