These macarons are made with carton egg whites, filled with a Russian Buttercream! I made this as my first experiment with carton egg whites!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword macarons, spring
Prep Time 2 hourshours
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 22macarons
Calories 130kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
100gramscarton egg whites(or fresh)
100gramsgranulated sugar
105gramsalmond flour
105gramspowdered sugar
Food coloring if usingI used pink, purple, and peach
Russian Buttercream
10tbspunsalted butter141 grams
2/3cupsweetened condensed milk198 grams
1tspvanilla bean paste or extract
Instructions
Macaron Shells
Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/2” diameter tip. Set aside.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
Measure out all of the ingredients.
Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set it aside.
Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water, add the sugar and egg whites to the bowl. Whisk the mixture until frothy and the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.
With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to medium-high and whisk for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.
With the carton egg whites might take a bit longer than regular egg whites to achieve the stiff peaks. And even when stiff peaks form, they might look a bit softer than they would if made with fresh whites.
Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
I made the batter into 3 different colors to make it fun. You can just make one color if you want to, but here are the instructions to make the multicolor shells from the same batch.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
As soon as you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue, stop stirring. Divide the batter between three different bowls (or however many bowls as you’d like).
Work with one bowl at a time, leaving the other ones covered meanwhile.
To the first batter I added a touch of pink food coloring. Fold the batter until the perfect consistency is achieved.
How to know when to stop folding the batter: It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.
First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds. Test again.
Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper or silicone mat, it’s ready.
You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to over mix. It’s always best to under mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
Transfer the batter to the piping bag. Seal the top with a bag tie so the batter doesn’t dry out.
I did notice that the macarons made with the carton egg whites require way less macaronage time, so this is something to have in mind because you don’t want the batter to be over mixed.
Now, it’s time to work with the second batter. To this batter I added a bit of purple food coloring, then fold until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.
Transfer the batter to another piping bag fitted with a round tip. Secure the top with a bag tie. Set aside.
Now time to work with the final batter, I added a little bit of peach food coloring, but the amount was so small that the color was very faint. And I didn’t want to add anymore food coloring because the batter was already done being folded. If I continued to add food coloring and fold to incorporate it, that would make the batter over mixed.
Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip and secure the top with a bag tie.
Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 to 5 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each.
Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.
Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF.
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.
Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
You can also place a piece of foil or parchment paper halfway through baking to prevent the macarons from browning too much for the pastel colors.
Russian Buttercream
Make sure the butter is at the appropriate consistency, which should be at room temperature. The butter should have a nice shape, not be too soft, but not cold either. It’s ideal if the butter is from 68 to 72ºF.
Beat the butter with an electric mixer, at medium-high speed, for 5 minutes.
Add the sweetened condensed milk in. Beat with the mixer on medium speed until the frosting becomes creamy and thick.
It might take a while for the buttercream to come together and become thick, specially if the butter was on the soft side, or if the kitchen is too warm.
In that case, you can place the bowl in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes and then try to whip the buttercream again to see if it comes together.
At the end, add vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract and mix to combine.
To assemble
Place the Russian Buttercream in a piping bag and pipe a bit of frosting on each bottom shell. Then top with another shell.
Let the macarons mature overnight before serving.
Storage
These macarons can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
Carton Egg Whites: The meringue might have to be whipped longer than it would with regular fresh whites. Also, have in mind that the meringue will seem to be a bit softer than usual, that’s the nature of the carton egg white meringue, you may have to do a few trials before learning the perfect meringue consistency. And it may also differ from one brand to another. And yes, you can still use fresh whites with this recipe, it is the same recipe and same ratios.Vinegar: Before starting make sure to wipe down the bowls, whisks, silicone mats and everything you are going to use with vinegar, to avoid any grease particles of coming into contact with the meringue and batter.Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring, not liquid. I love Americolor. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage.Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.Macaron Tools: Please visit this post to check out all the tools I use to make macarons. Butter for the Russian Buttercream: make sure the butter used to make the frosting isn’t too warm, or soft, or the frosting simply won’t come together. If after whipping for a while the frosting still isn’t coming together, you can stick the bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes or so and then try to whip it again.