Finally Nailed the French Macaron

  • What a painful experience when after all that careful sifting of the almond flour and powdered sugar coupled with the oh so careful macaronage you still end up with a footless macaron cookie. Doh! What went wrong? Was it the aging of the egg white (or lack thereof), was it over whipped meringue? Or perhaps I should have added a pinch of salt in addition to the cream of tartar to help stabilize the egg whites? It was a mystery. So, I started modifying one thing at a time and here’s what I discovered.
      • Aging the egg whites didn’t really matter.. but having them at room temperature makes all the difference.
      A pinch of salt in the egg whites along with the cream of tartar definitely helped to stabilize my egg whites and give them more shape. About 1/8 – 1/4 tsp will do.
      Triple sifting my almond flour and powdered sugar then running through a finer mesh sieve made all the difference in getting that smooth shell I was looking for.

    Like with all things – practice makes perfect. I’m pretty happy with my French macarons but I’m always looking to improve. What are your tips and tricks to make the perfect macaron cookies?

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