Place the aquafaba in the bowl of a mixer with the cream of tartar.
Fold until the batter is flowing slightly. You don’t want the batter to be flowing continuously off the spatula. When it comes to vegan macarons, the folding time is very very brief. You are basically just looking to incorporate the dry ingredients with the meringue. Please watch the video to see what the consistency should look like. If you grab a spatula full of batter and hold it over the bowl, it should still be separating in chunks, and not flowing continuously on a ribbon. Do not get to the ribbons stage! If you get to the ribbon stage, the macaron feet will spread out in the oven.
Pre-heat oven to 285F.
Aquafaba is the water you obtain from cooking chickpeas (or other legumes). The aquafaba I use is water drained from a chickpea can. Some people use the juice from other beans also, and some people like to boil their own dry chickpeas to obtain the aquafaba, and you can do that, but make sure to study what are the best ratios water:chickpeas so your aquafaba is concentrated enough
Aquafaba: I used to reduce the aquafaba before. But I don’t reduce it anymore, and not only it works perfectly, but also it’s way less work.
Macaronage: Do not let the batter reach ribbon stage. If it reaches ribbon stage it will be over mixed, the batter is supposed to be thick. Watch my videos on YouTube to see what it should look like.
Thick batter: If the batter is too thick while mixing, add a teaspoon of aquafaba as you mix, until you obtain the perfect consistency.
Oven thermometer: Please make sure to have an oven thermometer! I receive a lot of troubleshooting questions and the great majority are issues caused due to not having an oven thermometer. Read this post for more detailed information about how important this is.
Oven temperature: Please experiment with your own oven temperature. Temperatures will vary depending on your oven and technique. It’s important to experiment and see what works best for your own oven. In my old oven I used to bake this same recipe at 310ºF. However, with my new oven, I bake it at 285ºF. This comes to show that the temperature will vary greatly depending on your own oven. Please experiment and find out what works best for you.
Tray rotation: some bakers don’t need to rotate their trays when baking macarons. If your oven bakes evenly and doesn’t have any hot spots, you might be able to skip the tray rotation.
Troubleshooting: if your macarons are exploding, flattening out, with the feet spreading to the sides, that can mean a few things:
1- hot oven (make sure to have oven thermometer and experiment with the optimal oven temperature for your oven).
2- over mixed batter. It’s really easy to over mix vegan macaron batter. Mix it just until it starts to flow. Watch the videos on my youtube channel for reference.
3- under whipped meringue: make sure the meringue has really stiff peaks. It can take some time. Just be patient.
**You may either sprinkle the espresso powder on top of the shells after piping the macarons, or add the espresso powder directly to the batter along with the powdered sugar and almond flour. I wanted my shells to be white, and the espresso powder would have made them brown, which is why I decided to sprinkle the espresso powder on top of the macarons.
***The Kahlua can be substituted for another liquor of choice, or left out altogether.