Learn how to create this multi dimensional macaron bouquet using the no macaronage method! Keep these macaron textures in mind for your Mother’s day baking or your spring macarons.
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If you’re new to making macarons, I recommend checking out my Basic French Macarons tutorial first to get a framework of the overall process. The most important difference with regular macarons and this textured set is the amount of macaronage (folding the dry ingredients into the meringue).
With regular macarons, the batter is folded until it flows off the spatula or mostly settles back down into itself. With the no macaronage method, you ONLY fold until your dry ingredients are BARELY incorporated. This stiff batter is what allows your piped macarons to hold their shape when piped as opposed to smoothing out. My 3D Tulip Macaron Tutorial has a few photo examples of how stiff your batter should be if you’d like a visual! It’s also important to note that you should NOT tap your trays after piping.
For this bouquet, I split my batch into four different colors. This gets a bit tricky with the no macaronage technique because you have to split your ingredients before you do any folding. To split my batch, I thoroughly whisked my dry ingredients together, and then divided it equally (and when I say equally, I mean down to the gram) between four bowls.
To divide the meringue, I weigh my mixing bowl empty and jot that number down, and then weigh it again AFTER the meringue is done. Next, I subtract the empty bowl weight from the full bowl weight to figure out the weight of my finished meringue, and then divide that amount equally between the four bowls as well.
From here you can move on to coloring your batter! I prepped 3 of my piping bags with a coupler so I could experiment with different piping tips, and with one bag I placed in a Wilton 8B tip.
The color mixing in this color palette ended up being fairly simple! If you’d like to recreate it, add a drop or two of brown to your meringue before you divide it to start. Brown mutes the colors down a bit which I enjoy. With the no macaronage method, you’ll want to add all of your color at the beginning before you mix, because adding it later in the folding process will either leave the color streaky or you’ll over mix it trying to incorporate it. I’ll include the color formulas I used below. Keep in mind each color was only 1/4 of a batch.
Let’s start off with the Soft Pink Meringue Kiss shaped macarons! This texture was a lot of fun to pipe and created such a cute texture. Use the Wilton 8B piping tip to create this shape.
The off white design uses a very similar technique but instead of the 8B, the piping tip used was a Wilton 32. Being smaller, it created a slightly more squiggly look.
Next, let’s touch on the greenery. I don’t have a video for this one because to be honest I was kind of winging it! I used a small rose tip for the round leaves, the grass shape, and the longer leaves, and for the dots with white sprinkles I used a small/medium round tip.
Last, let’s finish it off with my favorite shape from the bunch, the piping technique for the peach roses! I keep trying to go for a peony look but think I need to get a larger more curved tip to really pull it off. So for today, we’ll call it what it looks like and say it’s a basic rose shape. Use a round tip to pipe the initial dollop, and then a Wilton 61 tip to pipe the petals. Start with 3 around the center, and then work your way out. I found it helpful to pipe one angle of petals all the way down my tray, and then spin my tray and repeat. That way you’re not constantly spinning your tray as you work your way around one flower at a time.
When it comes to resting, I would recommend increasing your time a bit more than usual. All of the cracks and crevices in the textures take a bit longer to form the skin and prevent cracking in the oven. Speaking of baking, bake your macarons at your normal temperature for your usual length of time. Or you can try my recipe down below! You may need to add an extra minute or two.
Once macarons are cool, assemble them with your favorite filling! Using the textured mac on both sides does make them quite tall, so if you want a more regular size macaron you’ll have to fully macaronage half of each color of batter to pipe normal macaron shells to pair with the textured ones.
Allow macarons to mature in an airtight container in the fridge for 24 hours to develop their ideal texture and flavor. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Instructions
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