I've managed to make some delicious and eye-pleasing macarons lately. That said, the waiting game while resting has not been fun. Usually, with a French meringue, I've waited about 1.5 hrs before baking. So, today, I tried Sugar Bean method – no salt, no cream of tartar, started whipping the egg whites with the sugar in them already, oven drying (2 mins at 250), bake (15 mins at 285), and then some 'over shower' thing for 2 mins.
Here's what they look like.
Tasty, though only semi-full and no feet. Chewy insides, crispy shell.
Any feedback? Have others successfully used this method?
by JQuadGMono
4 Comments
Try a higher temperature for shorter (or start at a higher temperature and lower it). Also, don’t judge for gaps until after maturing.
The Shell doesn’t look like it came off clean, so I suspect a light underbaking. Try playing with the starting bake temp or tray location.
For the feet a couple things to check: if you’re sure your meringue was strong enough and you didn’t over mix the batter, it may be a baking time, temp, or rack issue.
Sometimes you need to find the right rack level and/adjust temp. You may need to change the temp lower or higher at the start to get the shells to make their feet, then adjust the temp again to finish the bake without browning the shells.
I’ve been using Sugar Beans recipe and method for my last few batches and its given me my best results so far. I use:
60g egg whites
56g caster sugar
70g almond flour
67g icing sugar
pinch of salt
1/8 tsp of cream of tartar
2-3 drops gel colour
I preheat the oven to 120C, put in the shells to oven dry, turning off the heat, leaving the fan on and the oven door ajar. My oven is a convection oven. Then bake for about 20 mins at 120C. And then the oven shower.
So far the only problem I’ve had is the bottoms sticking to the mat, so slightly underbaked. Am experimenting with baking at a higher temp towards the end to try and solve the problem of sticking to the mat.
I got this method and recipe from other posts here, but scaled it down because I make small batches, and added the cream of tartar and salt (based on the previous recipe I was using). I live in the tropics, so its very humid and air-drying hadn’t been working.
Recipe: [https://www.reddit.com/r/macarons/comments/ix0is8/tried_the_method_by_sugarbean_on_youtube_and_i_am/](https://www.reddit.com/r/macarons/comments/ix0is8/tried_the_method_by_sugarbean_on_youtube_and_i_am/)
Method: [https://www.reddit.com/r/macarons/comments/tz1ak0/oven_dried_vs_air_dried/](https://www.reddit.com/r/macarons/comments/tz1ak0/oven_dried_vs_air_dried/)
Picture of one of my batches with this method (not so recent, I don’t have pictures of a more recent batch): [https://www.reddit.com/r/macarons/comments/1fxgaqu/2nd_try_after_a_two_break_first_time_using/](https://www.reddit.com/r/macarons/comments/1fxgaqu/2nd_try_after_a_two_break_first_time_using/)
Some of the measurements stated are slightly different, i tweaked mine slightly, like increasing the icing sugar. Even though the commentor who gave the recipe used the Swiss method, I use these measurements with the French method and it seems to work
– A good strong meringue will bake macarons with any method. So prioritize in a consistent way that produce glossy, strong, elastic meringue.
– salt destabilize meringue structure.
– egg white powder or meringue powder is better option than cream of tar tar. While acid helps protein to denature, it does not help soaking up the extra water content from egg white.
– resting is irrelevant. Drying is the key. So called “no rest” is just finding ways to hide the drying part. I don’t know the humidity in their kitchen, but macaron will air dry within 10min if the relative humidity is below 60%. And 10min isn’t a lot of time from start to finish piping a tray.
– oven shower is another way to dry macaron. How effective it is depends on your oven. Keeping oven door open will drop your bake temperature.
– convection oven seems to be able to bake wet macarons because the fan and hot air can quickly dry the macaron before the pressure build up to burst/crack the shells.
– sticky bottom, and gummy inside is a sign of low temperature. In your case, caused by oven shower.
What helped me the most in producing a consistent result wasn’t a baking method or a no fail recipe, but the meringue quality.