Can You Make Macarons With Regular Flour Food

MACARON

Steps:

• If you are making macarons for the first time, I don't give you a guarantee that you will succeed right away, because they are not easy to make. :)
• Avoid making your macarons on a particularly humid day.
• Cool, dry weather is best.
• Egg whites should be 12-24 hours at room temperature.
• It is better to measure the ingredients using a kitchen scale than from a measuring cup. (Be sure to sift flour and powdered sugar).
• Beat egg whites and sugar with a mixer until you see stiff glossy peaks form. (It took me about 2 minutes, you can beat the egg whites for longer because it depending on the mixer.)
• Do not overbeat egg whites - overbearing the egg whites will introduce more air and create an airy, hollow cookie.
• If you under mix the egg whites macarons will not dry.
• Add the sifted flour and powdered sugar and gently fold the batter until it flows, like lava off the spatula. ( 45-50 complete strokes )
• Do not over mix or mix your batter.
• The over-mixed batter will result in flat discs, unlike light and fluffy cookies.
• Transfer the batter into a pastry bag with a round tip. (I used #12 plain round tip you can use 1A and 2A too.). When the batter is under-mixed, the piped macaron shells do not flatten out as much and the tips remain.
• Tap the baking sheet on a flat surface 3-5 times, this will get rid of any air bubbles and will prevent cracks.
• If needed, use a toothpick to pop air bubbles and smooth out the shells.
• Let the cookies sit at room temperature until the tops are no longer sticky to the touch, 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the humidity.
• Place the tray on the middle shelf and bake at 300˚F for 13-15 minutes if you have a gas oven, or bake 275˚F for 15 minutes in an electric oven.
• In the middle of the baking process macarons, you need to open the oven door once to let off steam, and then close it.
• They are best eaten after 24 hours since the flavors will be absorbed into the shell.

MACARONS WITH ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR

Steps:

• Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping pastry bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/4" diameter tip, or a Wilton 12. Set aside.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
• I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it.
• Wipe the tools such as bowls, spatulas, and silicone mats with vinegar if desired, this helps getting rid of any grease particles that might be in the tools.
• Measure out all of the ingredients.
• Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set it aside.
• Start pre-heating the oven. I pre-heat my large oven to 310ºF for 60 to 90 minutes, this helps with temperature fluctuations. I pre-heat the countertop oven for 30 to 45 minutes.
• Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the sugar and egg whites to the bowl and whisk until the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
• Note: You will notice I am not using egg white powder with this recipe because on my initial testing it made the shells way too hard and crunchy, so I am leaving egg white powder out.
• Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the simmering water because you don't want the whites to cook.
• Also, don't overheat the sugar syrup, you are just looking to melt the sugar, no need to bring it to a certain temperature.Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer. Before transferring the syrup, you might consider whipping the bottom of the bowl with a towel so the water doesn't fall into the mixer bowl.
• With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low (speed 2 of the KitchenAid) for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium (speed 4) for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to medium or medium-high and whip for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. I like to finish whipping the meringue on speed 6 of the KitchenAid.
• It takes me about 13 to 15 minutes to whip the meringue, but you shouldn't go by time, go by what the meringue is supposed to look like because a lot of things can affect whipping time, such as the quality of the eggs, the weather, how powerful your mixer is, and more.
• Once the meringue gets glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, and the meringue raising in the center of the whisk, it might be time to stop.
• You don't want to over whip the meringue at this point because that can cause several issues, mainly hollow macarons.
• Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull the whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending to the side.
• Also when you swirl the whisk around in the bowl to collect the meringue, you should feel some resistance from the meringue. And when you look on the bottom of the whisk the meringue collected should be forming soft but defined waves.
• Pour the sifted powdered sugar and all-purpose flour into the stiff meringue.
• Add the food coloring at this point, if using. I added a teaspoon of white powder food coloring by The Sugar Art.
• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
• IMPORTANT: The macaronage for these all-purpose flour macarons will take WAY less time than the macaronage for regular almond macarons.
• First you will notice the batter is very stiff, but then all of a sudden it will turn very runny, so be careful not to overmix, or your macarons will be hollow and have delicate tops that will break easily.
• Don't wait to make a figure 8 with the spatula, because that will mean that the batter is over mixed.
• The batter will be falling into chunks off the spatula. Instead of focusing on how the batter is falling off the spatula, let's focus instead on how quickly the batter that's falling, incorporates back with the batter that's already in the bowl.
• It's very hard to gauge when the batter is ready because we are so used to the almond flour macaron batter consistency, that this will feel weird at first.
• The batter can definitely go from feeling "hard" to being runny and over mixed in the blink of an eye, so I recommend extreme attention when doing the macaronage. You will know as you are baking the macarons if you've over mixed or not, because the feet are going to spread right out if you have over mixed the batter.
• Transfer the batter to the piping bag. I also like to seal the top with a bag tie, so the batter doesn't dry out and it gives you more control while piping because there's no risk of the batter escaping through the top of the piping bag.
• Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 to 5 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly at the top.
• Once you've piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter gently or against the palm of your hand. I didn't bang the trays too much since the batter seemed runny and the macarons were becoming misshapen as I banged the tray.
• Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.
• Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out before baking, if you are resting the macarons. 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.
• To do the no-rest method, you can bake the trays immediately.
• The no-rest method will depend on your oven and baking sheets you are using. Read the post above for more information.
• I can do the no-rest method on my small counter top oven, but not on my large oven, because the temperature is too uneven on the large oven.
• On my large oven I bake the macarons at 310ºF, and on the small countertop oven I bake them at 290ºF. I pre-heat both ovens for quite a bit of time. I pre-heat the large oven for 60 to 90 minutes, and the small oven for 30 minutes or so.
• Bake one tray at a time.
• Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray. This step is not necessary, I don't rotate the trays on the small oven, but I have to do so on my large oven, otherwise the macarons will be lopsided. Not all bakers have to rotate the tray.
• Baking all-purpose flour macarons is trickier than almond flour macarons if that's what you are used to. The almond flour macarons are done baking when they aren't jiggly anymore. However, I found with the all-purpose flour macarons, that if I removed them from the oven once they were completely firm and not jiggly anymore, they would cool down to become hard and crispy.
• I baked each tray for about 15 minutes in the large oven, and almost 20 in the small counter top oven. I strongly advise you play around with the time, maybe bake a small batch at first and wait for it to cool down before baking the second one, so you can check if they turned out to be hard or not with the baking time you've experimented.
• Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
• I store the unfilled shells in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for 1 to 2 months.
• Using scissors, cut the inside of a small heart, to form a stencil that will fit on top of the shell. Place it over the center of each macaron and use the airbrush machine to spray gently and lightly inside the heart. Let it dry before handling.
• Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together. Set it aside.
• Beat the butter with a mixer, until creamy and fluffy for about 2 minutes.
• Add the powdered sugar and almond flour to the bowl and mix on low to combine. Add the almond extract. Raise the speed to medium high and mix for another minute or so.
• If the buttercream is too stiff you can add a little bit of milk or water to thin it out.
• Split the buttercream between two different bowls.
• To one of the bowls I added red food coloring, and left the other one plain.
• Mix to combine each color.
• Lay a piece of plastic wrap on the counter. Spread the red and the white frosting next to each other. And then roll the frosting into a log.
• Place the log of frosting inside a piping bag lined with the tip of choice. I am using a Wilton 6B.
• Pipe the frosting on the bottom shells of the macarons and place a decorated shell on top.
• I store the macarons in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for 1 to 2 months.

MACARONS

Steps:

• Place egg whites into a metal mixing bowl and refrigerate overnight. The next day, bring egg whites to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 280 degrees F (138 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Whisk confectioners' sugar and almond flour in a bowl. Beat the egg whites with salt in metal bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until foamy, about 1 minute; increase speed to high and gradually beat in superfine sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time, until the egg whites are glossy and hold stiff peaks, 3 to 5 more minutes.
• Gently fold almond flour mixture into whipped egg whites until thoroughly incorporated; spoon meringue into a pastry big fitted with a 3/8-inch tip.
• Pipe 1-inch disks of meringue onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches of space between cookies. The batter will spread. Lift the baking sheets a few inches above the work surface and hit them lightly on the work surface several times to remove any air bubbles from the cookies. Let the cookies stand at room temperature until the shiny surfaces become dull and a thin skin forms, about 15 minutes.
• Place the baking sheets in the preheated oven and bake with the oven door open slightly until the macarons' surfaces are completely dry, about 15 minutes. Let cookies cool completely on a baking sheet before peeling parchment paper from the cookies.
• Spread half the cookies with any desired filling, top with remaining cookies to make sandwiches, and refrigerate at least 2 hours to overnight to let the cookies soften.