Hey all, this is my second batch that has completely cracked like this. I’m using the French method for meringues using Claire Saffritz recipe and video for guidance.
The first batch I felt I had over whipped the egg whites and used a food coloring that was not truly gel based (it looked like water).
This time I brought the egg white whipping down and used a gel based food coloring. I also made sure my test batter had a nice firm skin and then let the real batch sit for a full 15 minutes after that.
Cooking at 275 Fahrenheit.
And yet still cracked!!! What am I doing wrong?
by Philnsophie
6 Comments
What are the measurements used in this recipe? I tried looking it up but, could only find her chocolate mac recipe.
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons/130 grams confectioners’ sugar
¾ cup/85 grams superfine blanched almond flour
½ cup/14 grams freeze-dried raspberries
3 large egg whites (90 grams), at room temperature
½ teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
6 tablespoons/75 grams granulated sugar
Red gel food coloring (optional)
What are the raspberries for? Have you successfully made plain shells before?
Try Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe. Also, I would try to perfect the cookie before adding a food coloring… It’s too much variability at first.
I’ve made her raspberry and chocolate shells pretty often, the recipe works most of the time.
Recently, I had a similar issue to this with my chocolate shells when the baking temp was too low and I didn’t cook long though.
With the raspberry, make sure you’re using a fresh batch of raspberries to limit the moisture in the batter and sift the powdered berries in to remove seeds.
I’ve never added food coloring to my macarons though – the raspberry has a beautiful pick color and doesn’t need it imo
I think it could be several things or a combo of these things:
1. Your almond flour/confectioners sugar amounts are very different. All the recipes I’ve used have them the same #grams or pretty close
2. You have over mixed and then batter is too thin/runny
3. The gel food coloring is ruining the chemistry. Any type of water or oil in your batter can ruin everything. Wipe everything (bowl, mat, spatula) down with white vinegar before you start. And either forego the food coloring for now or invest in powdered food coloring – I like Sugar Art’s powdered colors.