Foolproof French Macarons in My Tiny Paris Kitchen

Hello everybody, welcome back to my channel. My name is Ainsley DuRose and I'm a pastry chef living in Paris, and today I finally have decided to share the quintessential French pastry recipe, the macaron, which is... I'm sure you've probably had one, but if you haven't, it's almost like a melt-in-your-mouth cookie where it's two shells sandwiched with a really delicious cream. It's honestly one of the best, I think, French pastries, but I think a lot of people are kind of scared to make them because they are quite complicated, but with the right techniques, and like with anything in life, but especially in pastry, as long as you have a little patience and a little practice, you'll be able to perfect it. This is my foolproof recipe. I've never had problems with this recipe and it's a really easy recipe to remember because it's equal parts of everything, and also the great thing about macarons are you can flavor them however you want because the flavor really only comes from the filling, not from the shells themselves, but you can really change this recipe however you want for whichever season or whatever whatever you're feeling for the day, but I think Lobo is ready to make them, so you want to show them how to make it? So today I'm going to be showing you how to make vanilla macaron just because I think it's nice to have a base so you can expand upon the flavor however you wish. So if you want to have a chocolate macaron, you can put chocolate in the filling with a little cocoa powder in the shell, use strawberry jam or raspberry jam in your filling, so you can really do whatever you want with macaron, but this is just the bare basic recipe stripped down of anything, and it really only requires four ingredients. You only need regular granulated sugar, powdered sugar, icing sugar, eggs, and almond powder, or I think sometimes it's called almond flour. If you can't find this in your grocery store, I do believe that they sell them online, and I'll link some down below as well, or you could use hazelnut flour. Also there are three different ways that you can make macarons. There's the traditional French meringue method, there's the Italian method, and there's the Swiss meringue method, which is what I'm going to be doing. I do use a stand mixer. You could do this by hand, or even like a handheld electric whisk will work, and those are really cheap. I think you can get those for maybe 20, 30 euros, or stand mixer, handheld whisk, either one. Important thing about macarons are they're very sensitive to water and to oil. So before I make my macarons, I make sure that everything, all the utensils and tools I'm using are very clean, but to also prevent any grease that still might not be left behind from the cleaning, I will go in with vinegar, and I wipe down everything, because vinegar really takes away any type of leftover fat that might still be in your tools. So on my spatulas, my bowls, my baking silicone mat, I'll wipe everything down with vinegar, just to make sure that there's no fat or oil or any type of water left behind. But what I'm first going to start with is take my almond flour and my icing sugar. I'm just going to blitz this in the food processor, just for a couple of seconds. You don't want to do it too much, because then it can become a paste, because the oils will start to come out of the almond. So just for a couple of seconds to really break apart all of the almond chunks that still might be there. So now that that has blitzed, I also like to sift it, just for some extra insurance. So now we're going to make the meringue, which you just need to separate your egg whites from your egg yolks. Now if you're doing a French meringue, you would have to use room temperature eggs, otherwise your meringue will never whip properly. But because we're doing a Swiss meringue method, where we heat the eggs, it doesn't really matter if they're room temperature or cold. Eggs are actually easier to separate if they are colder. But again, it doesn't matter. As long as you have the right measurement of them, it's fine. And again, for the macaron recipe, everything is a one-to-one ratio. So it's 100 grams of almond flour, 100 grams of icing sugar, 100 grams of egg white, and 100 grams of sugar. You also want to be very careful when you're separating your egg whites that there's not a single trace of the yolk in your egg whites, otherwise it will not whip properly. You can, if you're worried about it, measure it elsewhere and then put it in your bowl. I feel comfortable doing this, but again, if you're a little bit scared, then you can measure your egg whites separately before you put it into your bowl. Because if you have any traces of egg yolks, it's kind of hard to... You can scoop them up, I guess, but it's not ideal. So separate at your own risk. We will be using these egg yolks for the filling. So that's why I like this recipe. We're not only using one part of the egg, and then the other part you just have to use somewhere else. This is for the same recipe. So the egg is for the shell of the macaron, and the egg yolk is for the filling. So make sure to save your yolks. And now to our egg whites, we're going to add our regular sugar. And again, just 100 grams of regular granulated sugar. So now I'm just going to take this to the stove, and I'm going to cook this over a bain-marie, which is just a pot of water that you bring to simmer. You put this over it, and what it does is it slowly starts to warm up the egg. And what you're looking for... There's a certain temperature that you're looking for, but I honestly don't ever really go by that, because I think it's much