French Cherry Macaron Tutorial

During this day of thanks, Thanksgiving I wanted to take the time to show you my appreciation for your support and comments. I thought it would be deliciously perfect to share one of our favorite holiday French macaron recipes.

Prepeare you mise en place for the shells and meringue.

Pre your mise en place

Place the almonds, powdered sugar, and cherry powder in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground.
Next sift the tant pour tant (almond flour, cherry powder, fig powder, and icing sugar) and set a side.
French Cherry Macarons not only is the filling cherry, but shells are flavored with organic cherry dehydrated powder. French macarons can be intimidating at first glance; however they are actually fun to create, with…

In a small pot over low heat, combine sugar, vanilla skins, and water. Swirl the pot over the burner to dissolve the sugar completely. Do not stir. Increase the heat and boil to a softball stage (235 to 240 degrees F/ 113 to 116 degrees C). Use a candy thermometer for accuracy. Wash down the inside wall of the pot with a wet pastry brush. This will help prevent sugar crystals from forming around the sides, falling in and causing a chain reaction.

Take the bowl that has your tant pour tant (almond mixture) and add the reserved half of egg whites.
Add a third of the meringue to the tant pour tant, give it a quick fold to break some of the air, keep folding till the almond mixture is mixed into the meringue, and then fold another third of the meringue into the batter, continue to vigorously folding till there are no white streaks left. Now add the last third of meringue to the batter fold till thick, shiny and ribbons fall from the spatula. Fold the batter carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself and resembles shiny cake batter. There is no magic, I am not going to tell you that the batter should look like magma, I doubt you have ever seen it up close, I know I haven’t! (Yes I always repeat this line).
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto silicone mats lined baking sheets or parchment paper lined baking sheets.
Let the macarons sit out for about 1 hour to make sure the shells are hard. A well-made macaron features a crinkly “foot” on the bottom of each shell (look at the above diagram for a reference). Let the piped batter rest for 30 to 60 minutes, and then rap the sheets on a tabletop to help them set properly. And stack two baking sheets together, so the delicate cookies are sitting atop a double- or even triple-thick baking pan.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F/ 149 degrees C.
Right before placing the macarons in the oven reduce the heat to 280 degrees F/ 138 degrees C.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size.
Bake the macarons for 5 minutes, then quickly open the oven door, turn the pan, and close the oven. Bake them for another 5 minutes and open and close the oven again. Continue to bake the macarons until the tops are rounded and firm and a craggy ridge, the foot, has formed around the base, about 5 minutes (check the macarons after a couple minutes, as the baking time will vary by oven).
Sydney and I couldn’t wait to share this French macaron tutorial with you to say Thank You.
Happy Holidays
If you have any questions please leave me a message.

Enjoy!

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