Duchess Bakeshop Macarons (French Meringue)

Ingredients

Yield:

20 Macarons

• • 1 1⁄2 cups almond flour
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 1⁄2 tsp egg white powder (egg albumen)
  • 1⁄4 tsp powder colour
  • 2 large egg whites, room temperature

Preparation

Difficulty:

Difficult 

 

1. 1. Preheat to the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Place the rack in the middle of the oven. If using a macaron template, place onto a cookie sheet and cover with parchment paper trimmed to fit the cookie sheet. Set aside.
   2. Sift the almond flour and icing sugar together into a large bowl. Press the mixture through the sifter with your hand if necessary to try and get it all through. Discard any large pieces that won’t go through. Set aside.
   3. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sift the granulated sugar, egg white powder and powder colour onto the egg whites.
   4. Using whisk attachment, whip on high until a stiff meringue forms (approximately 4 - 4 1⁄2 minutes). Make sure to whip the meringue until it is really stiff, otherwise your batter will be too runny and your macarons won’t have “feet.”
   5. Pour the sifted almond mixture over the meringue and gently incorporate using a spatula until just combined.
   6. With the spatula, smear the batter along the sides of the bowl, then scrape back to the centre. Repeat until the batter becomes shiny and reaches the consistency of slow moving lava. Do not over mix!
   7. Cut the bottom of the piping bag and fit the 1⁄2” tip snugly inside. Place the piping bag inside a tall glass, folding the edges of the bag over the rim. Fill the bag with the batter.
   8. Hold the piping bag vertically with the tip 1⁄2” above the tray. Pipe macarons onto the parchment following the template that you have placed underneath or pipe into 1” circles.
   9. Remove the template from the tray and bang the tray gently to eliminate any air bubbles in the macarons. Let the macarons rest at room temperature until a skin forms on the surface (15-20 minutes). Test readiness by touching the top of the macaron with your finger. It should feel sticky.
   10. Bake macarons for 8 minutes. Only bake on the middle rack, one tray at a time if necessary. Briefly open the oven door to let steam out, then bake for another 4 minutes (12 minutes total). If your oven has hot spots, rotate the tray when letting out steam.
   11. Let the macarons cool for 20 minutes before carefully peeling them off the parchment paper.
   12. Please note: oven times may vary and total time may be as little as 9 minutes. If the macarons start to brown around the edges remove them from the oven.