Conquering French Macarons

French macarons are something which have been on my “to bake” list for years. I admire their simple elegance and their tricky nature. I wanted to be up for the challenge however I knew that it would take extra effort to insure they turned out. I have a tendency to get very frustrated when recipes don’t turn out so to help my mental state I went into my first experience making french macarons believing they were not going to turn out so that I wouldn’t be disappointed. I honestly don’t even like eating french macarons that much however I always like a new challenge in the kitchen. I decided since I have some time off of school that this would be the perfect time for me to attempt making them.

I started by watching youtube videos of making macarons. I searched the internet for tips and tricks. Here are some tips and tricks that I learned through my research (and experience)

I read that it was important to have room temperature eggs. I left my eggs out on the counter when I went to the store and they were still cold so I put them in warm water and that helped speed up the process.
Put the dry ingredients through a sieve. You want to make sure that you don’d have any clumps. I even bought extra fine ground almond flour and I still had clumps in it!!
Use a silicone baking mat. This will help making it easier to get the cookies off the tray.
Washing a silicone baking mat is a tricky endeavor. I learned this one from my experience. I got water all over me and had to change my apron and my shirt (opps).
You have to mix for a certain amount of strokes. I read online that it is around 50-70 strokes. So I did 55 because the batter looked ready and my arm was TIRED! Seriously, it was quite an arm workout.
Don’t underbake or overbake. I did both and don’t recommend either. They looked done before the 20 minutes was up (and it was a lie because they were not done). And I left my Grandma in charge of taking another batch out at 20 minutes and she claimed she did however they were VERY brown and crunchy (so sorry Gram but I think they were left in too long).
Be patient. Don’t skip steps or rush the process. They are the world’s hardest cookie for a reason. They will sense you are rushing and wont cooperate for you. Give them time, let them have control and you will get a wonderful french macaron!

Hope these tips and tricks helped! For my recipe I used the Foolproof French Macaron Recipe from Entertaining with Beth. It is a recipe for a pink macaron filled with raspberry cream (YUM). It turned out great for me and I bet it will turn out great for you as well.