French Macaron Shells
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
These classic French macaron are entirely gluten-free. They are made with finely ground almond flour and an Italian meringue for perfect results! This recipe makes approximately 140 shells, for assembling 70 macarons.
Author: Homemade Hearts, adapted from Cook'n With Class
Serves: 140 shells
Ingredients
Base
- 300 grams almond flour
- 300 grams powdered sugar
- 110 grams egg whites
Italian Meringue
- 300 grams white sugar (regular sugar, granulated)
- 75 grams water
- 110 grams egg whites
Making Macarons
- Gel or powdered food colouring (Do not use liquid food colouring. For natural colour, you can use 30 grams cocoa powder for brown shells)
- 525 mL filling (such as fruit jam, white or dark chocolate ganache with flavours (see examples in above post), Nutella, etc)
Instructions
Base
- The first step is to weigh almond flour and powdered sugar and sift them together to remove any large bits of almond flour.
- Once sifted, weigh the mixture again and replace any missing weight with the same amount of sifted almond meal. You should have 600 grams of the mixture in total.
- Pour 110 grams egg whites over the almond flour mixture and set aside. Do not mix.
Italian Meringue
- To make the Italian meringue, you need to put white sugar and water in a small pot.
- Cook sugar on medium heat until temperature reaches 110 C (230 F).
- When the sugar reaches this temperature, start whipping the other quantity of egg white (110 grams) in a stand mixer, at a high speed. You should mix until peaks form in the egg whites.
- When the sugar temperature reaches 115 C (239 F), slowly pour the sugar onto the whipping egg whites and keep the mixer going at high speed for about one minute.
- Reduce the speed of mixer to medium and keep whipping for a few minutes, until the mixture reaches temperature 50 C (122 F).
Making Macarons
- With a spatula, fold in the meringue into the almond/egg mixture until the mixture starts to become shiny. You do not want to overmix because the batter will become to thin and will be hard to pipe.
- Add the food colouring or cocoa powder and gently mix to distribute evenly.
- Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1 cm round tip with the mixture.
- Pipe rounds of about 4cm (1.5 inches) diameter onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Tap the baking sheet gently to remove any piping imperfections (you don't need to do this step if there are no imperfections such as bumps or air bubbles in your shells).
- Preheat oven at 300 degrees F.
- Set the piped shells aside at room temperature for 30 minutes to one hour, or until the shells form a skin (dry layer on top of the shell)
- Cook for approximately 14 minutes. After 8 minutes, you should prop the oven door slightly open with a wooden spoon to let the humidity escape the oven. To know if the shells are fully cooked, you can gently giggle the top of a shell and if the inside of the shell does not move, or if the shell lifts up from the parchment paper, it means that it is ready. If you feel that the insides of the shell is still soft and moves, leave the tray in the oven for a few more minutes.
- When the shells are ready, slide the parchment paper off the baking sheet onto a cold surface (marble, steel, glass) to stop the cooking.
- Let the shells cool until you can easily detach them from the parchment paper.
- Pour your chosen filling into a piping bag.
- Pipe the filling on the bottom flat side of the shells. Only include filling on half of the shells, you can make a small mount of filling in the center of the shell.
- Take a shell that does not have filling and grently press it over a shell with filling in a circular motion to spread the filling evenly.
- You now have a beautiful macarons!
- Store the macarons in an airtight container the refrigerator and serve at room temperature. You can also freeze the macarons to keep them longer. You simply need to transfer them to the refrigerator a few hours before serving them.
Notes
Here are a few tips to make perfect macarons:
1. Macarons tend to crack when there is a lot of moisture in the air so try to make them on a dry day (avoid rainy days!) It started raining when we were making our macarons and we had probably close to 10% of our macarons crack because of humidity!
2. Separate your egg whites a few days before making the macarons and let them sit in a container, in the refrigerator for a few days. On the morning of your macaron making day, set the egg whites on your counter since they need to be at room temperature for better results.
3. Prepare your filling at least one day before making the shells to ensure it has enough time to cool down and set.
4. To get perfectly round macarons, trace even circles on a parchment paper sheet and place it under your "real" parchment paper sheet as a guide when piping the shells. We fit 48 shells on one large baking tray (6 shells wide by 8 shells long).
1. Macarons tend to crack when there is a lot of moisture in the air so try to make them on a dry day (avoid rainy days!) It started raining when we were making our macarons and we had probably close to 10% of our macarons crack because of humidity!
2. Separate your egg whites a few days before making the macarons and let them sit in a container, in the refrigerator for a few days. On the morning of your macaron making day, set the egg whites on your counter since they need to be at room temperature for better results.
3. Prepare your filling at least one day before making the shells to ensure it has enough time to cool down and set.
4. To get perfectly round macarons, trace even circles on a parchment paper sheet and place it under your "real" parchment paper sheet as a guide when piping the shells. We fit 48 shells on one large baking tray (6 shells wide by 8 shells long).
Recipe by Homemade Hearts at http://homemadehearts.ca/2014/12/24/french-macarons-gluten-free-or-how-to-make-perfect-macarons/