If you feel daunted by making macarons, this recipe is for you. We use this recipe when we need to make smaller batches for our macaron cakes. It's easy and fool-proof and perfect for beginners to macarons.

When macarons are produced at large scale, Italian Meringue method is the way to go. There is a much higher tolerance in the recipe. This one time (in band camp, iykyk), we even missed 2 or 3 litres of egg whites and it was just fine! We don't fold by hand (you physically could not fold 30 quarts of dough evenly) and everything is a lot easier to time. When they are made at much smaller quantities, 50-100 macarons, every minute and every fold counts.

Italian meringue method needs a thermometer though. So what's a baker to do with macarons to make and no thermometer? Adapt and improvise, but not through guess-work. I searched high and low for a French Meringue macaron method that does not call for a sugar thermometer and tested them countless times. I was so incredibly nervous and feeling under-equipped without my thermometer. But once I found THE ONE, I was consistently surprised by how well it worked EVERYTIME. With those signature "feet".

The beauty of this recipe is that it shaves off a lot of time - no weighing up of different measures of egg whites/sugars/water, no extra washing up from boiling sugar syrup, and NO WAITING for half an hour for piped batter to form a skin! I made a variety of flavours in just a few hours and was doing happy skips all day. It also does without a lot of fussy conditions that pro bakers (like myself ahem) have stated were non-negotiables when it comes to macaron making.

The observations I made throughout the batches has helped me perfect this and make it work for us. Here they are:

Macaron Making Tips

Egg Whites

Quality - It matters. I used barn farmed (ie: sad caged hens) egg whites for my test batches. The meringue just was not whipping up. It remained "soupy", perhaps due to a higher water content. Switched over to good quality free-range egg whites, and the meringue stiffened right up just as it should.  

Temperature - It matters. I used free range egg whites straight from the fridge and the meringue did not stiffen up as well as the room temp egg whites.

Macaronage ie the folding of meringue into the dry ingredients

Changing over from Italian meringue to French meringue was quite alarming. Both turn glossy but Italian meringue is a LOT stiffer, and French meringue is airier. Using a smaller bendy rubber spatula to fold smaller batches is key, and being gentle is advisable. It literally takes seconds from "just right" to over-folded. I found that folding just till a few light lumps are still visible is a safe bet and it evens out at the piping stage.

Oven Temperature

Most recipes call for anywhere between 148-180 Celsius. As we use a commercial oven even 148 was actually too hot and caused the shells to crack and no feet (when temperature is too high, batter rises too quickly causing cracks and no feet). I then dropped the temp down further for a later batch and found teeny tiny feet. So finally I have found the holy grail for my home oven which gave lovely even frilly feet.

Every recipe needs work. After my week of failed batches I told myself that a warrior works through finding a way to make things work.

Treat me to a pint by purchasing our well loved fool-proof macaron recipe available here and let me know how happy it's made your macaron making life!

As a little treat for now, here's my A4 piping template (just remember to slide it out once you're done piping!).

You can now fill these beautiful macarons with anything - Swiss meringue buttercream, ganache, or ice cream. I've filled these with vanilla and raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream and I love the cute contrast.

Let me know how this works out for you in the comments! And check out our Macaron Cakes with Free London delivery.

Lots of love,

Reshmi xoxo