Our final blog post in this special feature macaron blog series, Macarons: Quest For Perfection talks about the Italian Meringue vs the French Meringue method of macarons.

    The Italian Meringue method of making macarons has its perks, but we are definitely fans of the French Meringue method of making macarons because of its relatively less complicated method. However, as the French meringue and Italian meringue differs, there are good and bad points in each method and the resulting look of the macarons.

Method

    The Italian Meringue requires an extra step of the sugar syrup (made with just sugar and water) to which needs to reach a certain temperature and be timed well with the whipping egg whites. The Italian meringue requires good time management. Because of this, you will either need a second person to help or a stand mixer so that you can make the sugar syrup and whip the egg whites at the same time. Otherwise, it’d be quite a juggling act trying to do both the sugar syrup and whipping the egg whites at the same time with a hand mixer. This extra step of making the sugar syrup makes the process more complicated.

The French Meringue method does not require the timing that is required for the Italian Meringue and it doesn’t require the extra step of making the sugar syrup. It only uses the four main ingredients: egg whites, ground almonds, caster sugar and icing sugar. The process is relatively easier.

Stability

The Italian Meringue produces a more stable meringue and for this reason it is not as easily to mess up or affected by environmental factors. The French meringue method is very sensitive to environmental factors and poor technique.

Skill

Though the process involved in the Italian Meringue method is comparatively more complicated than the French Meringue method, the required skill/technique and understanding of the importance of good technique and other factors that affect macaron making is much higher for making macarons using the French meringue. The more stable meringue of the Italian Meringue allows room for error, while there is very little room for error with the more unstable French meringue.

Appearance

Some have said that the Italian Meringue produces better looking macarons than ones made with the French Meringue, but we say that you can produce some good-looking macarons with the French Meringue, too. Below are some examples of macarons we have made using the French Meringue and the Italian Meringue. The recipes we chose were randomly chosen online that have been found to work very well by others.

Above: Another example of macarons using the French Meringue method. Notice how the feet can be straight up and down with the French Meringue method also? It is of course still ruffled.

The images show that you can produce pretty good-looking macarons with both methods. It’s just easier to produce good-looking macarons consistently with the Italian Meringue method and that’s because of the higher stabililty of the Italian meringue. With the French Meringue method, you will more likely to fail because of the relatively more unstable nature of the French meringue.

Below, we compare some similarities and differences between the two methods:

Texture

The Italian Meringue method produces fuller, more compact interiors than the French Meringue. The compactness of the Italian meringue macaron interiors means they aren’t as light and airy or melt-in-the-mouth as macarons made with the French Meringue.

Vibrancy

The colors of the shells are much more vibrant in the Italian Meringue macarons.

Shell Thickness

The Italian meringue has a relatively thicker shell, but only slightly and sometimes the difference is unnoticeable. We’ve noticed that with macarons using the French meringue method, the shell can get similar to a sheet of ice. When bitten into, it has a very delicate crunch and shatters into very tiny pieces—so delicate and thin that the tiny broken pieces angle into the filling, but not pierce into it. We’ve not come across an Italian Meringue macaron with a shell as delicate.

Feet

The feet is straighter and inline with the shell with macarons made with the Italian meringue (example image can be found above under Macarons – Italian Meringue Method). It is possible to get the straight-up-and-down feet in the French meringue macarons but that requires all factors that affect successful macaron making to be in balance—technique, environmental factors and oven (in depth discussion of all these can be found in our eBook, “Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You”).

Success Rate

There is less disappointment of failure with the Italian Meringue method as it allows more room for error. The examples of the Italian Meringue macarons we’ve shown (all the Italian Meringue macaron images above) are from our second attempt of Italian Meringue macarons. Our first attempt were produced under high humidity and had idle whipped up egg whites sitting and waiting ready for around a minute for the sugar syrup to reach the correct temperature. It was not perfect, but good:

Above: Full interior, however has a thicker shell than what’s called perfect.

Above: some collapsed interiors. This image shows a large chunk of shell piercing into the filling and demonstrates what a shell—Italian meringue or French meringue alike—should not be.

