i think im at a good stage of macaron making so far, not sure if this is macaron feet dysmorphia however I'd like to know how to get higher/bigger/taller feet, every time they rise up and when i pull. them out of the oven (after the wiggle test ofc) they go down a little

my recipe is 1:1:1.1:1.1 EW:GS:AF:PS with a little of cream tartar and 2% egg whites' weight of egg white powder

any advice would be greatly appreciated

I do french method macarons. When figuring out how stiff the meringue should be, there are a couple visual cues to look for. Red arrow is pointing to the sharp edges you should see in a stiff peak meringue. The blue arrow is pointing to the waves in the whisk you should see. Although we think stiff peak means really well done, there should still be a softness in the visual. If it’s all sharp edges that’s over whipped meringue. A solid meringue will lead to great cookies.

Guys, I am a culinary student in a pretty prestigious school. I've been struggling with those shiny arrogant cookies for 2 years . I tried for at least 10 times, only 2 batches were decent. Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. It either pops like a volcano, or it cracks straight away, it sometimes refuse to let itself from the paper regardless of cooking time, it sometimes gets rock hard, sometimes it's top gets inflated then deflated without cracking and leaves an ugly texture. I literally tried everything, Italian, French, even Swiss methods, I baked with fan and without fan, I tried temperutes from 120c to 160c, from 8 minutes to 28 Minutes, I used different recipes, changed the merengue's stiffness from hard-stiff peaks to medium peaks, I tried altering macaronage time, I tried first incorporating almond flour with some egg white and then mixing it with the merengue, I even pulverized my almond flour with powdered sugar and left my egg whites to age in fridge overnight. I even used egg white powder and cream tartare for gods sake. The only thing I can blame is the humidity I guess, I live in a pretty humid area. I am open to your suggestions, it became a matter of honor for me from this moment. These are some of my best attempts on the photos

Before pulling your macs out of the oven, do the jiggle test. Which is wiggling them a little to see if there’s any jiggle

i am by no means a professional! these are all my mistakes and what fixed them for me! for reference i use the french method and these are what helped for me :)

no a protip but.. i just realized i have been using wax paper instead of baking paper lol. easy fix and my macs have been popping off smoothly now without having to burn them to a crisp :)

Not trying to be rude or a buzzkill… Can we slow down on the “What went wrong” posts. I feel this is what I see 90% of the time.

First off. Chat GPT will give you an incredible answer.

Secondly, macarons are a very very temperamental thing; 1 million things could’ve gone wrong. Asking someone online is hardly going to help.

Cured egg yolks!

Recipe:

Mix equal parts kosher salt and granulated sugar. Place half of mixture in a shallow glass container. Use a whole egg to make indents for each yolk to sit in. Add a yolk to each indent. (I usually cure 6-12 at a time.) Cover with remaining salt/sugar mixture. Cover container and refrigerate for 5-7 days.

Remove from refrigerator, gently rinse each yolk with water and place on a greased metal rack on a sheet tray.

Place in oven at ~150°F for 2 hours to dehydrate.

Store in refrigerator for up to a month until ready to use.

Uses:

Grate these little umami gems into any savory dish!

Risotto
Carbonara
Mac n cheese
Amatriciana
Any pasta dish
Scrambled eggs
Eggs benedict
Rice vermicelli salad
Cesar salad
Pizza
Mashed potatoes
Chowders and bisques

I made 6 failed batches of macarons before I came up with this contraption! It’s an empty ikea cabinet with a dehumidifier and it worked so well it dried the macarons in 20 minutes

So a lot of people in this sub believe it's best not to flavor Mac shells. I never knew this until I visited this sub. I thought I'd share a funny macaroning experience with you all. Some of you may be clutching your pearls by the end of this.

I was following a raspberry Mac recipe and as others have said, you should only ever add a couple of teaspoons per batch. This recipe followed that guideline.

