Sizing French Macaron Shells

Sizing French Macaron Shells

Since the release of our Single Step French Macaron Baking mix, we’ve been wondering about the versatility of this new formulation. We’d performed much of our testing with 1.2-1.5 inch batter rounds and hadn’t ventured beyond. But what about larger sizes? Well, yesterday we set out to find out for ourselves..

Sizing French Macarons Shells

Very large macaron shell 5″. 3.5″ and the standard size of 1.75″. Made with the Single Step French Macaron Mix

To be brutally honest, we expected to struggle going beyond 2.5 inches! We expected surface cracking, mushrooming, no feet, and wrinkling, …. Our first attempt was 3″ diameter macaron. We prepared the batter per recipe direction, piped the rounds, a couple of taps and into a 280″F convection oven. Twenty two minutes later, we got exactly what we’d hoped for. We were delighted! Could we go beyond? What about 5″ shells? It turned out that the single step mix was so much more versatile than we’d thought possible. The 5″ macaron looked just as perfect as the 1.75″. No wrinkling, smooth surface, no cracks and very nice feet! This is when we knew we’d realized and delivered to our tag line “Perfectly simple, simply perfect!” The only catch here is, you need to increase bake duration when macarons are larger. We’d stopped at 25 minutes, but we could have gone 5 minutes longer for the 5″ shell.

And finally, what could one do with a couple of large macaron shells? Below is a rose raspberry flavored macaron with real raspberries. It will take more than one person to enjoy this one. Wish we could share..

Decorating a 3.5″ Macaron

Let’s Bake Macarons

Watch this video to learn how to bake perfect French macarons. Tips for success: measure water amount and temperature closely. Preheat oven well (set to 300 ºF and back off to 280 ºF after loading trays). That is all there is to it. So let’s bake some Macarons!

Meringue Cookie Recipe

Meringue Cookie Recipe

These meringue cookies will make any dessert table just stunning.  The recipe is simple. You’ll need a box of Angel Bake Swiss Buttercream Mix, food coloring and flavoring. See a few suggestions below.

  • Add 80 grams of sugar to the mix.
  • Add 3 OZ hot water.
  • Whip until Meringue is stiff.
  • Separate into three equal parts.
  • Add flavoring/extract, nuts, dried fruit bits, zest, food coloring of your choice.  Fold until mix and color is incorporated to your liking. 
  • Scoop onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Use two spoons. 
  • Bake at 300 degrees for 30 mins, turn oven off and leave in the oven for 2 hours before removing.
  • Flavor ideas: lemon, rose, orange, lavender, coffee, espresso, raspberry, almond, chocolate, extracts or various liquors.
  • liquid flavoring and liquors can be whipped in at any time. Others, such as nuts are best folded into the meringue. If food coloring is added to the water cookie color will be consistent. If it is added after meringue is stiff, you can get swirls.

Making Great Tasting Buttercream

Making Great Tasting Buttercream

Making Swiss Buttercream is a trying undertaking.  You have to mix egg whites on a steam bath to just the right temp.  Go over and you have cooked eggs and stay under and you run the risk of having live bacteria in your cream.   The Angel Bake Swiss buttercream mix uses pasteurized egg whites.  To make it, you simply whip the mix with 1/2 cup of hot water to make a glorious meringue.  No need to steam up the whole kitchen!  You can use the meringue as is for pie topping or making meringue cookies.  To make buttercream, just add soft unsalted butter and whip to a shiny creamy consistency.  Feel free to vary the amount of butter to your liking.   To make dairy free icing or buttercream, just use dairy free butter alternatives. 

You can add just about any sort of additive to flavor your buttercream.   Things like liquors, espresso, cocoa, nuts, jams, fruits, food coloring, and or flavoring extracts.   See below for inspiration.   For coloring  your buttercream, we recommend the Angel Bake Powdered food coloring set. 

The Angel Bake Swiss Buttercream mix doesn’t have any corn starch (so no chalky aftertaste),  preservatives, hydrogenated oils, and is gluten free.  Please compare ingredients before you purchase.

