No Rest French Macaron Shells
Equipment
- mixer with whisk attachment
- silicone baking mat or parchment
- aluminum baking trays
- sifter
- spatula
- kitchen scale
- oven thermometer
- piping bag with nozzle
Ingredients
- 120 g egg whites, straight from fridge is ok
- 115 g granulated sugar
- 5 g egg white powder
- 180 g confectioners sugar
- 190 g Almond flour, Blue Diamond or Kirkland brand is best
Instructions
Making the Meringue
- Preheat your oven to 305 degrees, you must use an oven thermometer for this.*
- In a bowl combine your granulated sugar and egg white powder and stir so that it is combined totally, we do this so the egg white powder doesn't clump when added in the liquid egg white.
- Measure out your egg whites and put them into your mixer bowl. I like to use the two bowl method to prevent having to waste other eggs if a yolk breaks, the fat from the yolk will ruin meringue. Crack one in a separate bowl, if there are no issues put it in the mixer bowl to be weighed. Then repeat.**
- Add the sugar mixture to the egg whites and get your mixer ready with the whisk attachment.
- Start your mixer on the lowest setting and give it about 10 seconds, you're going to do about 10 seconds at each setting until you hit 6 or medium high and then you will let it go until it's ready. I timed mine once and it took about 6 minutes but the amount of time it takes can vary for many reasons.
- We stop it when it is stiff peaks, we do not go past the peaks stage to the shaving cream phase. When you detach your whisk and circle it around in the meringue you will feel slight resistance, when you pull it up from that circle it will pull and make a peak, when you flip that whisk straight up, the peak will curl over.
- While your meringue is working in the mixer, weigh and sift your almond flour and sugar. Do not force ingredients though the sifter.
Macaronage
- When the meringue is ready, remove the bowl from the mixer and add all of the dry ingredients in. Start moving the dry ingredients around to incorporate it some. Don't worry about the meringue, it will be fine. Once it's a little more manageable, (this is where I like to add gel color drops if I'm coloring it) I like to start spreading it on the sides of the bowl, then take my spatula to collect it all back to the bottom center by taking the side of the spatula with pressure around the bowl and down, when my spatula is at the bottom center, I scoop upwards to see how well the batter is flowing. I repeat this process until the batter is ready. In the beginning stages, when the batter is spread on the side of the bowl, you can run your spatula back and forth over the batter to work out some air. Each time I spread my batter on the side of the bowl, I note the amount of (popped) air pockets that seem to be present. It will decrease as you go. The batter is ready when the air pockets are reduced to few (some are ok we don't want it totally deflated) and when the batter is able to flow off the spatula after a circle and scoop mentioned above. This batter is very thick and will not become runny like a traditional rest recipe. It will not flow like lava, so do not over macaranage tying to get it like a traditional macaron.
- Bag the batter into either 1 large piping bag, or 2 medium with a nozzle of your choice***
Piping the Shells
- Place your silicone mat on your upside down aluminum tray. Pipe one tray at a time. I usually start piping my second tray when the first has about 6 minutes left.
- Begin piping by placing your bag straight up and down, a 90 degree angle from the pan. To end piping, keeping your nozzle at about the same angle, you'll want to make a quick swirl. If you notice that you've made a nipple or unsmooth section, after piping a few, set you bag down and work them smooth using a toothpick, don't wait until you've piped the whole tray because the tops do dry out a bit and it is much harder to fix later. My mats have 3 circle outlines, I like to pipe just past the second, almost to the 3rd circle. You can manipulate how tall or flat the shells are to an extent with how you pipe it, you will get a feel for that as you go.
- Once they're all piped you can tap the bottom of the tray or drop it on the counter a few times to work air out and smooth those little holes over with a toothpick. If all the steps above were just right there will be very few that you need to fix.
Baking
- Check your oven temp, if it's ready you can place them in the oven. I plan to bake mine at 305 for 14 min. I check my oven temp throughout. It usually fluctuates between 295-310 throughout and it takes 14-15 min in my oven.*
- Watch them inside the oven, around half way though they start to puff up and get feet, then towards the end the feet will start to shorten. I like to check for doneness a few minutes before my timer so that they don't over bake (every tray can be slightly different). I check with he wiggle test. Carefully open the oven, gently tap the side of the top part of the shell, if it moves easily it needs more time. I consider my tray done perfect if a shell on the outside of the tray does not wiggle at all, but a shell on the inside has a tiny wiggle.
- When they are done remove them and set them on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Then carefully remove the pan leaving them to cool completely on the silicone mat, on the rack.
- Once they are totally cool, you can remove them. They should release very easily. Especially the outside of the mat. If the ones on the inside has a slight stick, I find it best to bend the silicone mat to help it peel away. If they are sticking to the mat, they are undercooked and you should increase your cook time next time.
- Fill them and let them mature in an airtight container in the fridge. I sometimes have a small gap that fills in once they have matured in the fridge by absorbing some liquid from the filling. A small gap is not the same thing as a hollow and is totally acceptable in a macaron.
Notes
*If you have found a temp in your oven that you feel macarons bake well at, you may want to work with that temp and adjust time if the provided one is not working for you.
**120 g is about 4 regular eggs, If your eggs weigh more than that and you don't want to waste part of an egg it's ok to crack 3 eggs and then use some carton egg at the end to bring it to 120 g. Carton egg whites are usually more liquidy so it takes longer to whip up. Check that the ingredients list on the box is only egg whites if you do this.
***This batter is very thick. Piping with the wilton 12 tip takes a while and a lot of hand strength. The next size up is wilton 2A, this pipes easier but is harder to create a smooth top. Alternatively, if you're good at piping you can cut a very straight line on your bag and pipe that way.