Do you really need to rest your macaron shells? Here's what to do to prepare a proper macaron batter and prevent macarons from cracking during baking.
It's almost Easter! I have been seeing a barrage of baked goods in the form of bunnies, Easter eggs and chicks on Instagram. For this new Easter macaron, I wanted to blend the latter two together to make one cohesive design. Because really, what came first? The chicken or the egg? Well, I can tell you that for me, the chicken definitely came first because I piped them first lol.
After I posted these onto Instagram, I received a few questions about techniques and even a request for a tutorial. I will post those questions and answers here to make it easier for anyone not tracking my convos with others. As for the tutorial, I would love to have done one but I didn't get a chance to take any step-by-step photos since my original post theme was to discuss the issue of resting the macaron shell which I did end up making a video for.
What Does Resting the Macaron Shells Mean?
If you've been having bad luck with macarons, you've probably googled many different kinds of advice which seems conflicting at times. One of those is the procedure of "resting" the macaron shells after baking. "Resting" a macaron shell involves letting it air dry for 30 minutes after piping until the surface loses its glossy sheen and you can lightly touch the shell without any trace of the batter transferring to your fingers. Here, watch this video to see me "petting" these chickies:
"Why Should I Rest My Macarons?"
Letting the macaron shell dry out allows the outer surface to harden up so that when it is baked, the air in the batter will escape from the bottom edge (thereby, creating feet) instead of from the top of the macaron which can cause cracks and/or leave you with no feet at all.
No Rest Macaron Recipes
In my best macaron recipe, I do include instructions on resting until there is a skin. There are some macaron recipes out there that call themselves "no-rest" recipes but it should be clarified that there is nothing different that sets them apart from recipes that require resting. It is simply the author telling you not to do so. They are not guaranteeing that your macaron shells won't crack during baking, that part is all up to you.
"So, Do I Need to Rest My Macarons?"
This is definitely a controversial topic in macaron baking. Some bakers swear that they never rest their macarons and others swear by it. From all the readings I have done both online and in print, it appears that most bakers are in favor of doing this. Specifically, in both the Laduree Macarons Recipes Cookbook and Pierre Herme Macaron Cookbook, it instructs to do it in this way:
♥ Laduree: "Set aside uncovered for 10 minutes to allow a crust to form."
♥ Pierre Herme: "Allow the shells to stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes until a skin forms on the surface. The batter should not stick to your fingers."
Even in my macaron class, it was advised to wait for about half an hour until a skin develops. The important wording to pay attention to is "waiting until a skin or crust forms". I don't think it depends so much on the time as it does on the condition of the shell. Sometimes, I can pipe a tray of shells and the ones I piped first can form a crust within the time it took me to finish piping the last one. It really depends on how wet your batter is and on how dry is the environment you are working in.
Now let's get back to the experience of other bakers who do not rest their shells at all and claims that it's not necessary. Yes, it is true, not every batter needs to be rested. If the macaron batter is prepared properly and the environment is ideal, it can be baked right away. Batters that are a bit weak and underdeveloped do benefit from resting. The formation of the skin will prevent shells made with these types of batters from cracking. So resting the macaron shells is extra insurance against cracked shells.
What to Do After Piping
- Rap the tray firmly on the counter several times to release the air bubbles inside the batter which can cause cracks
- Remove visible air bubbles with a toothpick by poking and running the tip around that spot to disperse the batter back into one uniformed batter.
- Wait until a "crust or skin" develops. This is characterized by being able to touch the shell without the batter transferring to your fingers.
- Wait until the surface becomes matte and dull and has lost its glossy sheen.
"My Shells Won't Dry Up"
Sometimes your batter just won't dry up regardless of how long you have been waiting. The two main reasons for that are "Bad/Wet Batter" and "Humid Environment":
Bad/Wet Batter
You should be gaging the health of your batter during the macaronage stage. If it is very easy for the dry and wet ingredients to become homogenous and the batter runs like pancake batter, you may have a case of bad batter on your hands.
There is really no way to fix a bad batter. I would recommend that you bake your shells anyways to gain experience on seeing how a bad batch develops. I recommend baking on parchment paper as it's more forgiving for wetter batters.
Two issues which can prevent a "bad batter" from resting and developing skin are: "wet batter" and "over folding".