easier. All you do is you stick your finger into the very bottom, and if the egg white is hot to the touch, and when you rub your fingers together, there's no more sugar granules, and it's completely dissolved in the egg white, then you're good to go. Otherwise, you can do it by temperature, but I think this is the easier, hassle-free recipe to go by. So I'll put this over the boiling water. You don't have to continuously whisk it, but every so often you do want to make sure you're whisking it so it doesn't cook the egg on the bottom or on the side. And make sure to really scrape the edges so that all of the sugar is able to dissolve in the egg white, and you don't have any sugar crystals on the sides. It's hot to the touch, and there's no sugar crystals. So that's when you know it's done. If you see any steam forming on the side of your bowl, just go ahead and get a paper towel and take that away, because again, you do not want any moisture or water getting into your meringue. But take this off, and we will get a whisk attachment. I'll put this on about medium speed, and we just want stiff peaks. You don't want to overdo it, and you don't want to underdo it. You just want to make sure it just comes to stiff peaks. So you know your meringue is done when you lift it up, and it doesn't move, or don't get it on your head. But to this, I am going to add you can just not do this part, but I thought it would look pretty to make them pink. So I'm going to add a few drops of food coloring. I like to use a food gel. I think it doesn't affect the texture at all, and it makes sure that the color stays vibrant. But do at your own risk, however you want. You don't even have to color it. You can do whatever you want, but I think it's quite nice. And I do think I'm going to add a little raspberry in the middle, so it kind of shows what's inside a little bit. But I'm going to add just a couple of food drops. If it looks too vibrant at this point, that's fine, because once you add the almond and the powdered sugar, it dilutes it a bit. And then as the meringue sits and bakes, it also kind of dilutes the color. So I tend to go a little bit over vibrant, and then it eventually kind of evens out, so it's not too pink. Now we're going to add our sifted almond and powdered sugar to the meringue. And I just do it all at once. So all you're going to do is mix in the flour to the meringue. And I kind of just fold around, making sure to scrape the edges and the bottom. Because what you're going to do is a technique called, how do they say, macaronage, which is basically the folding of the macaron batter. You're looking for a certain texture for the macaron batter. It has to be not too thick, but also not too runny. And there are certain little tests that you can do to make sure that you've properly mixed it together. What I like to do is I take it and I push it onto the side, because you're kind of trying to deflate the meringue a bit. I think some people think you have to be delicate with this. You don't. I've seen some pastry chefs really go to town on this batter and really, like they're fighting it. So don't worry about being too precious with it. Just want to make sure that it gets to the right consistency. So you know the batter is done when you lift it up and continuously do a figure eight, about two or three times. And then the batter will, in about 10 seconds, kind of disappear back into the dough and you no longer see the lines. So that's kind of how you can test it. Then don't touch it anymore. And it's ready to be piped, because also when you're piping it, you're also manipulating it a bit. So it can even be kind of worked with even more. So I kind of think it's better to under than over mix it, because if it's over mixed and it's very runny and it might not set or bake as well. So I'm going to leave it to this and now we're going to pipe them. So what I use is I have my baking tray and I have this silicone mat that has these little circles already printed on it so that I can make sure that my macarons are the exact same size. You could just use parchment paper and make the circles yourself and then flip it over and you can pipe on that. But I like this because it's already non-stick and it's easy to clean. Just again, wipe it down with vinegar. I use a piping bag with a, it's quite a small little circle. I find if the circle is too big, then when you pipe it, it just kind of will expand more than you want. So I like to be able to control how much comes out. So a little bit smaller. So it's about 0.8 centimeters. And then to pipe your macaron, you want to make sure that your piping bag is perpendicular, so very straight up to the baking tray. And then you just apply even pressure. Once you get to where you want to stop, you stop and you flick it off like that. And you do that little flick at the end because it helps the macaron have a flat top. If you just go like this and then you go like that, you have this little top, which is not the worst thing in the world, but you want it to not be like that. So you could just kind of use your finger and tap it down, but it just requires a little bit extra work. And that can also create air bubbles when you're doing that. You don't want air bubbles in your macarons. Otherwise when they bake, the air bubbles, if they're trapped inside, they'll want to escape. So they'll pop out of the macaron and then you'll have shells that are broken. So you are trying to eliminate as much as possible air in your dough. Now that they're piped, another important part to get rid of all the air bubbles is you take your tray and you just smack it against the table. And then if you still see that there's some