I've spent a couple of weekends working on getting a decent (not perfect!) macaron shell. I'm using Pies & Taco's recipe, which uses a Swiss meringue, 105g/105g almond flour/powdered sugar and 100g/100g egg whites/granulated sugar. And a 1/2tsp of espresso powder.
I'd been getting extremely hollow macarons, so today I tried mixing the batter less. It did result in a much better interior (nowhere near perfect, but I'm satisfied with them). BUT the tradeoff is that the tops are lumpy and not shiny — which makes me sad. I baked them at 300F, one tray in each of my double ovens, on upside down aluminum half-sheets with parchment paper. Batch #1 was baked on a middle rack in the oven; batch #2 on the bottom rack. Each was baked about 17 minutes.
Other relevant info: I live in California, where there's very little humidity. I used Bob's Red Mill almond flour. I beat the Swiss meringue until it's pretty stiff, but not definitely not overbeaten.
I want to get rid of those lumpy tops but still have decently filled middles. What's my next step to try?
by riotbrrd
1 Comment
EDIT – i didn’t see your photo at first when I replied. these look delicious but underbaked 🙂
Nice, you’re doing so much right and I wish I had a double oven!
When your hollows come out, are you saying 1: there are a lot of bubbles in the batter or 2: you have a dome on top with lots of space underneath, then the rest of the shell?
~~If it’s 1, you might have too many bubbles in the batter. Try flattening out your batter~~ [~~against the bowl as you macaronage~~](https://youtu.be/DlbhRlMdSJM?si=idEIlt0zHCDmHcMH&t=134) ~~or after you have filled your piping bag wit hthe batter, try using a dough/bench scraper to “chop” the bag a couple of times then smooth the bag of batter back out with the scraper, finally pushing it all back to end of the bag to pipe the shells.~~
If it’s 2, macaronage until your figure 8 or ribbon disappears back into the batter by the time you count to ~30. You may need to adjust temperature or baking time. Especially if, under the hollow, you have a chewy center or a shell that sticks to the paper/mat. You may want to try starting the temp high and lowering it a few minutes in. The idea here is to get the feet to form and the shell top first, then lowering the temp to full bake without browning.
When you go to take your tray out, try to wiggle one shell on the baking sheet. If the shell top still wiggles on it’s feet, it is not ready. You may be worried about overbaking – yes that’s a concern but also there’s tons of room for error. Macarons are meant to mature and soften after they’ve been filled; overbaked shells will only take a little longer but taste just as great.