The Trouble with Hollow Macarons
When most bakers begin baking macarons, they are most likely trying to overcome common hurdles like cracked tops and bumpy shells. As a result, they tend to covet smooth non-cracked shells and frilly macaron feet above all else. But as their macarons start looking better (on the outside anyways), they realize there’s a hidden issue that lies deep within their macarons – hollow shells.
Do Hollow Macarons Go Away with Maturation?
Severely hollow macarons cannot be fixed with maturation. If most of the body has burst out of the shell into the feet or sank down to the bottom causing a huge gaping hole, no amount of maturation will really help these types of macarons. Pressing into the back of the shells in order to push the body back up to the top – which some bakers do to hide hollows – may be a temporary solution. But, ultimately, you might want to fix the root causes of your hollow macarons since there is something inherently wrong with your technique.
A truly non-hollow macaron is not hollow even BEFORE filling and maturation as shown in the video above. If you’re dealing with just small gaps in your shells, these do benefit from filling and maturation. You’ll find that they can completely go away after 24 hours of maturation.
Should You Fix Hollow Macarons?
Having said of all that, it’s important to remember that hollow macarons are not a problem for most people who eat your macarons unless they’re macaron snobs and to which I say, why are you sharing your precious babies with those people anyways 🙂 All kidding aside, although hollow macarons may taste the same as non-hollow ones, severely hollow macarons are more fragile and lack the distinctly chewy texture of a full and fluffy macaron. Those are two of the reasons why you might want to work on your hollow macarons. But if you’re obsessed with non-hollows for the glory, save yourself the frustration. It’s important to remember that no matter what they look like, macarons are for eating!
For those who are keen on fixing this problem. Here are a few issues to look out for:
Meringue Stiffness
Over-beating the meringue can cause your shells to deflate while baking, resulting in a hollow shell. A good stiff meringue is required for my recipe, however, over-beating it can be the culprit to your hollow macaron problem. This is especially true if your macaron looks almost perfect in every way except for a little gap inside the shell.
If your macarons are looking fabulous in every way already(dainty feet, smooth tops), then this fix is for you. Beat the meringue up to stiff peaks and stop immediately once that is reached.
How stiff is stiff? Beat the meringue until a small peak points upwards when you pull the whisk out of the meringue. The peak can be small! If you beat until a big clump of egg whites can point upwards, you are probably over-beating. This is worth mentioning as some of you may have been trying to test the peaks with a lot more meringue than is needed.
Beat until a small bit of meringue exhibits stiff peaks when the whisk is pulled out.
Another way to scale back on how much you have been beating your meringue is to test the bowl by tipping it upside down. Once the egg whites can cling securely onto the bowl without slipping and you have a SMALL stiff peak, stop beating the meringue.
READ: HOW TO MAKE PERFECT MERINGUE FOR MACARONS
Macaronage & Batter Consistency
The batter should be properly deflated. If you tend to over-beat the meringue, this is important for you. In the beginning of our macaron baking journey, we were told to be careful with the batter. “It’s better to under-fold than over fold,”…etc. But that’s where a lot of hollow macaron problems begin – from an under deflated batter. When you’re folding, you don’t need to baby it as much as you think. Here is a video on how to fold properly to avoid hollows:
On the flip side, over-folding can also cause hollows and widely spread feet. When you are folding, constantly test the batter with the Figure-8 test in the video. The batter should flow steadily without breaking but it should not be too runny either. Aim for a honey-like consistency.
Here is what to look for in terms of consistency during and after piping:
Rap Tray
Rapping the tray after piping will further eliminate the small gaps in your shells. Make sure you are tapping it hard enough against a hard surface. In my macaron class, the instructor literally dropped the baking trays from waist level down onto the floor. It’s quite a violent action and sometimes the shells do change in shape after tapping, I would recommend piping on Silpat mats which are great for retaining the macaron’s shape. Pop any remaining bubbles with a toothpick.
