Macarons - heartshaped

INGREDIENTS
70g blanched almonds, skinless or almond flour
120g powdered sugar
65g egg whites
50g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp (2g) salt
Cream of Tartar
Red food color

DIRECTIONS

After, I tried a bunch of recipes I found one that seems to work best for me. There are a lot of parameters that matter and can influence the outcome of your macarons. Especially these parameters are crucial to the success of baking macarons.

Fine ground almond-icing sugar mixture. That means sifting, then grinding in a blender or food processor and sifting again.
Mixing time of sugar and egg whites – takes about 5-7minutes
An ideal macaronage which is the process of folding in your almond – icing sugar mixture into the egg whites.
Resting time after piping.
Baking time and oven temperature.
Blend the almond flour and powdered sugar together in a food blender for 1.5 minutes, then sieve it.

Have the eggs outside, so that they can adjust to room temperature. Put the egg whites in the mixing bowl, add salt and cream of tartar and let sit until everything else is set up.

I then prepare the piping bag and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. I started with a Silpat mat but I found out that this is actually not necessary. So you will be fine with parchment paper only especially if you just start out with baking macarons. I made a template with circles which I put underneath the parchment paper.

Now, it is time to start whipping the egg whites. Soon, within the first minute of whipping, when the egg whites gained a little volume I start adding all the granulated sugar, pretty much all at once. I start mixing on low speed for about 2 minutes and gradually go on to a higher speed in 2 minutes increments. I whip the egg whites for about a total of 5-7 minutes. Before I go to the highest speed I add food color if needed and whip for about 1 minute at the highest speed.

You may see that the egg whites start to agglomerate on the whisk which is one sign to see that you are getting there. The other sign are the peaks. You want to stop right after you got stiff peaks. You may check at times and see if the egg whites have already gotten stiff peaks.

Then fold in the almond-powdered sugar mixture. To make sure everything is very smooth I sieve the mixture again over the egg whites. You may want to use a soft spatula to fold in your sugar-almond mixture. In my experience, there is no need to be over careful. You stop folding in when the dough falls in ribbons or runs like lava. It shouldn’t run like pancake batter, a good sign you’ve gone too far. It falls in a few ribbons and breaks thereafter.

Ok, then put the batter in the piping bag and pipe nice circles on the parchment paper. I hold the bag vertically and pipe the macarons from the middle. Tap the baking sheet a few times on the counter to remove air bubbles. You can use a toothpick and remove carefully remaining air bubbles. The next advice is to let the macarons sit on the counter for about an hour or two or until they are not shiny anymore and when you touch them with a finger it stays clean. To me this seems to do the trick. With this method, I have made over 200 macarons with successful results (except for sloppy piping).

Last, but not least, you want your macarons not to be baked too high. I put them in the oven with about 320 F for about 15-17minutes. Then usually I stop baking them but let them sit in the oven for another 5 minutes with the oven door propped open.