This shows how slight errors won’t ruin a batch with the Italian Meringue method. The French Meringue method will not allow for error as even slight errors will show up very visibly in the macarons—collapsed interiors/hollowness, weak shells, splattered feet or even no feet and cracked shells.

Final Words
The French Meringue method of making macarons requires less fuss and we choose it because of that reason. Not only that, but the French meringue macarons, in our opinion tastes better simply because it does produce a more lighter and airier macaron with a more delicate shell.

    If we were to advise which method to use for beginner macaron makers, we would suggest the Italian Meringue method because of the stability of the meringue that the method produces. That extra stability created from the extra step of the sugar syrup allows much more room for errors, so the extra step of getting the sugar syrup to the exact temperature and timing it perfectly with the whipping egg whites is worth it if it means that you get macarons coming out of the oven looking like macarons. Getting a candy thermometer to make sure the sugar syrup reaches to the correct temperature and timing it with the egg whites is an easier thing to learn than understanding and balancing all the factors that affect macarons, required to produce perfect macarons using the French Meringue method.

Make perfect macarons with our new eBook, Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You

    We found no trouble picking up the Italian meringue method of making macarons after learning how to make macarons using the French meringue method. We don’t think the transition would have been so easy if we started out making macarons using the Italian Meringue method. The constant failure with the French meringue method would have had us give up and revert back to using the more stable and less disappointing method that is the Italian Meringue method of making macarons.

    This concludes our “Macarons: Quest for Perfection” blog series. Please check out our eBook on macaron making, “Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You”. It is a book discussing the factors that affect macarons and provides tips and recommendations as well as a troubleshoot guide. Purchase a copy of this eBook and arm yourself with the knowledge and produce perfect macarons consistently. Or, maybe you have been following our macaron blog series and want to show your appreciation by either purchasing a copy or help us spread the word about our eBook to other macaron makers having trouble turning out perfect macarons. Direct them to our eBook information page: http://www.juliaandtania.com/publications/mmwrdty/.

That’s a wrap!

Julia and Tania. : o) : o).

See our other posts in Macarons, Quest for Perfection blog series:

Make perfect macarons with our new book, Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You

We have read that one of the worst things that can happen to pastry chefs is when they move to a new kitchen and they have to work with a new oven (‘new’ referring to ‘different’ as opposed to the age of the oven). Despite using the same recipe, using the same temperature setting and baking time that have worked for their previous oven, they find the recipe and its settings do not work for the oven in their new kitchen. They find that they have to learn the oven and see what works and what doesn’t temperature-wise, which consequently means figuring out the baking time as well.

    When working with a macaron recipe, the experience is not all that dissimilar. Instead of you testing the recipe on different ovens, the recipe moves around to various ovens and is tested when each of us use them on each of our ovens. When this recipe is used in various kitchens, you may find (through reading or hearing others’ outcome) that for some people the temperature setting and baking time stated in the recipe works for them, but for you it’s a disaster. This is because every oven is different. Different types exist as well as different models. Variations in design, technology and additional features in the ovens influence the optimal temperature, baking time and oven set-up.

    To figure out what the optimal temperature is for your oven, we recommend obtaining an oven thermometer to start off. You want to make sure your oven temperature is accurate and that there isn’t too much variance in temperature during baking: macarons are sensitive to temperature and you want your oven temperature to be as accurate as possible. (If you find that the reading of your oven temperature is inaccurate, you will need to have it looked at and recalibrated.) Once this is taken care of then you can begin testing your oven for the right temperature.

    When testing temperatures, we suggest sending in partial batches. Don’t send in the full batch. Send in little batches at a time. Pipe your batter into groups of two or three and send them in separately: you will waste less and have more to test this way.

    The main signs of too high oven temperature are browning, cracking and the collapse of the meringue. Sticky bottoms and pooling of the meringue are signs the temperature is too low. Uneven baking—that is, macaron shells on one side browns more than the other side—is the cause of uneven heat distribution. In the latter case you will need to make alterations to oven set-up and (say) rotate the baking sheet midway through baking.

    If you find that no matter what temperature or adjustments you make you still get less than perfect macarons, it may be that the problems aren’t oven-related. It may very well be technique and drying related.

