Macaron Shells

Prep the ingredients and tools

• Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping pastry bag, fitted with a number 10 round tip. Prepare another piping bag with a small 3 round tip to pipe the leaves. Set aside.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat. Place the template underneath the parchment paper.
• You can download the template above on the post, or below in the notes.
• Wipe the tools such as bowls, spatulas, and silicone mats with vinegar if desired, this helps getting rid of any grease particles that might be in the tools.
• Measure out all of the ingredients.
• Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set it aside.
• Start pre-heating the oven. I pre-heat my large oven to 310ºF for 60 to 90 minutes, this helps with temperature fluctuations. I pre-heat the countertop oven to 285ºF for 30 to 45 minutes.
Oven temperature will vary according to your oven.

Making the Swiss Meringue

• Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the sugar and egg white powder to the bowl if using. If you’re not using egg white powder simply skip it, nothing needs to be changed in the recipe.
• Whisk the sugar and egg white powder so it doesn’t clump up.
• Add the egg whites to the bowl and whisk until 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, you are just looking to melt the sugar, no need to bring it to a certain temperature.Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer. Before transferring the syrup, you might consider whipping the bottom of the bowl with a towel so the water doesn’t fall into the mixer bowl.
• With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low (speed 2 of the KitchenAid) for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium (speed 4) for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to medium or medium-high and whip for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. I like to finish whipping the meringue on speed 6 of the KitchenAid.
• It takes me about 13 to 15 minutes to whip the meringue, but you shouldn’t go by time, go by what the meringue is supposed to look like because a lot of things can affect whipping time, such as the quality of the eggs, the weather, how powerful your mixer is, and more.
• Once the meringue gets glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, and the meringue raising in the center of the whisk, it might be time to stop.
• Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull the whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending to the side.
• Also when you swirl the whisk around in the bowl to collect the meringue, you should feel some resistance from the meringue. And when you look on the bottom of the whisk the meringue collected should be forming soft but defined waves.

Macaronage

• Before you start the macaronage have 2 extra bowls and 2 extra spatulas nearby.
• Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
• Once the dry ingredients have incorporated with the meringue, and you see no more flour or powdered sugar, divide the batter between 3 bowls. You will need a small amount of batter for the green leaves, probably between 1/2-1 cup would do. Divide the remaining batter in two: orange and pink.
• Work with one bowl at a time, keeping the other bowls covered meanwhile.
• To the orange bowl, I added a bit of peach food coloring, a bit of mauve, and a bit of orange food coloring.
• To the pink bowl, I added fuchsia and electric purple.
• And to the green bowl, I added green leaf food coloring. All gel food coloring I use is from Americolor.
• Once you add the food coloring to the bowl, you can start squeezing the air out of the batter by pressing it down along the sides of the bowl as you fold.
• 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.
• The batter that’s falling back into the bowl should take 10 to 15 seconds to incorporate with the batter that’s already in the bowl.
• 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 green batter to the piping bag.
• Lay out a piece of plastic wrap on the counter, pour the orange batter on one side, and pour the pink right next to it. Roll the plastic wrap onto itself to form a log. Snip the end with scissors, and place the plastic with the batters inside the piping bag lined with the number 10 piping tip.
• I also like to seal the top with a bag tie, so the batter doesn’t dry out and it gives you more control while piping because there’s no risk of the batter escaping through the top of the piping bag.
• Pipe the peaches by placing the piping bag on the top left of the shape, dragging the batter to the bottom, then move the bag up to the top right and pipe the batter moving the bag towards the bottom again.
• Pipe the leaves using the tip number 3. Make sure to pipe enough batter, that’s as thick as the peach batter, this way the shape will be less likely to crack, and more likely to have nice even feet.
• Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells. And to help smooth out the batter where needed.
• Right after you are done piping the macarons, you can sprinkle some gold sugar, or turbinado sugar over the macarons, to give a bit of a fuzzy look. Sprinkle it before the shells dry.

Resting time

• Rest the macarons until they are dry to the touch, with a thick skin on top. This is very important when making shapes. If you don’t rest them, they tend to crack, or have very small feet.

Baking

• On my large oven I bake the macarons at 310ºF, and on the small countertop oven I bake them at 285-290ºF. I pre-heat both ovens for quite a bit of time. I pre-heat the large oven for 60 to 90 minutes, and the small oven for 30 minutes or so.
• Bake one tray at a time.
• Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray. This step is not necessary, I don’t rotate the trays on the small oven, but I have to do so on my large oven, otherwise the macarons will be lopsided. Not all bakers have to rotate the 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. Also try to touch the top of a macaron and it shouldn’t feel soft, if it’s still soft, keep baking.
• Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
• Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Peach Jam Filling

• To make the Peach Jam Filling, start with the peaches, it’s best to use ripe peaches. make sure the peach is peeled. Slice and dice it fairly small, because it will be in the filling of the macaron, so you don’t want huge pieces of peach in there.
• Place the chopped peaches in the small saucepan with lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
• Place the pot over medium heat and cook the peaches until they become soft, and the syrup becomes dark. About 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often. Control the heat, reduce it if the peaches are drying out. You can also add a bit more lemon juice or water if the peaches are drying too fast.
• While the peaches cook, mix the cornstarch and water together.
• Once the peaches are soft, add the cornstarch to the pan and cook for one to two minutes, until thick.
• Remove the peaches to a small bowl. Cover the surface with plastic wrap.
• Let the mixture cool down to room temperature. Chill for a couple of hours or up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

Streusel Crumb

• To make the Streusel Crumb, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone.
• In a medium bowl, add the flour, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir with a fork to combine.
• Add the butter and mix with the fork until you obtain a crumbly mixture, and all the butter is incorporated with the dry ingredients.
• Transfer the crumb mixture to the baking sheet.
• Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring every so often, to break up the crumbs.
• Bake until the crumbs are golden brown.
• As soon as you remove it from the oven, give it a good stir to break up the crumbs.
• Set it side to cool down.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• Start by sifting the powdered sugar with the cinnamon. Set it aside.
• Now, beat the softened cream cheese and butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer, for about 1 minute, until light and fluffy.
• With the mixer off, add powdered sugar/cinnamon mixture to the bowl.
• Turn mixer on low to incorporate the powdered sugar with the cream cheese and butter.
• Once you see no streaks of dry powdered sugar, beat the mixture on medium high for one minute.
• Add vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
• If the frosting is dry add a bit of milk or water, and if it’s too soft, add more powdered sugar as needed.
• This frosting will store well in the fridge for up to 5 days, covered.
• Make sure to always leave your frosting covered. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap, because otherwise, the surface will dry out and create a skin.

To assemble

• To assemble the macarons, pipe the Cream Cheese Frosting around the edges of the bottom shell.
• Fill the center with the Peach Jam and sprinkle some of the Streusel Crumbs on top.
• Top with another shell.

Storage and serving

• Let the macarons mature in the fridge for 1 day before serving.
• Store the macarons in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, and in the fridge for up to 1 to 2 months.