Michelle Darmody: How to Bake Macarons

Though they are notoriously difficult to bake, Michelle Darmody provides helpful tips that if followed will ensure it will go smoothly

Fresh baked chocolate macarons on wooden texture

The list of ingredients in this recipe may seem short but the macarons take time to prepare and there are a few tricks to getting them just right. It is all down to technique and patience.

Once you master them, they are sublime and a great addition to anyone’s baking repertoire, particularly if you have friends or family who are on a gluten-free diet.

Macarons were originally almond-style cookies that travleled from the Arabian Peninsula to Sicily and then on to France where a baker in the famous Ladureé Bakery is said to have first filled them. He used a sweet cream filling to sandwich the two soft and airy cookies together to resemble the macarons we know today.

Once you get the basic recipe down, it is very versatile. You can fill the macarons with almost any sweet filling; pistachio butter is delicious and if you prefer you can use a chocolate spread instead of making the filling from this recipe.

I love the addition of fruit flavours as they offset the sweetness of the shells. I also shared two versions that work particularly well, raspberry and lemon, but there are many more you can experiment with.

Michelle Darmody's Macaroon

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

Once you master these Macaroons, they are sublime and a great addition to anyone’s baking repertoire, particularly if you have friends or family who are on a gluten-free diet.

Servings

24

Preparation Time

 40 mins

Cooking Time

 14 mins

Total Time

 54 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 100g egg whites

• 125g ground almonds

• 120g icing sugar

• 5g cocoa powder

• 1g cream of tartar

• 80g caster sugar

• for the filling

• 120mls cream

• 120g chocolate, broken into small even sized pieces

• 1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Place the egg whites into a clean bowl.

2. Cover the bowl with paper towel and place it in the fridge overnight or for at least 10 hours.

3. Before you are ready to make the macarons remove the bowl from the fridge and allow the egg whites to come to room temperature.

4. Line two large flat baking trays with parchment.

5. Draw lines of circles on the tracing paper by circling a cookie cutter with a light pencil. About 48 small circles.

6. Turn the paper over. You will still see the circles and the pencil will not get onto the batter.

7. Sieve the ground almonds, cocoa powder and icing sugar together and set aside.

8. Whisk the cream of tartar into the egg whites until soft peaks form.

9. Add a third of the caster sugar.

10. Whisk in for a few seconds then add the rest of the caster sugar in a steady stream while the mixer is still whisking.

11. Whisk until stiff peaks form.

12. Fold the egg mixture into the ground almond mixture.

13. Scoop the batter into a piping bag with a large round nozzle.

14. Pipe the batter onto the circles on the baking tray.

15. Rest the tray in a cool place for a half an hour.

16. Preheat your oven to 160ºC/gas mark 3.

17. Bake for 14 minutes.

18. Slide the sheets of parchment onto a work surface and allow to cool for five minutes before peeling off the parchment.

19. To make the filling, heat the cream until shivering which is just before it boils.

20. Stir in the chocolate pieces and the vanilla.

21. Allow to cool to room temperature.

22. With a pallet knife coat the base of half of the macrons with the filling.

23. Sandwich the rest of the macrons onto the filling.

Baker's Tips

I tend to need four large eggs to make up 100g of egg whites. You can keep the yolks for making custard or lemon curd.

It is best to use as finely ground almonds as you can find. I look for a version that is light in colour as it tends to mean that the almonds were ground after the skins were removed. This works best in this recipe.

When making macarons, you want the egg whites to really whip up very light and fluffy. To ensure this, you need to make sure that no fat or oil gets into the egg whites. Vinegar is excellent at breaking down fat (which is why it helps us digest a bag of greasy chips). Wiping the bowl and whisk with white malt vinegar before you add your egg whites will help to ensure any oily residue is removed before resting or whipping your egg whites.

Resting the egg whites allows some of the moisture to evaporate and it also helps to relax the proteins creating a more concentrated structure. Do not use cling film or anything airtight as you want the evaporation to happen. If you do need to use cling film, if it is the only thing you have, make sure to punch holes in it.

If you under-mix your batter, it will result in cracked shells. Make sure it is whipped to stiff peaks once the sugar has been added.

To fill the piping bag, sit it into a mug and roll the bag over the cup creating an easy hole at the top of the bag that can be filled using a spatula or wooden spoon.

Resting the piped macarons on the baking trays for a half an hour before baking allows the “shells’ to develop a protective skin that forces the batter to rise up rather than bursting and it helps to prevent cracking.

The filled macarons will last about five days in the fridge.

Three delicious variations

Strawberry macarons

For this version, the chocolate filling is replaced with strawberry jam and the 5g of cocoa is replaced with an extra 5g of icing sugar. You can add a drop of two or pink food colouring. I like a natural plant-based one.

Vanilla macarons

The 5g of cocoa is replaced with an extra 5g of icing sugar and a half a teaspoon of vanilla extract added to the batter. It is best to fill the macrons with a vanilla buttercream.

Lemon macarons

To make lemon macarons, replace the cocoa powder with 5g icing sugar. You can add a little yellow food colouring if you like. Lemon curd is perfect for filling these.