Macarons Recipe

Macarons have a reputation for being temperamental. Fresh egg whites need ageing, the meringue has to be judged by eye, and the almond meal has to be folded in at exactly the right moment. This recipe skips all of that.

It uses Polen Food Oceania’s Vizyon Eggless Macaron Mix 5kg, which needs only water and an optional touch of food colouring. The mix already holds the sugar, almond meal and flour in balance, and it is made without egg or egg-white powder. There are no eggs to separate and no meringue stage to get wrong. One batch gives you around 145 shells, round, crisp outside and soft and chewy in the centre. Note that the mix contains almond and gluten.

The technique that matters most happens at the mixer and the tray. Beat the mix with the flat beater on high speed for a full 5 minutes. That builds the air that lifts the shells. Rest it for 1 minute, then pipe 3.5cm rounds, which will spread a little. Don’t tap the tray. That goes against most macaron advice, but with this mix, tapping knocks out the air the shells need to rise.

Bake the shells on top of an empty tray turned upside down in the oven. The extra layer of metal softens the heat coming from below, so the shells rise steadily and form a neat skirt, the frilled foot of a good macaron. After 16–18 minutes at 125–130 °C, let them cool, then sandwich them with your favourite ganache or buttercream.