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1
Combine the almond flour and the powdered sugar and sift into a bowl.
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2
Add the egg whites and mix until even with a rubber spatula.
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3
Make the Italian meringue.
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4
Add the egg whites, and dehydrated egg whites (if you have them) to a bowl and whip with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
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5
While you are whipping the eggs, add the sugar and water to a heat-resistant container and heat in a microwave at 600 W for 80-90 seconds.
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6
The bowl will be hot so use oven mitts to take it out.
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7
Drizzle the syrup you just made in a thin stream into the mixture from Step 2 while whipping with a hand mixer on a high speed.
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8
Whisk until stiff peaks form and the mixture has returned to room temperature.
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9
Split the meringue into 3-4 parts and add 1 part at a time to the mixture from Step 4, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
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10
(The mixture will be quite stiff at first so mixing may take a bit of work!)
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11
Get rid of any excess air bubbles.
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12
Fold the mixture over itself a few times until it falls away from the spatula like a ribbon.
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13
Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm circular nozzle and pipe 3.5 cm diameter circles onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
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14
Let the macarons dry until you can touch the mixture with your finger without any sticking to you and you can see a skin start to form.
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15
(This should take about 30 minutes, don't let them dry too much though or the texture will go bad.)
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16
Compared to French meringue, I feel that Italian meringue dries out quicker, so make sure to check how it's drying earlier than you normally would.
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17
If the macarons aren't dry enough they may crack.
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18
It's best to start baking them as soon as you can touch them without them feeling wet and you can see a skin forming.
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19
Bake for 5-6 minutes in an oven preheated to 160-170C.
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20
Then turn the tray around, turn the temperature down to 140C and bake for a further 8-10 minutes.
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21
Personally, before I bake the macarons after preheating the oven, I let the oven bake one time without the macarons at 160C for 10-15 minutes.
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22
(This prevents them coming out undercooked later.)
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23
When they've been in the oven for a few minutes the shells will expand and the bottoms of the macarons will rise up a little.Once they've risen up around 3-4 mm it's time to turn down the heat.
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24
When you press down gently on the macaron shells, if the pied (the risen bottom) moves, bake for a little longer.
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25
Cool on the baking tray.
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26
(Don't take the macarons off the baking sheet too soon or they won't come away neatly.)
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27
Once the macaron shells have completely cooled, gently peel them away from the parchment paper.
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28
If it's difficult to peel, use your finger to push from the back of the baking sheet, tracing around the macaron.
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29
Pair up the macaron shells with shells of similar size and sandwich together with your preferred cream.
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30
Refer to.
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31
Let them rest in the refrigerator for half a day or 1 day to finish.
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32
To make vanilla macarons, take the vanilla beans from 3 cm of vanilla pod and mix them in at Step 1.
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33
Add the same amount of beans to the buttercream.
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34
For berry macarons, add a tiny amount of edible food colouring to the mixture at Step 1, and if you have it, add 1 g strawberry powder.
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35
Sandwich with strawberry cream.
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36
For cocoa macarons, reduce the amount of almond flour to 68 g and add 5 g cocoa powder.
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37
Sandwich with ganache or cocoa cream.
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38
For black tea macarons, add 1.5 g black tea powder to the powder ingredients.
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39
Sandwich together with buttercream infused with a little black tea powder and a few drops of your favourite liquor.
