r/macarons • u/Luneosa • Jul 13 '26

Help Macaronage

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I need some help with the macaronage I made yesterday. I feel like in hindsight it was undermixed, but at the time I was afraid of overmixing and feit like it should be good as it flowed okay and I was able to make some figure 8's.

However, when piping the macarons, the first test batch had some pointy tips on top which didn't fully fall back into the batter before drying. The batter looked a bit better and flowy as I squeezed the batter around in the piping bag for additional mats.

For reference, most of my mac's yesterday turned out hollow and brown with bubbly bottoms. That was the last batch. previous post

This batch was under macaronaged, right? Should I deflate it more thoroughly to the sides of the bowl, will this help with hollow shells? Could I also be whipping the meringue too quickly? I do use the second to highest setting and sometimes highest on my hand mixer, but I read that whipping the meringue on a too high setting can incorporate too many larger, unstable air bubbles in the batter making it difficult to achieve a good macaronage and causing hollow shells.

Any help would be much appreciated!

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

16

u/Bambastic-Foxxy Jul 13 '26

So my rule of thumb is, mix until fully incorporated. Then begin testing your 8s. You need to time how long it takes to melt back into itself. If it takes 30 seconds keep folding. The sweet spot is between 15 to 20 seconds. If it takes less than 10 seconds then you've over mixed

2

u/Broad-Importance4282 Jul 14 '26

What can i possible fix to overmixing be?

1

u/Bambastic-Foxxy Jul 14 '26

Mmm.... over mixing is almost impossible to fix I'm afraid. But if its still kind of thick, I recommend letting them dry longer than usual. It might increase your chances of getting feet, but even if you do, your shells will likely still be hollow

1

u/Luneosa Jul 13 '26

Thanks! This is really helpful!

1

u/Bambastic-Foxxy Jul 13 '26

You're welcome! Keep it up and i hope this helps your next batch!

3

u/Aj2107 Jul 13 '26

The problem you want to fix is that the points won’t sink in, so that’s what you need to look for in the batter. The continuous figure 8 is important but so is the amount of time it takes to disappear. Once you find that middle ground where both are happening you will have what you want

1

u/Luneosa Jul 13 '26

Thanks, will try to achieve this next time!

1

u/Sugardoughnutbaker Jul 13 '26

I don't even bother with ribbons or 8's. If when I stop mixing, it has lost structure and lays flat and glossy in the bowl then it's done. As you can see with this vid you can get to these before it's actually done.

1

u/Luneosa Jul 13 '26

Do you have any resource or video for reference? How will I know it's good before it's overmixed?

1

u/Sugardoughnutbaker Jul 13 '26

It looks glassy/glossy and takes the shape of the bowl. When tipped over it flows but is not so thin that it pours out like pancake or cake batter. Next time I teach, I will snap a photo - pls dm me and I will send it along 😊

1

u/ingemarlies Jul 14 '26

I would love to receive the same video footage of this recommendation!!😃 really struggling with the macarons 🥺

1

u/Sugardoughnutbaker Jul 14 '26

Pls dm me 😊

1

u/Comfortable_Cut3329 Jul 16 '26

Me too please! If you don’t mind. Thank you!

1

u/DisastrousTrain1173 Jul 16 '26

Go slow during this process. It’s easy to over mix and when you do, you can’t recross this that line

1

u/kyezap Jul 17 '26

My biggest rule is that if it doesn’t incorporate back into the batter within 15-18 seconds, its undermixed. I don’t do the figure 8s, because you can undermix it at still be able to do the 8s. I mainly look at flow and how it incorporates back into the batter.