air bubbles that may have not gotten popped, you can go in with a very sharp little toothpick and I will just pop them myself because you really just want to make sure there's no trapped air in your macaron. Now, another game of waiting. This is a very patient involved pastry, I would say, because now what you're going to do is you're just going to leave these macarons out at room temperature for about, depends on your climate. So if it's a really humid day and I know the macarons are going to take a little bit longer to dry out, then I will sit them in front of a fan and just let them do their work. But this usually takes about anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. You're just trying to get a crust to form on the outside of your shell because the batter will dry out. So when you touch it, your finger doesn't leave a mark or an indent. It's just completely dry to the touch. And then, you know, they're ready to bake. So I'll leave this out for about 30 minutes to an hour. And in the meantime, I'll preheat my oven to 160 degrees Celsius. And I like to preheat it because macarons are very also sensitive to the temperature of the oven. So if you have any type of hot spots, you have a macaron that will be lopsided or it doesn't bake properly. So I like to preheat maybe 30 minutes or an hour in advance. So it's very even heating throughout the whole oven. So leave these to dry. I'll preheat my oven. And while we were waiting, I want to thank Organic Basics for sponsoring this video today. I've actually worked with them before because I generally wear their pieces all the time, like this top that I have on right now for this video. So I was really excited to try some of their newer collection pieces, like this pointil square necktie. 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It feels like the kind of basics that you keep reaching for every day. I also have the flex tank in the color soft breeze, which is super flattering and really soft without feeling restrictive. And it also pairs beautifully with the cardigan. I also have the flex tees in seaweed and rosewood color. And I love these colors because they feel subtle but still add something a little different to everyday outfits. Then there's the seamless waffle tee in black, which has such a nice texture and feels incredibly cozy while still looking polished. And I also picked up the core ribbed tee in black, which is basically the perfect fitted staple to throw on with anything. And it also pairs beautifully with the cardigan as well. I feel like all these pieces work really well together and are the kind of wardrobe staples you can style a million different ways for any occasion. And again, they are truly so soft and so comfortable. If you like any of these pieces, I'll have all the links in the description down below along with my discount code. You can use Ainsley15 for 15% off until June 15th. And then after that, use the code Ainsley10 and you'll still get 10% off. So thank you again to Organic Basics for sponsoring this video. And now let's go check on the macarons. So it's been about an hour, I would say. And these are perfectly set and ready to go. To test to make sure that they're ready, is if you just touch the top, it leaves no mark. You don't have any dough on your finger. They're completely dry. So these are ready to go in the oven. So I bake these at about 160 degrees Celsius and for about eight minutes and then open the door and I rotate them and let them bake for another eight minutes. And it's really important to make sure that you open the door because you're trying to release steam from the oven because macarons do not like steam. And what you're looking for is the macaron feet. They do this cute little thing where as they're puffing up, they create this little edge and we call them the little macaron feet. So that's what we're looking for. So we'll come back in eight minutes. It's been about seven, eight minutes. I'm going to rotate them but you can already see that the little feet are forming because if the temperature is too high, then they bake too fast and they will explode. If it's too low, they don't quite cook right and they can have what we call like a hollow shell. So you want a nice even temperature. So also again, you kind of have to figure out based on your oven but I've always found that around 160 degrees Celsius is kind of the sweet spot to bake them for. So another eight or so minutes and I'll show you the trick to know exactly when it's done. So to know when your macarons are done, all you do is you just kind of call the wiggle test. And if they wiggle, like you see they kind of move around and they're not done. You want them to not wiggle. So I'll keep these in for another five minutes I think. So while the macaron shells are baking, I'm going to make the filling for them. You can fill your macaron shells however you want. You could just use a jam. You could use a ganache. But because I have the egg yolks, I like to use them just so I don't have any waste for when I'm baking. So what I do is I mix my yolks in the mixing bowl and while those are whisking, I bring a syrup of sugar and water to a certain temperature which is about 118 degrees Celsius. If you don't have a thermometer, you can check it by having an ice-cold bowl of water and you put a little bit of the syrup in it. And if you're able to form the syrup into a soft flexible ball, it's called the soft ball stage, then you know you've reached the right temperature. But if not, well I have two thermometers because one of them doesn't like to work sometimes. So just in case I have my backup. And again, I'll link everything down below if you're