Macaron super disaster

[JD443]

I have attempted to make macarons twice now and each time they have spread insanely and gone completely wrong! I don’t know what is going wrong. After the first attempt I bought an oven thermometer thinking heat was the issue, but the second time they came out the exact same, if not worse even when keeping an eye on the temperature (300 F) Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Welcome to the club. I wrote a response to a post addressing the issue of spreading. Link below.

https://www.baking-forums.com/threads/macaron-disaster.4788/


The two most important pieces of equipment for baking are a scale and oven thermometer. Baking is all science, so getting the ratios of ingredients right is key to success. No two ingredients weight the same. One cup sugar weighs 200 grams. One cup powdered sugar weighs 113 grams. One cup almond flour weighs 98 grams. The only way to get the ratio of almond flour and powdered sugar correct is by weighing the ingredients. If the ratios are off, the macarons will fail even if you get the mixing correct.

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum! Macarons are certainly very tricky, so don't worry too much that they didn't go right the first couple of times. It may be that you are over-beating the mixture. When you incorporate the almonds with the egg whites it will start off quite stiff and get looser and looser as you mix. You want it loose enough that it pipes easily, but not so loose that it's runny.

 

[KerrieDrew]

Usually when I make Macarons they turn out absolutely perfect. But three times in a row I tried to make cinnamon ones and they cracked . . I didn’t do anything different and I have no idea why this happens. It’s very frustrating to throw out batches of cookies all the time. It’s really confusing to know which degrees to bake it at and for how long. Attached is a picture of what they usually look like when they turn out great. Does anyone know why they turn out great sometimes and crack other times when i do everything exactly the same?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Usually when I make Macarons they turn out absolutely perfect. But three times in a row I tried to make cinnamon ones and they cracked . . I didn’t do anything different and I have no idea why this happens. It’s very frustrating to throw out batches of cookies all the time. It’s really confusing to know which degrees to bake it at and for how long. Attached is a picture of what they usually look like when they turn out great. Does anyone know why they turn out great sometimes and crack other times when i do everything exactly the same?

The cracking is most likely due to air bubbles in the batter. You need to bang the cookie sheets really hard on the counter before baking—and a lot harder than you think. When I took macaron class, the pastry chef whacked the trays on the counter with firm force.

i’d recommend you use pastry chef Stella Parks recipe. For a long time she had a website called Brave Tart up that had a section on macarons. It had a cult like following. But she has become a celebrity chef and is now associated with Serious Eats. So she took now her old blog. But someone posted her recipe on Epicurious, with adding their own notes to her instruction. Thank goodness it was preserved for austerity because this really is an excellent recipe. Parks spent years working in a bakery cranking out hundreds of macarons every week. She knows her stuff when it comes to macarons. Heck she knows her stuff when it comes to baking.

Stella Parks macarons recipe as told by a fan

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/...NaUFlvTk9yTHdzVE9YSVh1LTE4Z2pOVGdrb0tKZGNydDU.

 

[KerrieDrew]

The cracking is most likely due to air bubbles in the batter. You need to bang the cookie sheets really hard on the counter before baking—and a lot harder than you think. When I took macaron class, the pastry chef whacked the trays on the counter with firm force.

i’d recommend you use pastry chef Stella Parks recipe. For a long time she had a website called Brave Tart up that had a section on macarons. It had a cult like following. But she has become a celebrity chef and is now associated with Serious Eats. So she took now her old blog. But someone posted her recipe on Epicurious, with adding their own notes to her instruction. Thank goodness it was preserved for austerity because this really is an excellent recipe. Parks spent years working in a bakery cranking out hundreds of macarons every week. She knows her stuff when it comes to macarons. Heck she knows her stuff when it comes to baking.

Stella Parks macarons recipe as told by a fan

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/...NaUFlvTk9yTHdzVE9YSVh1LTE4Z2pOVGdrb0tKZGNydDU.

I bang the holy crap out of them! Lol.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Usually when I make Macarons they turn out absolutely perfect. But three times in a row I tried to make cinnamon ones and they cracked . . I didn’t do anything different and I have no idea why this happens. It’s very frustrating to throw out batches of cookies all the time. It’s really confusing to know which degrees to bake it at and for how long. Attached is a picture of what they usually look like when they turn out great. Does anyone know why they turn out great sometimes and crack other times when i do everything exactly the same?

The reason I recommended Stella Park’s recipe was the instructions are pretty thorough. It’s not just whacking the tray on the counter.

Your macaronage, the process of mixing the batter, still needs improvement. If you look at your “feet” you’ll see there are holes and the do not extend beyond the body. That indicates there is too much air in the batter. Which leads to cracking.

When the macaronage in done correctly, the feet are frilly and extend just slightly beyond the body. Below is photo of a Pierre Herme macaron for illustration.

 

[KerrieDrew]

Thank you so much for all your help! I printed out her recipe I will try that next time.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you so much for all your help! I printed out her recipe I will try that next time.

you’re welcome. And do not be disappointed macarons are a skills that takes effort. That batch I made had pretty tight feet, no signs of holes, but a lot were hollow. Even Stella says she had days where here macarons didn’t turn out right.