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.
Temperature: I recommend testing the temperature. It will vary a lot according to your oven, your batch, the humidity. My last couple of batches, I had to turn the temperature down to 280ºF because the macarons were cracking. I used to bake them at a very low temperature before (215ºF) but sometimes, that would result in lopsided macarons. To learn how to test the temperature, check out the post above. If you adjust the baking temperature, you also have to adjust the baking time.
Aquafaba is the water you obtain from cooking chickpeas (or other legumes). The aquafaba I use is water drained from a chickpea can. I prefer low or no sodium chickpea water, mainly because of the taste, I feel like the salted chickpea water adds a weird taste to meringues and such. Some people like to boil their own 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 lately, I haven’t been reducing it anymore, and it works just fine. If you do want to reduce the aquafaba, place 150 grams of aquafaba in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, simmer until it reduces to about half. I recommend using the aquafaba straight from the chickpea can.
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.
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.