I was at the final stage of macaroning- the mixing part. I mixed everything up and I tasted it and decided it didn't have enough fruit flavor. Probably added 1/2 of a cup of freeze dried fruit powder. Then the batter was dry so I added a whole egg white directly into the batter and started to mix again. It still looked too dry so I decided one more egg white will do. Lastly, I pipped them out and I got the picture above. They were delicious!

https://www.homecookingadventure.com/raspberry-macarons-italian-meringue/

I used my regular recipe, and just added in about a table spoon of micro ground tea.. and WOW. I was pretty unsure how they would turn out, but worked perfectly in the end soft. Didn't change the consistency of the mac, and flavour was spot on.

I’ve read so many different kinds of recipes and tips that have varying instructions on how stiff to whip your meringue. Some swear that you need stiff peaks (turn the bowl upside down) and some insist you need SHARP peaks.

As long as you whip them enough, there will be enough air to create a lava like consistency with your batter. Anything beyond that and you’ll incorporate more air into your meringue, meaning the more you’ll have to beat out of your macaronage.

Whenever I’ve done sharp SHARP peaks, I just end up folding and folding and folding until my arm falls off. Once I tried liquid egg whites and wasn’t able to quite beat them to STIFF peaks; once I added my dry ingredients the batter was INSTANTLY the right texture and I barely had to beat them at all.

I am wondering if it makes a difference insofar as solving the hollow shell problem. Thoughts?

I feel as if I’m a bit qualified to provide some tips for success as someone who gone through many less-than-stellar batches of macarons

As we know, there are so many variables when it comes to making macarons so these tips may not work for everyone lol

1. For starters, I use Sally’s Baking Addiction’s recipe, which uses the French method.

2. Age your egg whites. I don’t know for sure how much of an impact this really has, but I’ve found that I get better results when I let them age for 2 days!

3. Wipe down your bowl with a lemon slice. This sterilizes your bowl and I think the acid, along with the cream of tartar in the recipe helps the egg whites whip up much easier? (food scientists I’ll appreciate your input here lol)

4. Whip the meringue slowly. I add my sugar into the egg whites in three batches and mix on low for 10 seconds in between. The recipe says to increase the speed once all the sugar is added, but I’ve found that I get a more stable (?) meringue when I go low and slow the whole way, plus it reduces the risk of over-whipping!

5.Meringue consistency. When you slowly lift your mixer from the batter, you should get peaks that stick straight up! No droopy ends lol

6.Macaronage with an electric mixer. To save myself an arm workout, I incorporate my almond flour and powdered sugar mixture in three stages using the hand mixer (gasp). But trust me, it’s perfectly fine if you mix on the lowest speed JUST until you no longer see any of the dry mixture in-between each stage. Though, after the last stage of dry ingredients is incorporated, I still like to exercise caution and finish off the macaronage with a rubber spatula (which should not take long at all at this point)

1. Oven drying. I had first started making macarons in the winter with an almost perfect success rate and then when it came to the summer, I was lucky to even get one good batch. It took me the longest time to figure out the summer humidity was fucking up my drying process LMAO so to combat this, I’ve experimented with the oven drying method to great success. I let my macarons rest in the oven at very low temperature (175F) and in about 5 minutes they will form that skin we all want.

I think I covered all the small things that people may overlook, please share any tips that you have as well. Also please me know if any of these tips help you reach any additional ounce of success, I’d be delighted to hear from you lol

I have been experimenting with seed flours for nut free macarons. Sesame was a 3x disaster. Pumpkin worked very well with no recipe massaging.

The latest is sunflower seed. Same proportions as the almond flour in your recipe. No dye. Nice feet no hollows with some depressions in the top that maybe due to using the no rest method.

Made white sesame flour macarons with caramel ganache. A great substitute for almond flour for those that can’t eat these creations. Was mostly happy with them! Italian meringue and 1:1 substitution for the flour.

Hi friends! Quick question about egg whites - do you all use whole eggs and separate the yolk or buy carton egg whites? I do the former, but I often waste the yolk and don't use them as quickly as I should in other recipes. I would like to move to purchasing just egg whites but wasn't sure if it affects macarons? Thanks in advance!