[Updated 21/11/2023] It's been quite a while since I've had footless macarons, but I still remember as clear as day the pain of having gone through the whole process only to be so very disappointed with flat footless macaron shells. It was my mission to banish them, and I will explain how to do so in this post.
What are macaron "feet"?
It's the all-important delicate frill along the base of each almond-meringue cookie/shell. It's what makes them so pretty with just a touch of an extra dimension, a little contrast in texture to complement the smooth domed top of the shell.
How do you get macaron feet?
Find a good recipe (like ours, here), practice, tweak, practice, tweak. Sadly there are no short-cuts (hence they are some of the more expensive items in any patisserie per gram). The crucial steps in any good recipe are at these following stages:
1. Meringue: This stage of the macaron making process has the biggest contribution towards pretty frills. Under-beaten egg whites? Shells won't rise evenly. Over-beaten egg whites? Shells will be hollow/sink/spread out drowning out any frills or feet.
So how do you know if it's beaten enough? If using the Italian meringue method (which I recommend over any others) make sure the egg whites beaten are at soft peaks and the sugar syrup is between 16-18 degrees Celsius before adding swiftly to the beaten whites.
Once added, continue beating on medium till the meringue is light, glossy and holds a stiff 'beak' on the whisk. If it's too dense it's been over beaten or the syrup was too hot. If it's too runny it's under beaten or the syrup wasn't boiled enough. At this stage, it's best to abandon the meringue and start again (saving on your expensive almonds!).
Think you need to amend the baking temperature to one hundred and whatever! Cheers
Hello,
I’m struggling to get that lovely shine on top.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hi,
What are your thoughts about using a swiss meringue instead of italian? i only have a hand mixer.
The test Ann Reardon carried out was unfair. The ratio of items iin her batter may have been the same to each other I bet they are not the same compared to yours and mine. More importantly the humidty in Ann’s home in Australia is not the same elsewhere and that does play a big part.
The temperature doesn’t matter, it is based on the freshness, Ann readon from how to cook that tested it out and she used room temp egg and cold eggs with the same freshness date and they whipped up the same.
It should be at room temperature. Don’t use eggs that are straight out the fridge, because eggs whip up to a greater volume when they’ve had a chance to warm up a bit, 20 to 30 minutes.
Hope you can answer me this question please : what should be the temperature of the egg or egg white before we use it to beat for making macarons ? Thank you very much in advance.