interested in my gadgets. So to this bowl, first I'll add the yolks. So to my pot, I'm going to add my sugar. And then I'll do a little bit of water. And again, you can technically do this by hand. I think in pastry school one time, we had to do all of this by hand. We weren't allowed to use any type of electric whisk. It was painful. It was labor intensive. But it can be done. But if not, I'll take this to the stove. I'll put this on my stand mixer and I'll let it whip while this is coming to the right temperature. So you're just wanting this to whisk until the egg yolk is like three times in volume. It's really fluffy and pale in color. You're really trying to incorporate as much air into it as you can. So now I'll just slowly add it into the middle of the mixture. You don't want to put it on the side of the bowl. Otherwise it'll just stick to the bowl and it'll turn into kind of like cotton candy if the mixture, the whisk hits it. So try to get just the center. Let this run on high till you feel the bowl and it feels room temperature. And you can see it's very volumous and fluffy and wonderful. So I think it's done because the bowl feels room temperature. So it's completely cooled down. It's very light and fluffy and falls off the whisk like a ribbon. So now we will add our butter and also add a little pinch of salt and a little bit of, I like to put vanilla extract in it, but you could put whatever at this point. Whatever flavorings or chocolate or really whatever you want. But first I'm going to put the butter, which is best if it's not cold but also not completely soft. So somewhere in between, like a little bit colder than room temperature I would say. Whenever I have butter on my hands, instead of like normal people just I guess washing it off, I like to use it as a moisturizer. And also I mean it smells quite good. It's organic. It's organic. It's the new lotion. I have to keep my hands looking young. Now sometimes after you add your butter and you mix it, it might start to look curdled and you think you've done something really wrong. Don't worry. You just keep mixing it. It's usually maybe your butter was a bit too cold but just it's okay. Fear not. Just keep mixing it and it will eventually, it'll come together. But to this now I'm just going to add a pinch of salt and my my trusty vanilla extract. That's your icing done. And you'll notice it's a little bit more yellow in color than a lot of other icings just because you use the egg yolks. Just makes it a bit richer and I think, I think this is the the best icing. Oh that's actually really good today. So the macarons have cooled completely and now we are able to fill them. So I just have my buttercream with my piping bag and again small little round tip and I'm just going to go around the outer edge so I can put a little raspberry in the middle. It just breaks up the sweetness a little bit with a little bit of a acidity of the raspberry. But again you can do this however you want. There's no set rules for macaron. You can flavor them, color them, do whatever you want with them. So as tempting as it might be to eat these right now, you don't want to do that. I mean you can but the traditional way of the texture of the macaron is not the same day that you bake them. Because if you're to eat these right now it's a really crispy shell and the texture that you're looking for is it's supposed to be a little crisp on the outside but it's supposed to be very very soft and luxurious in the mouth. So what we do and it's standard for any macarons that you ever taste in any pastry shop, after we bake them and fill them you want to put this in the fridge for at least I don't know I'd say overnight just to be sure because it matures in the fridge because once it's in the fridge it allows the filling to kind of combine with a little bit of the shell and it creates this really beautiful texture. So in the fridge. Don't be tempted. I mean you can try one they'll still be good but the best way to eat them is usually the day after. But don't worry I did make some the day before so we could taste these. So you might be able to tell but the ones that I made yesterday the filling is a little bit whiter it's not as yellow as the one I made in today's video and that's just because I had egg whites on hand. So instead of wasting those I decided to use the egg whites instead. So again a thing about the macaron is the fillings and the flavors can be endless really. So I made the same vanilla recipe just I used egg whites instead of egg yolks but let's taste them. She wants to taste too. Good. I love macaron. I love the I love the texture of it the chewy but it's also soft and melts in your mouth and the raspberry helps break up the sweetness but it's not overpowering. You can really taste the vanilla. I just love macaron. You have anything to say? Well thank you for watching today's video and I hope it illuminated the process of how to make a macaron and kind of set your fears to the side. It's not that complicated it's quite quite an easy thing it's fun. I think it's a fun thing to make and it's fun to come up with different flavors and you could even do different designs or the possibilities are endless with macarons but let me know if you try this recipe. I love when people send me their creations if they've made one of my recipes so let me know if you try this recipe or what other baking cooking recipes you'd like to see. And thank you again Organic Basics for sponsoring today's video and all the links and my discount codes are down below in the description if you want to check out any of the pieces that I showed. Until then Lola and I hope you have a very lovely day. Treats!