French Macarons are colorful dainty cookies with ganache, buttercream or jam sandwiched between two macaron cookies. It can be addicting but they are too sweet.

Macarons are always described as finicky, fuzzy cookies that should have feet. For some people who are not familiar with these cookies are probably wondering what the h#$# are those feet.

The first time I saw and tried macarons was years ago in downtown Chicago.

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French Macarons became so popular that they were popping up in high-end bakeshops in the US. Now, you see them everywhere even in Costco and they are still expensive.

When we were Paris, it was in our itinerary to stop by Pierre Hermes since they are known for macarons. After a stroll around Notre Dame, we headed to Pierre Hermes a ten minute walk so we can try a few of their popular flavors.

It was good but just like any macarons they were also too sweet for my taste. When we were in Versailles, my niece bought a box of different flavored macarons at McDonalds. Again, it was good but sweet.

Our hotel was close to Louvre and a walking distance to another known bakeshop called Patisserie Stohrer. My brother visited this bakery everyday and came home with bags of desserts.

One day, I walked with them to this place and offered to pay. It was over $100 for all the cakes we bought. So I assumed he easily spent around $500+ for desserts and food at Stohrer for the 4 days we were there.

On our last day, we stopped by Stohrer again and ordered cakes to take for our train ride to Switzerland and my niece bought some macarons to take back to the US.

The funny thing was she hand carried the macarons for two weeks to different countries. They were gifts to family and friends.

The macarons were pretty expensive so she babysat them. Honestly, she was better off getting it in one of the bakeshops in the US or Costco. Anyway, that was our story with these fuzzy Parisian macarons.

I was motivated to make macarons not because I like it. It became a challenge due to all the comments about how finicky it is to make these little pretty cookies.

Another reason, I am drawn to colorful things or food. I enjoy looking at these colorful cookies. If they were not too sweet, I could get addicted to them.

After checking all the ingredients, I gave it a go. If I messed up, there were only a few ingredients that will go to waste.

My first attempt in making French Macarons was a success. It was not perfect but for a first timer it was perfect in my books. I believe I under mixed it or maybe not. Maybe I didn’t bang it enough to get rid of the nipples or air bubbles.

Also, another thing I learned from this batch was once piped do not add more batter on top of it. That was a no - no, the biggest mistake I made. Regardless, it was still delicious.

It became a challenge to make more. To me making macarons is easy but you have to get the macronage right. This is key for a successful macarons.

For a less sweet macarons, reduce the sugar when making your filling.

The next time I made it, I spend a day just making batches after batches with different colors.

Experimented with over mixing, using and combining different colors and doubling the recipe. I doubled the recipe to make 30 cookies at a time and made a total of 120 cookies that I gave away.

I became over confident and started screwing up. Even the over mixed batter turned out pretty good but some had cracks. Practice makes perfect. Not that they were all perfect.

I thank every one that has a recipe online since I read many comments and learned from it.

Here are the things i learned when making french macarons

a. You don’t need to age the egg whites. I took the eggs out of the fridge and left it sitting on my counter for an hour at room temperature. Another thing I did to make the process quicker was I took the eggs outside the house. It was hot outside and left it there for 20 minutes, then I started making macarons. No problem.

b. When you separate the egg white and yolk, make sure that no yolk gets into the egg white. The egg white will not form a fluffy meringue. Also, use a container free of grease.

c. Before you start, prepare all the things you need.

• Sift the almond flour and sugar in the same container and set aside.
• Prepare the following.
  • Ingredients for meringue
  • Pastry bag with tip
  • Baking sheets with parchment paper (macaron template if you need it)
  • Coloring gel
  • Sprinkles
  • Spatulas and measuring cups

d. If you are a newbie, use cream of tartar when beating the egg whites. The meringue will form quicker.

e. The 1^st time I made macarons, I used a pink gel coloring. After baking, the top turned yellowish/brownish. I googled it and some people commented to put an empty baking sheet on the top rack in the oven. That solved the issue.

f. Straining both sugar and almond flour once in a sieve is good enough. Twice doesn’t hurt.

g. I could be wrong, but in my experiment I would rather under mix than over mix the batter. Yes, I had nipples on some macarons but they looked more like macarons compared to the over mixed ones. Over mixed macarons will spread out with no feet and hollow inside.

h. When making the ganache, make sure it is thick. I took it outside to take pictures and my cream cheese ganache started melting.

i. After making so many batches, I made a mistake of over mixing. I followed the suggestion of others to fold the mixture 50 times and that didn’t work.

It was humid and my AC was working non-stop. Now, I believe humidity also plays a big role in the success of a beautiful macaron. So when humid you do less folding.

j. Watch my video to see the right consistency and when to stop mixing the batter. They say consistency should be lava like. That doesn’t do anything for me. If you watch lava flowing – it can be slow or fast. Sometimes, it flows like a pancake batter which in macarons it means you have over mixed the batter.

The best way is to experiment. Make it a few times. Get the hang of it. After a few batches, you will know the right consistency. I was just lucky the first time I made it.

k. For not too sweet macaron cookies, use less sugar with your filling. This macaron recipe uses less sugar compared to other recipes I have checked.

How to make french macarons

Watch my video, I will show you the consistency of the meringue and the almond flour batter. Goodluck!

Check out my next post How to Pipe Multicolor French Macarons inspired by the Northern Light.

Try my Candy Cane Macarons with Buttercream Filling for the holiday give away.

Other Delicious Desserts to Try.

Maple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Strawberry Cake
Chocolate Cake
Fruit Cocktail Cake
Fruit Tart

Recipe

Adapted from Shinee. Thank you for sharing.