Charlies French Macaron Recipe

3/4c almond flour

1/4c superfine sugar
2 egg whites
Pinch cream of tartar
1c 10x (confectioners) sugar
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Sift the almond flour and 10x sugar together. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the egg whites until just foamy, then add the cream of tartar.
Put the coal to your mixer until medium stiff peaks form. Slowly add the superfine sugar. Beat
on high until stiff peaks form.
This is the part where you add the color. Whatever you want.
Add the almond flour and 10x mixture (all at once) to the egg whites and incorporate slowly but
with purpose until the mixture is smooth, shiny, and runs like lava. (They call this the lava stage.
Clever.)
Place this mixture into a piping bag, and using a 123 count, make small disks. Its okay if
there are peaks remaining as youre piping theyll totally go away if you mixed properly. If
not, bake em off anyway and try again.
Place in the oven and immediately crank the temp down to 325F. Bake for 8 minutes. Try not to
let the edges take color.
Let finished cookies stand for at least an hour before filling.
3. Sift flour mixture over whites, and fold until mixture is smooth and shiny. I found the amount
of folding to be crucial. Fold too little, and your macaron shells will have peaks instead of nice
rounded caps. Fold too much, and your meringue will drip into a mess of wafer-thin blobs.
Tartlette recommends about 50 folds, until your batter has a magma-like flow. For me about 65
folds was just right. I find the batter has a little of a soft-toffee like sheen when it is ready.
(UPDATE 02.10: stop by here to read about a macaron class Tartlette taught). You can test a
daub on a plate, and if a small beak remains, turn the batter a couple times more. If the batter
forms a round cap but doesnt run, it is just right. When I spooned my batter into the pastry bag,
the perfect batter started to just ooze out of the tip once the bag was full. If it stayed stiff
inside the bag it was too stiff, if it dripped out too fast the batter was too runny. I found that
doubling the recipe made this step very difficult for me, I found I would over fold to incorporate
the flour mixture and I would end up with a runny batter.
4. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip.
5. Pipe 3/4-inch rounds 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. I put the tip right in the
middle of where I wanted each macaron and let the batter billow up around it, then I drug the tip
to the side of the round. (You can pipe 1-inch to 2-inch rounds, but you will need to add cooking
time). Tap bottom of each sheet on work surface to release trapped air. Let stand at room
temperature for 30 to 45 minutes. (Different recipes recommend anywhere from no rest time to 2
hours rest time. I was most happy with 30 to 45 minutes rest time, once the caps looked more
dull and had formed a slight skin, so that during baking the macaron could puff up beneith that
skin and form that pretty foot at the bottom.) While theyre resting, preheat oven to 375
degrees.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 1 sheet at a time, rotating halfway through,
until macarons are crisp and firm, about 10 minutes. After each batch, increase oven temperature
to 375 degrees, heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to 325 degrees. Every oven is different, so you
may need to play with your oven temperature. The tops of the macaron shells should not brown.
7. Let macarons cool on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. If macarons stick,
spray water underneath parchment on hot sheet. The steam will help release macarons (if this
doesnt work, see below, under troubleshooting).
8. Sandwich 2 same-size macarons with 1 teaspoon jam. Serve immediately, or stack between
layers of parchment, wrap in plastic, and freeze for up to 3 months. It takes only 30 minutes out
of the freezer for macarons to be ready to serve.
TROUBLESHOOTING: If
youre wringing your hands in frustration because you cant get these little desserts to come out
right, either they are hollow inside or have no feet or they crack, you are in good company. Me
included. Here are a few things you can try to get that first perfect batch that will get you
addicted to making macarons.
1. Use an oven thermometer: Chances are, your oven is different than mine, which is different
from many other friends and bloggers who have attempted macarons. Pay a couple dollars for a
decent oven thermometer and you can know for certain that your oven temp is right.
Undercooked macarons will end up hollow or deflate after cooking.
2. Use a good baking sheet: If your baking sheet is too thin, the macarons wont bake evenly or
correctly. You can even try doubling up two thin baking sheets if thats all you have.
3. Use old eggs: I know this may sound wrong, just wrong, but it makes a difference. Use eggs
that are not too fresh and leave them on the counter at room temp for a day or two.
4. Make sure you have prime egg-whipping conditions. Trust me, a humid day or one streak
of grease in your bowl can make what could have been a beautiful batch of macarons into a
disappointment.
5. If your macarons have no feet, make sure they had their time on the counter (after
piping and before baking) to create a skin. I love what Evelyn said below: NO skin No feet
When your macarons form a skin before you bake them, the skin traps the air under the dome
so that the airs only way to escape is through the bottom, creating feet as it goes.
6. Dont over or under fold your batter. I know, I know, weve been through this. But if you
let your macarons sit on the counter for 45 minutes to form a skin and youre still asking
yourself, why dont my macarons have feet? the answer is probably that you underfolded so
the batter is too stiff or overfolded so it is too loose. And if you come up with a different reason,
Id love to hear.
7. Increase cooking time for bigger macarons: Ive undercooked my macarons before and had
them come out hollow. Pretty still but very disappointing in texture. Make sure that if your
macarons are bigger circles, you bake longer.
8. Keep an eye on your macarons to avoid browning them or letting them crack: I love these
notes note from Beth and Zach (thanks you two!!): I bake mine with the light on in the oven so I
can monitor whats going on in there. If it seems a little hot, crack the door and stick a wooden
spoon in to hold it slightly ajar. I believe the cracking happens when the oven it too hot. The
steam produced is escaping too fast to exit out only the bottom; thus the top (even with that
skin) has no option but to break and crack the top. If this happens consistently, turn down the
heat a few degrees (no more than 10 degress 5 preferable).
9. If you macarons wont unstick, try water (and cook longer next time). Heres a great tip
from a reader whose macaron shells stuck to the paper. (Thank you, Jennifer!!) The steam did
not work for me, I think because my paper is fairly thick. So I rested the paper (with the
Macarons stuck to it) on a thin layer of water. I counted to 15 which is just enough to soften the
paper without getting the Macarons wet. They pulled off flawlessly! You may have to adjust how
long you let it sit depending on the type of paper you use, so as not to wet your Macarons! And
its also likely, if your macarons stick, that you didnt cook quite long enough.
10. What about a confection oven? Thanks to Zach for this note!: A convection oven should
work just fine. But you should reduce cooking time becasue of the moving air, which will help
prevent the cracking. If your convection oven is too hot or the air flow setting is on high (if
apliccable), then then extra drying might make cracking more possible.