Silpat Mats
Disclosure: Affiliate Links
SILPATS is the only mat brands I use for baking macarons. This one comes with a circle template so you don’t have to make your own. It’s so convenient!
11 5/8 X 16 1/2 is the size I use in all the videos showing one single mat on a pan. SILPATS are is the only mat brand I use for baking macarons. This mat has no preprinted templates on it so it’s great for using over my free macaron art templates.
Toaster oven sized mats are perfect for counter top ovens. I sometimes place two of these on one tray to bake two different sized macarons shells at once. You can easily take out one mat earlier once it’s done, leaving the other mat to bake longer. SILPATS is the only mat brand I use for baking macarons.
Bake Time & Temperature
Meringues and by extension, macarons, love heat! Give it as much oven love as you can and you’ll see less hollow macarons in your kitchen. You can do this by either using a:
a.) higher temperature OR
b.) lower temperature with a longer bake time
325F for 12-14 minutes is a great place to start. (I know of a baker who likes to go even higher at 350F for 10 minutes.) Most readers have found 325F or higher can cause their shells to become browned so another temperature/time combo I can recommend is 275F for 18 minutes. You can play with the time/temperature combinations. For every 25F, compensate with a 2-3 minutes change in the inverse direction.
Some Recommended Baking Temperature and Times:
350F for 10 minutes – suitable for spacious large ovens
325F for 12-14 minutes – standard starting point for my recipe
300F for 16-18 minutes
275F for 18-20 minutes – suitable for smaller ovens with small compartments
READ: HOW TO USE YOUR HOME OVEN PROPERLY TO BAKE MACARONS
The fully set shell was baked with oven cyclying between 300-325 F for 14 min. The hollow one didn’t reach its full potential as the temp. hovered between 275-300 for the same amount of time. Every oven is different, so set your own oven accordingly.
Silpats VS. Parchment VS. Teflon
Some bakers complain about hollows when using Silpat mats and have given up on them completely even though Silpats produce much better results in terms of preserving the macaron’s shape. Sometimes Silpats don’t perform as well for fully fluffy shells because of the related issue discussed in the last section: heat. The mats are thicker than parchment paper and don’t conduct heat nearly as well.
You can adjust a few things to compensate for this.
- Use better heat conducting pans.
- Put it closer to the heat source if your heating coils are on the bottom.
- Try Teflon paper which better conducts heat.
- Keep a pizza stone underneath the baking tray.
Here are some equipment that might help you:
Disclosure: affiliate link
This is the cookie sheet I use. It’s constructed of aluminized steel, the material of choice for commercial bakeries. It is also heavy duty so it won’t buckle while baking . It is also rimless allowing even air flow to the macarons.
Teflon sheets are great for conducting heat and provides macaron shells the heat that some ovens lack.
A pizza stone in the oven can help stabilize oven temperature and provide heat from the bottom.
Convection VS. Non Convection
You don’t have to get too hung up over this point. If your batter is at the right consistency, it can bake with no hollows in both a convection or non-convection oven granted that you have found an optimal temperature and bake time.
Magic Ingredient for Non-Hollows?
Although, technically, you should be able to overcome hollow macarons with the right technique, there is one special ingredient you can consider. There’s a lot of buzz around adding egg white powder to the dry ingredients to help combat hollows. I haven’t tried it yet but it’s something that some bakers have discovered worked for them. If all the above fixes don’t work for you, you might want to try it.
Egg white powder is NOT the same as meringue powder. Meringue powder contains a mixture of sugar, acids and flavorings while egg white power is just purely egg albumen.
Egg white powder consist of egg white albumen only.
My Secret for Testing Macaron Doneness
If you lower the oven temperature as per above, it’s important that you bake for a longer amount of time, otherwise, the meringue will collapse after it cools. How to test the macaron for doneness? I’ll cover it in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!
I hope you found this post useful and let me know below if you have any further questions.
