Sweet taro buttercream filling (you may have some leftover):
120grbutterunsalted, softened
1Tbspicing sugaradjust the sweetness to your preference
60grmashed taroYou can also use purple sweet potato
Instructions
Prepare the filling: (can be done few days before and keep in the fridge)
Peel and cut the taro into cubes and steam for about 10 minutes or until fork tender. Put this into a blender along with the rest of the ingredients for the paste and blend until smooth. You can save the rest for other use. You only need 30 grams for this recipe
Cream butter until creamy and then add the mashed/puree taro. Add the icing sugar and mix until combined. Store it in the fridge if you don't need it right away
Things to prepare and to take notes of:
Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C) for a conventional oven. For a convection oven, preheat at 300 F (150 C). If you want to try drying macaron in the oven, then don't preheat the oven yet. Read about drying in the oven at the step below, "Oven Drying"
Please make sure your oven temperature is accurate. My oven is actually 20 degrees lower than what shows on the display. So I get an oven thermometer to make sure the temperature inside the oven is accurate and I finally get good macarons without overbaking or underbaking
Some people will age the egg whites in the fridge for 2-3 days before making macarons. I've tried aging and without and I don't see much difference. So, I'm sticking with not aging the egg white. I just bring the egg whites to room temperature, by putting it on the counter for an hour or so. This depends on how warm where you are, it may not even need to be that long. If you are short on time, I have put the bowl of egg white on top of a hot water bath to bring it to room temperature quickly
Don't use dark-colored baking sheet. My macarons cracked whenever I do this. It didn't work for me. I use high-quality anodized aluminum baking sheet
Invert your baking sheet upside down. This will give you a baking sheet without the rim. This is another game-changer for me. The macarons baked evenly without the rim. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. I don't have a silpat, so I use parchment paper. DO NOT use wax paper. Put the template you make underneath the parchment paper ready for you to pipe the batter later. If you use silpat that already has the macaron template, then you can skip this step
If you want to be consistent with the size, use a bottle cap that is about 1.5 inch in diameter or print a macaron template out for 1.5-inch macaron
Prepare a piping bag fitted with 1/4-inch nozzle. Put this piping bag inside a bowl or cup to support it so it's easier for you to pour the batter in later
Make sure your mixing bowl and whisk attachment is squeaky clean. Wipe with some vinegar if necessary to make sure they are grease-free. Your meringue will not whip up well if there is any trace of grease
Prepare the almond flour and sugar:
I don't have a caster sugar (super-fine sugar), so I put granulated sugar in a food processor and pulse it a few times until it's fine, but don't turn it into powder. Set aside to be used to whip the meringue later
Even though I get a super-fine almond flour, it is still necessary to make them finer and smoother. Put almond flour and icing sugar in a food processor and pulse for 6 seconds about 6 times or so until they are fine, but don't overdo it or the almond flour will turn into a paste because the fat will release from the almond
Prepare the macaron batter:
Put the egg white in a mixing bowl or the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Start whipping at speed 4 until it turns foamy with small fine bubbles. Add the small pinch of cream of tartar and whip for another minute. Increase the speed to 6 (don't crank up speed higher than this) and add 1/3 of the sugar and whip for another 1-2 minutes before adding the next. Stop halfway to check the consistency. Whip until soft peak, meaning, when you lift the whisk up, the meringue will bent and still soft. If you want to add any color, add it here at this stage. Continue whipping until you reach a really stiff peak
How to check for really stiff peak:
When you lift the whisk up, the meringue has short pointy tips. It may bent a bit on the tip, but it shouldn't move. When you invert the bowl upside down, it won't drop or move. You will see the meringue ball up slightly inside the whisk. You want to stop beating at this point. Any further will be overwhipping already
Combine almond flour with meringue:
Sift in the almond flour mixture (yes, I know..again, lots of sifting here) into the meringue. Use a rubber spatula to do the cut several times and fold over motion as you rotate the bowl to mix the almond flour and meringue until they form thick batter. Stop mixing once you don't see anymore flour mixture
Macaronage: (THE most important stage)
The purpose of macaronage is to get rid of the large air bubbles and to make the batter smooth and shiny to a flowy pipeable consistency. You want to do macaronage slowly. Do not rush this process. Start by using your spatula to press the batter against the wall of your bowl, spreading it like a flower as you rotate the bowl. This video is a good one to watch on how to do macaronage properly with a spatula.
Then use your spatula to gather the dough back again and you may need to spread it one more time. How many time you want to press the batter against the wall really depends on the stiffness of your meringue. The stiffer it is, the longer you need to do macaronage and vice versa. So, you really need to observe the batter closely. If you use carton egg white, it’s very easy to overdoing the macaronage
After that you don’t want to do anymore spreading, start folding. Use your spatula to scoop down, make sure to touch the bottom of the bowl and fold over. Do that 2-3 times and then check the consistency at the same time. In this photo you can see that the batter is still too thick that it doesn’t even drop down. So mix it around once or twice and check again
How to check for macaronage (super important):
Lift a good amount of the batter up with your spatula and it should flow down very slowly and continuously like thick lava, folding on itself like a staircase. The edge of the ribbon will slowly blend into the batter in about 20-30 seconds. Remember, it needs to flow down SLOWLY and continuously (again, watch this video, she’s a pro!) Stop mixing. If you can write figure "8", you have OVERMIXED! Everyone keeps saying you need to reach figure 8, and I find that quite misleading, at least in my case after baking TONS of macaron for more than a year! Keep in mind that we will transfer this batter into a piping bag and this will “thin” out the batter a bit more. So don’t overmix the batter. If you do, you can be assured to get some hollow shells!
