Macaron or macaroon? The question most asked when people are presented with either sweet finger food. Here’s a handy trick: A macaroon is like a balloon and a macaron is a bon bon (french for candy). Alternatively, a macaron has almond (pronounced ah-mond in french).
Basically the french macaron is the gluten-free meringue-almond sandwich cookie, whereas a italian macaroon is comprised of shredded coconut. Both are heavily based in the use of egg whites and sugar, which make them equally delicious, but today, we shall dive into the world of macarons. Now these macarons can be a tricky little beast. But honestly, you can’t go wrong with sugar, almond, and egg whites. Just scrumptious! The tricky thing, however, is to get that perfect shape and ideally, those little frilly feet at the bottom of each shell. But if you follow along, you’ll find that each step is fairly straight-forward, the key is to simply follow!
But in all seriousness, I’ve found that the effort to make your own macarons is more worth the $2, $3, or even $4 macarons you find in shops. I guess you probably wouldn’t want to make 10 different flavors at once and it’d be easier to buy them. But point being, macarons are definitely achievable in a home kitchen! And perfect to bring to work, parties, school, you name it!
A couple notes
- I think it’s fairly useful to have a Silpat or other silicone mat to line the baking sheets. They’re effective for distributing heat and making it easy to take off the macarons, and they’re reusable compared to parchment paper
- Macarons are candy-like, where we must boil the sugar to a specific candy temperature, so make sure to watch the pot!
Happy baking y’all!
Pomegranate Macarons
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
- 1-3/4 cup (200 g) powdered sugar
- 2 cups (200 g) almond flour
- 4 (150 g) egg whites, divided
- 1 cup (200 g) white sugar
- 1/4 cup (5 cl) water
Filling
- 1-1/2 cup (250 g) white chocolate
- 1/2 pomegrante, juiced (~60 g or 1/4 cup) see note
Instructions
- For the shells: Sift together the powdered sugar and almond flour. Mix until well combined.
- Stir in the first half (75 g) of egg whites into the almondmixture.
- In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, whisk the other 75 g egg whites until stiff peaks form. Use high speed and check often to prevent over whisking.
- In a pot, mix the granulated sugar and water. On medium heat, boil the mixture, until it reaches 245ºF, measured with a candy thermometer or rapidly bubbling.
- While on low speed, slowly pour in the sugar syrup into the egg whites. A stand mixer makes life easier, or simply work quickly between mixing and pouring. Continue whisking at high speed until the mixture becomes a glossy meringue. Use a spatula to help scrape the sides of the bowl while mixing.
- Fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the almond mixture until combined. Fold in the rest of the meringue until no specks appear and batter is smooth.
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
- Prepare a piping bag and pour the batter in. See note on piping bag.
- On a silicone-lined baking sheet, pipe out circles of macaron batter 1.5″ diameter, spaced at least 2″ apart. They will expand while baking.
- Tap the bottom of the pan with your hands. This is extremely important in getting rid of air bubbles that may have accumulated and to smooth out each macaron.
- Bake the macarons for about 12 min, or until the bottoms are slightly golden. Err on the the side of a longer bake to ensure that they’ll be firm when cooled, rather than a soft cookie texture.
- Let them cool on the pan before moving to a cooling rack. Otherwise, the macarons might stick to the sheet.
- For the filling: Melt the white chocolate on a double broiler. Create this by boiling water in the lower pot and place a second pot or large bowl on top. Place the chocolate in the pot or bowl and let it sit until the chips look glossy and melted, stir to ensure smoothness.
- Once the chocolate has melted, remove from heat and stir in the pomegranate juice.
- Chill to room temperature, or in fridge for a faster rate.
- Assembly: If some of the macarons are unevenly sized, pair them up with similarly sized halves. Taking one shell, place a dollop of filling in the center and use the second shell to squeeze the filling to spread evenly. Alternatively, pipe the filling over the bottom surface of a shell and place the second on top. Repeat for all macarons and voilà, you have it!
Notes
- Adapted from Macaron by Christophe Felder, world-renowned French pastry chef
- Piping bag: You can buy this in a store, but I like to use ziplock bags and cut a little hole in a corner. To make piping consistent, it’s helpful to use a medium-sized plain piping tip, inserted into that corner.
- Piping tip: To fill the bag, line the bag in a mug or cup like you would a trash bag. Then start filling, and it shouldn’t be too messy.
- To make the pomegranate juice, first remove the pulp-seeds from the fruit. Then, using your fingers or a fork, mush the pulp until you can separate the juice from the seeds. 1/2 pomegranate should have about 1/4 cup juice.
Did you make this recipe?
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