Here is a quick Swiss Macaron Tutorial. Making macarons doesn’t have to be hard! It often sounds more complicated than it is, I think having to pull out a candy thermometer can sometimes intimidate people, but its a very simple, quick step once you know what you are doing.
Check out this video if you are a visual learner, below I will list out the steps.
Measure egg whites, sugar & tartar
Always use a kitchen scale. It is the ultimate way to measure, and when you’re making a cookie as sensitive as a macaron, you want to be precise. Weigh your egg whites, granulated sugar and cream of tartar into a metal mixing bowl, one that attaches to a standing mixer. Whisk all 3 ingredients together.
Heat egg mixture on double broiler
Put your metal mixing bowl on top of a saucepan with boiling water, like a double broiler. Pop in a candy thermometer and whisk the mixture until it gets to 120 degrees. This will melt down the sugar but not cook your egg. Remove immediately when the thermometer reads 120 degrees.
Whip egg mixture on high
Attach the mixing bowl to your standing mixer, whip the mixture on high until it gets to stiff peak. At the start, maybe after 1-2 minutes, I add the extract or flavoring to the mixture. Getting the meringue to stiff peak takes 5-10 minutes depending on the speed of your mixer, so this is a good time to measure our your almond flour and powdered sugar.
Measure almond flour & powdered sugar
Using the kitchen scale again. weigh your almond flour and powdered sugar. I like to put this into a hand powered food processor, then sift it to get out any clumps and keep your cookies smooth.
Fold almond flour mixture into meringue
Once the egg mixture is at stiff peak, it is a meringue, making the meringue is arguably the most intimidating part of making macarons. Whew! You did it. Now take the almond flour mixture and dump it on top of your meringue. Using a rubber spatula, fold the two mixtures together until it ribbons off of the spatula without breaking immediately. You should be able to make a figure 8 with the batter running off of the spatula without the batter ribbon breaking.
Add coloring & pipe
If you are doing a multi colored cookie, you can break the batter up and add multiple colors. Be really careful to not over mix the batter, at this point, if you make it too runny the macarons will not set when baked. Now add the batter to some piping bags and pipe them onto a silicone baking mat on top of a cookie sheet. If you are using design templates in the form of paper under the mats, be sure to remove the paper, otherwise the cookie will not cook evenly on the bottom.
Let cookies sit before baking
Let the piped macarons sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour before baking. This will create a ‘skin’ on top of the cookie which helps the iconic foot form on the bottom of the macaron.
The macaron is done when it doesn’t budge
When finished baking and your timer goes of, open your oven and carefully push on the edge of one macaron, if budges at all, your cookie isn’t done. One way to know your macaron is done is when it sticks in place. Don’t worry, if your cookie budges, just rotate your pan and add 2 minutes, check again and repeat if necessary until the cookie does not budge.
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