Transfer to a piping bag:
Scrape this batter down into a piping bag. It will flow like a thick lava. Push out as much air as possible
Pipe the batter:
Use your dominant hand to hold the top of the piping bag and the other hand to stabilize the bag near the piping tip. Make sure the piping bag is straight, perpendicular to the baking sheet. Don't pipe at an angle. Gently squeeze the batter out and it will slowly spread. Pipe until just about 1/8-inch before the line. The batter will spread to fill up the space later. You may notice some pointy tips (nipple) on the piped macaron, but this will go away when you rap the baking sheets several times later
Once you are done with piping. Carefully retrieve and pull the template out from underneath the parchment paper. Dab small amounts of macaron batter to seal the 4 corners of the parchment paper so it stays in place
Pop out any air bubbles:
Pick up the baking sheet and rap it against the counter top 6-8 times (or as many times as it needs) to pop any bubbles. Rap it HARD! Don't be gentle about it! My kids know I'm making macarons when I bang the tray so hard LOL! You will see some bubbles come to the surface. Use a toothpick to gently pop those bubbles
If you want to add sprinkles, add them now when they are still wet. No heavy sprinkles though. They will crack the shells
Air-dry the macaron shell:
Let the macaron shells dry. This can take from 15 minutes to 1 hour or longer, depending on humidity. I have a ceiling fan and I put the macaron tray and let them air dry. It helps to speed up the drying process. The ceiling fan is perfect because it's quite far from the macaron, so it's not blowing directly on the macaron. It took about 20-25 minutes for the shells to dry (humidity was about 50% - cloudy day that day, but not too humid)
When you touch the edge, it should be dry. Also check the center. When you gently touch the center, it should be dry too. The shells would look dull and not shiny anymore. This means they are ready to be baked. If you bake them before a skin form, they will crack in the oven
Oven-dry the macaron shells:
If humidity is really bad where you are and take your hours just to dry, you can try using your oven "bread proof" function, if there's one. The temperature usually about 90-95 F and if you turn the light on, it may be a bit warmer. Put the tray in there with the door slightly open and let them dry until they form skins, can take about 15 minutes or longer. Don't go by the time, but observe
Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for a conventional oven. For a convection oven, preheat to 325 F (165 C). I put my oven thermometer in too. I like to preheat it for at least 30 minutes.
Baking:
Place the baking sheet on the 3rd rack from top. Lower the oven temperature to 325 F (165 C) for conventional, 300 F (150 C) for convection. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Don't open the oven door during this baking time.
Once the timer is up, check on the macarons by touching the shell and see if they are still wiggly when you try to move them or soft on top. If they are, continue baking for 1 more minute and check again. I need 13 minutes for 1.5" inch shell
Cooling:
Remove from the oven and let them cool down on the baking sheet set on a cooling rack for at least 15-30 minutes
After that you can gently peel the parchment away from the shell. Don't pull the shell from the paper as you may rip the base of the macarons. You can put them in the freezer for 10 minutes (after they are no longer warm) and they will peel right off after that. Some may feel still a tiny bit sticky, you can gently use an offset spatula to help you release. It shouldn't be super sticky, just need a little nudging and it should come off. If it's still very sticky, the shells are apparently, underbaked
Fill the shells:
Transfer the taro cream filling into a piping bag fitted with a round (Wilton 2A) or open star tip (Wilton 4B). Pair the shells together, try to find ones of similar size
Start piping the filling on one shell and then top with another shell
Age the macaron:
Transfer the macaron sandwich into a container with a tight-fitting lid. They taste the best after you age them in the fridge for at least 24 hours
How to store assembled macarons in the fridge:
Assembled macarons can be kept in the fridge for 3 days. Anything longer and the shells will start to get soggy
How to store assembled macarons in the freezer:
For longer storage, you can freeze them. Depending on the fillings, some don't freeze well, such as filling with jellies. For these type, you want to freeze just the shells and assemble the macarons the day before you want them to be served so they have time to age in the fridge
After aging the macarons in the fridge for 24 hours. I transfer them to a baking sheet lined with a parchment and put the macarons there to let them freeze for about 30 minutes and then transfer to a container, you can stack them up and kept in the freezer for 1 month
Simply remove them from the freezer at least 30 minutes before you plan to serve them. Let them thaw at room temperature. Only take out as many as you want to serve and keep the rest frozen until you need them
How to store macaron shells in the freezer:
Unassembled macaron shells can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months. Simply put them in a container to prevent breakage. When ready to serve them, simply remove from the freezer the day before you plan to serve them, you don't need to thaw and then fill them up with the filling of your choice and age in the fridge for 24 hours
Notes
Don't use lemon juice or vinegar to replace cream of tartar when making French macarons. We want as little liquid as possible in our meringue batter
I have had many successes making macarons with the French method using store-bought pasteurized egg white. However, if it's your first time making macaron, I recommend using regular fresh egg whites. It's very easy to over macaronage when you use carton egg whites and whipping the meringue to stiff consistency also takes longer. So, you want to get the hang of how to do proper macaronage and whipping meringue to the correct consistency before using carton egg white IMHO