To ensure that your macaron batter is not too wet:
- use aged egg whites READ: how to age egg whites for macarons
- beat your meringue very firm until stiff peaks
- do not add any liquids to the mixture, use only gel colour or powder colour
- make meringue in a clean bowl free of oil or traces of yolk or water
To prevent over-folding:
- ensure you are folding with the right techniques to deflate some of the air but not all of it
- use the Figure 8 test to gauge when to stop folding the batter VIDEO: How to Macaronage
Air in the Baking Environment is Too Humid
There's cautionary tales of baking on rainy days and I can only share my experience. I know certain environments can be too humid for the macaron shells to develop a skin. I have heard of baker friends in Hawaii who let their shells dry for hours at a time. I, myself, live in Vancouver, Canada where it rains everyday for months at at time but I do not shy away from baking macarons on the days that it rains.
If you are sure that your techniques are fine and its not a case of bad/wet batter causing your shells to remain wet, you can start on fixing this issue by making changes in your baking environment.
Preparing an optimal environment for baking macarons:
- get a dehumidfier and set it for below 50
- avoid running water for prolonged periods of time in the kitchen
- open all the windows to let moisture escape from your kitchen
- place your shells underneath the range hood fan to further dry them up. (Do not use an external fan to blow directly on the shells. It will make them lopsided.)
"Can My Shells Be Too Dry or "Over-Rested?"
Yes, it can. More is definitely not better. If your shells have already developed a skin and lost its glossy sheen, put them in the oven. Shells that have become too dry may become lopsided when baked or the feet may get stuck to the mat and break off.
Final Verdict
I like to rest my macaron shells and have had great success with them when I rested them. I have also not rested them and a majority of the time, they bake perfectly because the batter was prepared correctly. For the batters that weren't prepared properly and I didn't rest the shells, I have shed a tear or two when they cracked during baking.
FURTHER READING: TOP TIPS ON BAKING SMOOTH AND ROUND MACARONS
Having said all of that, I am a firm believer that for macarons, you should do what works best for you in your kitchen and in your oven. I've given you some of my insights into this issue and I hope it will help you come to your own conclusions. What do you think? Feel free to share your own experience with other fellow bakers below in the comments.
Thanks for visiting!
XOXO,
Mimi
Note: This post was originally published on March 27th, 2015
Tamy says
Hi mimi
I have followed your recipe to make french Macarons . Mine developed a tiney feet which you can’t tell and was cracked at the top. I have Rested them for 30 mins till skin developed , also the Meringue was perfect. So I don’t understand what I did wrong.
Mimi says
Hi Tamy,
It sounds like the batter is a bit wet. You can whip them meringue a bit stiffer and don't fold as much. The air most likely escaped through those cracks that's why you don't have feet. If your batter is correct, then you don't have to rest as long so for added insurance, you can rest them just a bit more. Sometimes resting further past the no-stick on finger stage is needed when the batter is too thin. This is a way to salvage a less ideal batter 🙂 hope you'll give it a try again.
XOXO,
Mimi
Amy says
Hi Mimi,
I’ve tried your recipe and other recipe and I’m just wondering how you deal with not over resting your macarons? Usually when I make a batter I end up filling two trays. So, when I bake the first tray the second one has to rest longer, therefore the shells on the second tray become lopsided as it’s been sitting for a bit too long while the first tray was still baking . For the first tray everything is fine, no lopsided macarons . How could I handle this? Thanks !
Mimi says
Perhaps you can try baking the first tray without resting so long, this might give your second try a chance to not dry up as much, or you can stagger the piping just a little longer than you have been. Xoxo, Mimi
Jennie says
Can I use a hairdryer to dry my macaron?
Mimi says
I do not recommend it as it can make them lopsided since the air is blowing from different angles. Use a range hood fan if you can 🙂
XOXO, Mimi
Lakeyshia says
When would you add flavoring extract? I followed the recipe, rapped the pan, allowed skin to form and they cracked when baking. 🙁
Mimi says
I recommend adding flavours only to the filling. Through osmosis, the the filling will go on to flavour the shell. I never recommend adding flavouring into the shell to novice macaron bakers. There are too many variables that can cause a macaron to not develop properly, it will be hard for you to pinpoint what went wrong if you also try to change the shell composition by adding foreign ingredients.
XOXO,
Mimi
Rachael Curtin says
Hi Mimi,
Tearing my hair out. Been trying to learn how to make macarons and I just can't seem to get it right. I don't know where I'm going wrong. I use room temp egg whites, I tried a pinch of salt to stabilise, I'm pretty sure I'm getting stiff enough peaks, and I fold until the batter does the figure 8 ribbons following the technique in the video, i rap the tray after i pipe, etc.
