7 TIPS FOR MAKING PERFECT MACARONS

This year’s Mother’s Day activity involved macarons, tea and a picnic in the park. Ever on the quest and looking for tips for making the perfect macarons, the women in my family took the macaron baking class at Ollia Macarons & Tea. As with anyone who gives making macarons a try quickly learns…it is far from easy!

I have made macarons once and only once due to the difficulty level of achieving the perfect product. I was setting up a French tea themed baby shower, and I wanted to have macarons as party favours. Macarons were a relatively new thing in Calgary at the time and were not readily available in local bakeries. How did mine turn out? Well, one party guest thought they were mini bath bombs and ended up throwing one in her son’s bath! Much to her son’s chagrin, there was no fizzy bubbly bath that day. Yep, that about sums it up!

David Rousseau, the mastermind behind Ollia’s macarons, was an amazing and engaging instructor! His expertise on this delectable pastry is no joke, and you can ask him anything about them and he will have an answer – from troubleshooting tips and tricks to an in-depth history lesson of the origin of the macaron.

If you conduct a quick Google search, you will have no trouble finding a macaron recipe to try. The beauty about Ollia’s hands-on class is having the ability to work through the typical issues directly with an expert. You also reap the benefit of leaving the class feeling amazing about yourself for having created your own beautiful box of macarons. Since confidence is key to anything in life, being able to walk out of Ollia’s class with this is priceless.

Here are 7 tips on how to make the perfect macarons:

1. Use the finest almond flour available.

The almond flour I used in my first attempt was definitely not the finest available. David says that you can grind coarser almond flour down to make it finer, however, you run into the risk of grinding just a touch too much and releasing oils in the almonds which will ruin your batter.

2. Use Italian Meringue.

There are different types of meringue – French, Italian and Swiss – but the Italian meringue will provide you with a slightly larger margin of error to work with. In something as delicate as macarons, this is critical.

3. Never over mix your batter.

Make sure to squish out any lumps, but be careful not to over mix. Your batter is ready when it is shiny, but still thick, and you achieve a nice ribbon of flow when you lift your spatula.

4. Don’t always follow a recipe’s baking time and temperature.

Did you know that a majority of macaron recipes are written for lower elevations, and following these instructions to a tee can make or break your final product depending where you are located? Macaron making is a true art form so it may take some trial and error to get the perfect product.

5. Use aged egg whites.

This will ensure that your meringue has nice peaks due to the increased elasticity in the eggs. Crack your eggs about 4 days in advance and leave them in the fridge in order to “age” them.

6. Whack the crap out of your pan!

I surely skipped this step in my first attempt at making macarons. Once all your shells are piped, hit your pan against the countertop until any peaks are eliminated and you have a nice flat top. Whacking the pan also eliminates any air bubbles in the shell so you don’t end up with an explosive mess during baking.

7. Allow your finished macarons to “mature” before eating them.

After you’ve baked and assembled your macarons, leave them for 24-48 hours in the fridge before taking a bite. Trust me, it is worth the wait!

While our perfect little macarons were baking, David served us some lovely herbal tea and Earl Grey, Pistachio, and Raspberry macarons he had whipped up before-hand. The Earl Grey macarons were my favourite! Then, it was time to get back into the kitchen for assembly and packaging. Each of us walked away with 37 macarons. That is an INSANE amount!

All in all, it was a Saturday morning well spent and made for such a special Mother’s Day celebration. I highly recommend everyone take Macaron Baking 101 at Ollia Macarons & Tea to learn about these delectable morsels and how you can make your own. This class is well worth the price and the time. Ollia also does macaron and wine pairing events once a month where they serve 4 different flavours of macarons paired with 4 different French wines. I am excited to try this out and expect that these events will make excellent date nights.

After the lovely morning we had with David at Ollia, we headed to Sandy Beach Park to meet up with the boys to continue the Mother’s Day celebrations. Read about that here.

xoxo

Minh