    When you finally have a temperature that you believe works for your macarons and your oven, it’s time to figure out for how long. Use the recipe’s temperature and baking time as a guide. If you have set your temperature lower that its recommendation, bake the macarons longer, extend it for a minute at a time, making sure macarons aren’t over-baked. Similarly, if your temperature needs to be higher than the recipe’s recommendation, bake the macarons less.

Four batches of French meringue macarons: apricot (top-left), rose (top-right), vanilla (bottom-left) and dutch-process cocoa (bottom-right).

    There have been information suggesting baking macarons in convection ovens with the fan on and missing a bottom bake element produces not so great macarons, we can attest that this is not true. Our oven is a fan-forced convection oven with no option to turn off the fan, no bottom element, prone to hotspots and the temperature can sway as much as 5°C during baking. Our baking sheet occasionally pops during baking, too, causing one corner to be at a 20° angle. Still, we manage to produce full batches of macarons with glossy shells, ruffled feet and full interiors. Failed macarons are not the result of having the wrong kind of oven. To produce great macarons, you must first get your technique right and then dry your macarons then study your oven. Do the aforementioned correctly, and macaron shells will materialise. Don’t give up. You can bake macarons in any oven!

    This concludes the series on Macarons, Quest for Perfection—at least for the time being. We may add a blog to the series in the future relating to macarons using the Italian Meringue. Just before we sign off from this blog series, though, we would like to do a bit of self-promotion for our new eBook we published on macarons, which covers much more information than we’ve done in this blog series and is available for purchase.

French meringue macarons!

Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You [EBOOK]

    In our Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You eBook, you can find out more factors that affect the success of macarons and new information which has not been covered in this blog series. We cover not only what factors affects turning out perfect batches of macarons, but also how they affect them. We provide detailed information about the techniques used, the ideal conditions for baking macarons—humidity levels and temperatures—and more information about baking macarons in ovens and our oven settings and set-up. The book also includes a troubleshoot section for macarons with colour photos, discussing the many problems macarons encounter, their cause(s) and the solution(s) to the problem.

    We hope you have time to traverse over to our page on our Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You eBook. If you go as far as purchasing a copy, we will be forever grateful for your purchase and support! The price of our book is around the price of two macarons. Imagine how many you could turn out. You’ll never have to spend a dime on buying macarons again once you start turning out batches and batches of beautiful macarons shells yourself after reading this eBook of ours. ; oP ; oP.

Happy macaron baking!
- Julia and Tania. : o) : o).

See our other posts in Macarons, Quest for Perfection blog series:

Above: French meringue rose and vanilla macarons. In the rose-flavoured batch, we had accidentally pierced through the skin, but feet still developed; good technique and correct drying time allows feet to form.

The next topic in “Macarons, Quest for Perfection” is Drying Time. When it comes to resting and drying the macarons, there is a lot of disagreement and confusing information out there. Do we dry them for twenty minutes, thirty minutes, or an hour? Do macarons even need to be rested and dried? There are people out there who stand by the claim that macarons can be piped and put straight into the oven. Through many, many wasted batches of macarons, trying out these varying drying periods—or lack there of—we can say that not only must macaron shells be rested and dried, but they must be dried thoroughly.

Make perfect macarons with our new eBook, Making Macarons: What Recipes Don’t Tell You

    The macaron’s signature foot is formed through having a strong skin form on its surface. This skin must dry to a point where they are dry to the touch, be able to glide a finger on the surface of the shell. This will help them withstand the oven and enable lifting of the shell and reveal the batter underneath, creating feet. Not letting them dry or rushing this step will mean cracks on the shells and lack of feet or uneven feet.

    The time it takes for macarons shells to develop this skin will depend on your baking environment. How warm and how humid it is in your baking environment (not outside!) will affect the length of time your macaron shells will dry. If your environment is warm and relatively dry, the time it will need to sit out will be shorter. If it is cold and the air is damp (i.e. high humidity) then your macarons will need to sit out for longer. Do not be surprised if your macarons need to rest/dry for triple the time recommended by some recipes, especially if the recipe calls for a short 20 or 30 minutes: even under the best baking environments, macarons don’t dry in such a short drying period.

