Ok, incoming macaron pics. I've been practicing ... and I'm finally happy with these.
Shells were regular almond (colored by gel food coloring).
Cream cheese filling: strawberry, orange + lemon zest, blueberry, matcha, and plain.
Final platter for friend's kids birthday party.
Laduree's Macaron Shell Ingredients:
275 g fine almond flour
250 g confectioners’ sugar (aka powdered sugar)
6 +1/2 egg whites (room temp)
210g granulated white sugar
+ gel food coloring
Cream Cheese Filling:
227 g cream cheese
(I used Trader Joe's Light Cream Cheese)
227 g unsalted butter, softened
100 g powdered sugar or to taste
25 g jam or puree (
I used Les Comtes de Provence jams. I also like Charles Jacquin as well.)
Tips (I also made these in the winter at altitude, 4300'):
- Aged egg whites for up to 3 days
- Followed technique by Tasty for macronage.
- Tap the pan after piping before drying.
- Dry the macarons no less than 1 hour. Otherwise, you lose the feet/pied and get puffy and cracked macarons.
- Pipe with a 1 inch head – pipe straight down into shallow rounds.
- Some recipes call for you to smooth the tops with water – DO NOT DO THIS for the Laduree recipe.
- I added 4-6 drops of food coloring for each color (Laduree recipe is made for gel food coloring... not powders)
- Once the macarons are filled, store in an airtight container for <24 hours. The blooming allows the texture and flavor to settle - consume between 12h-24h for best tastiness.
For the next batch, I'm experimenting with natural coloring (via freeze dried fruit and powders)... and I'm also wanting to use some of my asian stuff and maybe try thai tea and milk tea flavored ones.