Even with all that, and letting them rest between 30min to 2hours, they will not develop a skin, and they will not develop feet when baking.
What am I missing?
Rachael
Mimi says
Adding salt actually doesn't make the egg whites more stable and might actually hinder its ability to remain stable once whipped. An acid is a much better idea for whipping stable egg whites, use cream of tartar or lemon instead. XOXO, Mimi
Ivy says
Hi Mimi, is the resting time on silicone mat longer than on parchment paper? I did 30 min on parchment, the shell came ok but on silicone mat, i had tiny or no feet.
Thanks
Mimi says
Resting time shouldn't be affected by paper or silicone since it is just the top part that is drying. The tiny feet is mostly due to the fact the silicone doesn't conduct as much heat as the paper.
Xoxo,
Mimi
Coco says
Hey Mimi,
I've just made a batch of macarons and I am pretty sure that I've failed or I've got the timing of the baking process wrong because my macarons were deflated with no feet (even when I did not open the oven door) and after ten minutes of baking, I was unable to lift off the macaron off the tray. I had to use a spoon to lift it off, so I decided to let it bake for a further five minutes. After five minutes, the macarons showed a tanned color on the surface and when I tried to take them off, I had to use a butterknife because it had turned rock solid. Please help. I don't know what I did wrong:(
Mimi says
There is most likely something wrong with the batter. It's too "wet". You might want to watch out that you are not overfolding it and make sure your meringue is stiff enough.
XOXO,
Mimi
zoryana says
hi Mimi, almost all the time I make macarons the feet never rise up correctly, they either don't rise alot like very little or the feet rise out towards the sides and look weird. please help!
Mimi says
Watch out for your folding. It sounds like you might have folded way too much when they go out on the sides. For the small feet, fix the meringue, make sure you're getting it up to stiff peaks. XOXO, Mimi
Daisy Yung says
Hi Mimi,I tried to make the perfect macarons with no hollow over 30 times but they came hollow 🙁
I tried to test about different batter stage,resting time,temperature...and they came HOLLOW!I had read all your post to see how can I prevent of the hollow.Can you give me some adivce?(I am using a convention oven.)
I am living in a humidity place.The shells can not dry up even I switch on my dehumidifier.Do you recommend that I put them inside the oven to rest with lower temperature (like 30-50 degees)?
Thank you so much for share your experience,you are an macaron expert.
Mimi says
Hi Daisy,
I'm not quite sure how to resolve problems in high humidity climates since I don't live in one and haven't an opportunity to tackle a problem such as this. It rains here a lot in Vancouver but I wouldn't say it's humid. I find even in this climate, if I don't beat my meringue stiff enough, the batter is more "wet" and doesn't develop a skin. Make sure you're beating it stiff enough. Perhaps you can try resting them inside the oven although I'm not sure how low your oven can go. My minimum temp. is much higher than that. I guess one could also heat up the oven and then turn it off and use the residual heat.
xoxo,
Mimi
Tara Menezes says
Hi mimi, I have been reading all your posts and trying to find out what I am doing wrong. The macaron age seems fine.. I can pipe the figure 8.. The shells dry properly and I can pet them but when I bake. My macarons they come out wet inside and firm on top and bottom. I've tried baking with to door slightly ajar, seen multiple videos but the macarons remain the same. Only once I was able to get perfect macarons but that's it. I have been baking every day for a month now and I'm closer to giving up than finding success. You are my last hope. PS I'm from India.. Mumbai where we have humid weather but I make sure I keep the air conditioning on when making macarons.. Please help
Mimi says
it sounds like they are just underbaked. If you can, bake them longer with a slightly lower temperature. You can try baking them with a hotter oven in the beginning, then to lower the temp to prevent browning, just open the door.
xoxo,
Mimi
Tara Menezes says
Thanks for the super quick reply
I have tried baking at 150 for 10mins then lowering to 130 for another 10mins
With door slightly open and without the door open
Baking for longer ..like 30mins.... results are the same ... wet interior
Maria says
Hi,
I've recently switched from using baking sheets to a proper silicon mat to prepare my macarons and for some reason, they all cracked. However, I suspect it's due to my macarons not being dry enough. I'm from Singapore where our country is known for it's high humidity and the recent batch I've tried making, I left the piped macarons out to dry for 3 hours and still they cracked. I did this batch at night. The ones I did during the day, I left it out to rest for an hour. Half the batch cracked & the other half sort of made it but the feet were small. The few successful attempts I had before, the feet were always pretty small. I'm quite certain my batter is fine but I can't get the resting time right and waiting for 3 hours is too long! I usually leave them out to dry until a ceiling fan. Would it have been better if it's left in a air-conditioned room? If I glided my fingers across my rested macarons and it's a small percentage of stickiness (no batter transfer), that that means it's still not ready?