    We have never had any success making a batch of macarons drying for such a short period of time. Others, however, have. Those who have managed to make macarons with little to no drying time, we can only presume that they are either using the Italian Meringue as the base, their oven has some special feature we’re not aware of that allows drying of the shell, or the specific combination of their ingredients allow for no drying time. Curious to see if it was the Italian Meringue or the combination of ingredients that permitted macarons to not need any drying time, we went in search of, firstly, a recipe using the French Meringue that maintains the “no drying needed” stance, then we searched for a recipe using the Italian Meringue.

    With the recipe that used the French Meringue and no drying time, there were a number of differences from the recipe we normally used. In terms of the ingredients list, there was the addition of salt. (In a basic macaron recipe, it consists of only egg whites, ground almonds, icing sugar and caster sugar). It asked for egg whites from any type of egg as opposed to the commonly asked, ‘aged egg whites’ and they must be whipped to a very stiff meringue. In regards to proportions, there was slightly less sugar in the meringue and less ground almonds to one egg white.

    A technique it employed that we normally didn’t employ is the rapping of the trays several times. After piping, it asks us to rap it hard on the countertop so that air bubbles are rid of and do not rise to the top during baking and cause cracks. We’ve never had to rap our baking sheets; we only give light taps under the baking sheet. If you have the perfect batter consistency, light taps is all you need—if at all. And we’ve never found air bubbles on the surface to be the cause of cracks: if macarons are left to dry, air bubbles that surface during the drying process will not cause major aesthetic problems to your macaron shells. So, the fact that this recipe was asking us to basically slam the sheet down onto the table for that reason was quite surprising to us.

    The last difference, it instructs us to put it straight into the oven at 300°F (148.9°C) and bake for around 18 minutes.

    The result was not good, to say the least. The shells were fine up until the five-minute mark. Thereafter, they began to strain against the oven heat. They puffed up and out, they became porous, fissures appeared. There was no foot of any kind on any of them. By the ten-minute mark, we decided to switch our oven off. They had turned out as we had expected them to. They progressed exactly like our very first batch of macarons when we made the mistake of drying them not long enough. So, there was no point in continuing to waste electricity on this batch.

    Predicting that the batch would go the way of feetless and porous macaron shells, we had piped three macaron shells from the same batter on another baking tray to test how they’d perform if we dried them. We didn’t dry them till they were touch-dry, though; we only dried them to the point where we could touch the rim and no batter stuck to the finger. We figured a short drying time of about 30 minutes should be more than enough drying time for a recipe not asking for any drying time. And the result was that there was improvement: there were feet this time, but the shells did crack. Nevertheless, they did look like macaron shells.

    We moved onto testing our next theory about macarons using the Italian Meringue base as not needing drying time. We found a recipe and tried not drying them. We can say they went the same way as the previous recipe that didn’t call for a drying period.

    From these two failed batches and semi-success with the one we dried for a short period, we conclude macarons do need to dry. Having made many successful batches before, we know our failures were not due to poor technique: we know how to spot the perfect batter consistency. We know it wasn’t the weighing of ingredients since we use a digital scale and made sure it is accurately calibrated. The only other variable we may need to consider is our oven. The writer of the recipe did not give information on the oven they use, how it operates, or if temperature was kept consistent throughout the baking time. We also can’t help to wonder if there is an oven that has some special feature or operates in a way that allows skin to form on the shells whilst they baked—because—skin absolutely needs to be there in order for lifting to occur so feet forms. Maybe the oven was the difference between us succeeding with their recipe and failing.

    Whether the oven played a part or not, to reduce the undesirable result of macaron shells expand up and outwards, crack and remain feetless, make sure you dry the macarons. This step is time-consuming, but this step is necessary. Dry them thoroughly, until it is touch-dry and your finger can glide right across the surface of the shells. This will give the macaron shells a good chance of developing feet and keep the shells from cracking under the oven heat.

Macaron failures: macarons with too little drying time results in cracks.

See our other posts in Macarons, Quest for Perfection blog series: