Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
Under my parchment, I put a layout with circles that measure about 1 1/2 inches each. That’s how big I like to pipe my macarons.
Measure out all of your ingredients.
Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set aside.
Now you can finally start.
Place egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking mixture over the water bath.
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. (I use my kitchenAid bowl when doing this, because it makes it easier)
With the whisk attachment, whisk mixture on high speed 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.
You don’t want to overbeat the mixture at this point, because you don’t want to add too much air to it. Just whisk until stiff peaks have formed.
Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula. Add the food coloring at this point if you would like to use any.
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, I pick up some batter with my 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.
Then, I grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto my parchment paper or silicone mat.
If the batter stays stiff and doesn’t spread out a bit, I start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.
Test again.
Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy on the parchment paper, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
Once you’ve piped as many 1 1/2” circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
Let your 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 300°F.
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 4 minutes, rotate tray.
Bake for 4 more minutes, check if it needs to be rotated again. You will know if it needs to be rotated again depending on how the macarons are baking. Take a look at them, if one side seems taller then the other, maybe you have to rotate the tray again.
Bake for around 2-4 more minutes. Really keep an eye out, not to overbake.
When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet.
Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
French Buttercream
Start by bringing a small pot with about 1 inch of water to a boil.
In the bowl of your mixer place yolks, sugar, vanilla, and bourbon (or liquid of choice). Whisk until combined over the pan of boiling water.
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water at all.
Whisk mixture until yolks reach 155F.
Transfer bowl to the mixer stand, and start whisking the yolk-sugar mixture at high speed until fluffy and stiff, for 7-8 minutes.
Add butter to the mixer, one tablespoon at a time, scraping the bowl if necessary.
Mixture should come together and form a creamy, smooth, yellowish, thick buttercream.
To assemble
Pipe some of the buttercream on top of a macaron shell and top it with another shell.
Storage
Store macarons in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for up to 2 months, in an airtight container.