 

Buttercream Flavoring Suggestions

Buttercream

Food Coloring

Flavoring
Banana Yellow 1 mashed banana+1 teaspoon of lemon juice+1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Butter Scotch None 1-2 teaspoon Butterscotch flavoring
Cappuccino None 2 Tablespoon instant espresso coffee
Caramel/salted None 1-2 teaspoon caramel flavoring and a sprinkle of sea salt
Cherry Red + small amount of blue 1/4 cup Maraschino cherry juice+ 6-8 Maraschino cherries(diced)
Chocolate Brown 2-4 tablespoon cocoa powder and/or a teaspoon chocolate flavoring
Cinnamon Brown 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
Coconut None 2-3 tablespoon dried unsweetened toasted coconut flakes
Coffee/Espresso Brown 1-2 teaspoon instant espresso powder and/or coffee flavoring
Cream cheese None 2-4 tablespoon soft cream cheese
Ganache None 2-4 Tablespoon of chocolate ganache
Gum Any or none. 1-2 teaspoon Bubble gum flavoring
Lavender Purple 1 teaspoon lavender extract
Lemon Yellow 1 teaspoon of lemon extract (or lemon juice and zest)
Macadamia – Vanilla None 1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
Macha tea Green 1 tablespoon matcha powder
Marzipan None 2-4 tablespoon marzipan paste
Mascarpone None 1-2 tablespoon mascarpone cheese
Mint/Peppermint Green 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
Mocha None 1-2 tablespoon Cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon coffee extract or Espresso.
Nutella Brown 2-4 tablespoon of Nutella
Orange Orange 1 teaspoon orange extract
Peanut butter Brown 1-2 tablespoon peanut butter
Pistachio Green 2-4 tablespoon of pistachio flour
Raspberry Red + small amount of blue 1 teaspoon raspberry extract and/or 2-4 tablespoon raspberry puree
Strawberry 1 drop of red 1 teaspoon of strawberry extract, puree, jam or fresh.
Vanilla None 1-2 teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla paste
White Chocolate None 1 teaspoon melted white chocolate

Liquor infusions

 

1-2 teaspoon of the liqueur of your choice
Baileys Brown 1-2 teaspoon Baileys Irish cream
Frangelico None 3 Tablespoon Frangelico+ 2 Tablespoon hot coffee
Grand Marnier Yellow + brown 1-2 teaspoon Grand Marnier liqueur
Irish Cream None 1-2 teaspoon Irish cream liqueur
Kahlua Brown 1-2 teaspoon Kahlua liqueur
Rum Yellow + brown 1-2 teaspoon of Rum or Amaretto

Swiss Buttercream Recipe

Swiss Buttercream Recipe

Swiss Buttercream Recipe Using Angel Bake Buttercream Mix

French Macarons are traditionally filled with Swiss buttercream.  The Angel Bake Swiss Buttercream mix is an easy to prepare, versatile meringue base that can be used in many applications in addition to French Macarons.

Ingredients:
  • A box of Angel Bake Swiss Buttercream Mix.
  • 4 OZ hot water. 120 grams.  Half a cup.  160 ‘F
  • 2 sticks of soft room temperature (soft) unsalted butter.
Directions:
  • In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, *hot* water to buttercream mix.  Accurate water measurement is important.  Use a measuring cup or a kitchen scale.
  • Whip on high speed until meringue is stiff and shiny.  Roughly 4-5 minutes.
  • Gradually whip in two sticks of room temp soft unsalted butter (1/4 – 1/2 of a stick at a time).
  • Whip for 2-3 minutes on high speed, until the mixture is silky and smooth.
  • Additional food flavoring/extracts (i.e. vanilla, rose, lavender, chocolate, lemon, orange, almond, peppermint), powdered food coloring, jam, cocoa, espresso(coffee extract), nut flour, curds, or liqueur may be added at this stage.  Whip 30 seconds more to incorporate.
  • This buttercream is perfect filling for French Macarons, decorating cakes and cupcakes.  Its also a perfect match for waffles, pancakes, and toast.
  • Buttercream can be kept for 1 week in the refrigerator and longer if frozen.  Thaw to room temperature before using.  You will need to whip the buttercream to reconstitute it back to desired consistency.
  •  The following post has flavoring ideas.
  • We recommend Angel Bake Extracts for flavoring your buttercream and Angel Bake powdered food coloring for coloring your buttercream.
  •  You an use the Meringue for just about any recipe requiring meringue.  Use it as a pie topping, torch and bake as you’d like.  Try our meringue cookie guide.
  • Most meringue base products contain corn starch, and a number of stabilizers which produce a chalky feel, medicine like after taste.  We’ve steered clear of them, and we are pleased for having done so.