Hello! Probably a dumb question, but my macarons keep losing their color during the bake. Is this just a case of needing to put in more dye? I’m scared that if I put in more than one drop of the gel dye, I’ll mess up the texture. Thank you!
by JezquetTheKhajiit
6 Comments
What are the red specks? Did you add something in addition to almond flour, sugar, powder sugar, and egg white other than the dye?
I’m still trying to figure out color consistency so I have no advice on that. But I’ve added a ton of dye before to make red velvet macarons and the texture did not mess up too much.
Color fading is very common with macs. For rich, deep colors, you need to overshoot the color in the meringue, since the color will fade twice: Once when you add the dry ingredients, and again while baking.
I’ve added up to 25 drops of Americolor gel food coloring in a 70ish shell batch with no ill effects. Don’t go totally crazy, but definitely use more than just one drop if you want a rich color 🙂
That’s normal. Just add a touch more coloring. ❤️
Vividly colored macs usually require an amount of dye that would feel criminal in almost any other pastry, lol.
That being said, some colors perform better or worse than others anyway.
Adding freeze dried fruit will amplify the colour fading. They will cause browning no matter what.
Either try without that or add more colour to counter it. If you want very vivid pastels, remove the freezedried fruit altogether.