Mimi says
Hi Maria,
I don't have as much humidity here. Although it does rain almost everyday! Your cracking is not due to your mats so don't worry about that part. It sounds like its your batter. Try to beat the meringue longer and don't fold as much. You should see some difference.
xoxo
Mimi
Milly says
My macarons are perfect looking except the botyom are crusty is it supposed to be like that
Mimi says
What do you mean crusty? It's hard on the bottom? I don't quite understand.
Mimi
Ann says
Hey Mimi, really like your site. I would like to hear your feedback in this matter. Looks like the shells just wont dry and form a skin (which I find a bit strange since it is a middle of winter and temp. does not go up from 15C) doesn't really matter how long I let them rest they just stay relatively sticky to touch. I will definitely try to put them under the rangehood. I tried something else as well and I would like to hear your thoughts about that. Here's the short article (not advertising it, its better that you see it directly, not my site anyway :)) kitchenguardian.blogspot.rs/2011/03/drying-macaronswhat-textbook-didnt-tell.html?m=1
They do dry pretty quickly by using this i even tried one batch with my oven on but with temperature lowered and fan on, I am interested if you know if this method affects macarons in bad way? Cause they do really dry fast and they can be petted like the chick from your post, but i had some inconstitent results, for example, first tray is baked perfectly (140c with fan on), second tray is half-half and third tray is total disaster. Good ones really rise like they should with perfect feet, the bad ones have really small or no feet at all and they cracked and they have strange shape on the top like the exploded from inside. Really do not know whats the problem and how the results from same batch could be so different. Regards and i hope i will hear from you.
Mimi says
When the macaron batter isn't made properly, it won't dry properly. You can manipulate that by drying it out excessively but it doen'st mask the fact that it won't bake properly 🙂
Xoxo,
Mimi
Ann says
Hey, thanks for replying.
I've made a new batch and this time tried to avoid making any mistake in the process. Only had few cracked shells from about 120 of them in the batch, rest were pretty much perfect.
Egg whites aged for few days, normal air dry resting but for an hour instead of half an hour (no artificial fast owen resting this time).
Btw. From personal experience, if you have problems with high humidity, just try with aging the egg whites for few days and let them air dry longer, owen drying I've tried in my first post caused them to form uneven shells, no cracks but uneven shells.
Gabrielle Pollacco says
I wonder if this has to do with temperature in your house? I was making perfect macarons in the winter (dry and warm in my house) , now in the Spring (and my daughters wedding one week away!) I've made 6 batches of macarons exactly the same way and every batch cracked the way you described above...I'm at my wits end trying to figure out what went wrong!
Mimi says
There are some other factors you might want to look into. Here's a troubleshooting guide.
xoxo
Mimi
Jamie-Lee says
Hi Mimi, thank you so much, I wish I saw your recipe for the Macaron sooner as I've done gazillions of failed batches of other recipes and yours just clicked with me and work first go. What I'd like to know is how long would I need to get the Macaron into the oven once the skin has formed already. I'm looking at doing 5 different colours and hoping if I make and pipe them all out would the last batch going into the oven be just as good as the first or can you over rest them?
Mimi says
Thank you so much for your feedback Jamie,
that really depends on how fast you work and how long it takes your skin to develop. You'll notice that your shell has dried too much if it starts to get blotchy during the dry time.
XOXO Mimi
Nabila says
Hi there I have rested Macarons for 45 mins as the air has been very humid however they are baking lopsided and if I bake it for 30-35 mins the shells crack Cz it's not dry enough.. if I bake without the fan and use the baking option with no fan will it bake properly because I have no idea what more to do as in the winter they come out perfectly
Mimi says
Why don't you bake them without the fan option then? I think sometimes we might have to abandon using the fan if it becomes a problem.
XOXO,
Mimi