XOXO,
Mimi
Mimi’s Best Macaron Recipe
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Miyoung Lee says
Hi, Mimi.
Do you think aged egg white can fix hollow shells? I’ve tried every thing to fix hollow shell but all failed. The only method I haven’t tried is aged egg whites. I’m not a novice in baking and make good meringue. Meringue, batter, shape is all like in your video. I’ve watched a lot of tutorial videos and read dozens of articles including Korean ones, and tried everything I can except aging eggs whites. It’s because many people say room temperature egg whites still work. Now I wanna try last thing. If this doesn’t work, I have to give up. No more ideas!
Mimi says
Aging egg whites by itself won’t “fix” hollow shells but it can lead to an egg white with relaxed proteins that are easier to whip up without overwhipping which can cause hollow shells. I think it is worth it to age the egg whites since you can eliminate that as a factor in why you’re getting hollow shells.
XOXO, Mimi
Miyoung Lee says
Mimi, I finally found a solution. I really want to share my experience here because a lot of people who think their meringue and batter is perfect are having same issues. The problem was the consistency of the heat in the oven.
I put the oven thermometer in the oven checked how temperature varies.
The temperature I wanted was between 280 to 300(higher than 300 is too high since my oven is small-Breville). But even if I preheated oven to 300, temperature didnt reach to 300.
So I preheated my oven to 350 and checked when it reaches to 300. It took 3 minutes after the 350 preheat beep to reach to 300(because I’m using bottom rack). When the temperature got 300, I put the pan into the oven and reduce the heat down to 310. After a few minutes, temperature in the oven went down a little bit to 290(because of uncooked macarons and door opening) and stayed there for 2 minutes, and then went up slowly again to 310 which I set. When it started to go up I adjusted temperature to 290, my ideal temperature, and stayed there until the cookies were done.
So from the start to the end, oven temperature was consistent, which was 290, although I preheated to 350 and adjusted to 310, and then finally 290. It really worked! For two weeks I have made macarons every day, more than five batches a day to fix the problem. Finally found a solution! I’ve tried once more and it worked as well.
Your temperature range information was helpful in guessing right temperature for my oven.
Not sure this will help others since my English is not good. Anyway a key point is to have consistent temperature in oven. Put your oven thermometer in oven, and study how you can make temperature consistent and steady in your oven from the start to the end of baking.
Thanks a lot, Mimi!
Mimi says
I’m so happy you were able to find a solution that works for you. And I want to thank you for coming back and sharing what worked for you with the other readers. I think some other bakers might find it insightful. I hope you enjoy baking even more macarons now!
Gee says
Hey Mimi, do you have a specific time for beating your egg whites? I do 7 1/2 minutes. I beat 4 for 4 minutes, then 6 for 2 minutes, then 8 for 1 1/2 minutes. I slice it after baking and its only a little hollow. When I try slicing alot later its super hollow. What happened there?
Mimi says
I don’t have a specific time since every batch of egg whites might be different. It’s always better to gauge the appearance of your ingredients rather than the time in determining when to move onto the next step in baking or even cooking. Having said that, you can try 2 minutes per speed starting at speed 3 until it gets stiff. XOXO, Mimi
Miyoung Lee says
Love your blog. I’m still having a problem with hollow macarons. I think I’ve made them hundreds times to fix the problem. I don’t think I have a problem with the batter. I’m sure that everything is okay with my skill. Then, temperature can be a problem. I’ve tried various temperature range but still it doesn’t work. I was looking for canadian recipe(i was using Korean recipe) just in case dry weather can affect the result and found your blog. The most informative blog I’ve found! Thanks for that. This blog is really helpful, but I haven’t been able to fix the problem yet. So frustrating!
Mimi says
It sounds like you have been putting a lot of effort into this! I really applaud you! Practice really makes perfect and sometimes its a matter of finding the right technique for your oven and climate. I’m glad you found the resources useful! I wish you luck on your next batch 🙂 XOXO, Mimi