I'm Megan, a professionaly trained baker who loves making delicious and beautiful desserts feel approachable. Let's bake something unforgettable together!
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These 3 dimensional wave macarons are just the thing you need this summer to add a pop of texture to your macarons! If you can pipe a rosette, you can pipe these waves. Two tone batter adds even more dimension with the swirls of white and blue. Read through the tutorial to find out how you can make your own!
These macarons implement a few different techniques beyond a basic batch. Today we’ll go over the no macaronage method, and also a multi color piping technique. (If you’ve ever read through my 3D Tulip Macarons post, a lot of this will sound familiar!)
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Prepare the Split Color/Split Consistency Macaron Batter
First off, you’ll need to prepare your macaron batter. Doing a multi color batch AND a no macaronage batch means you’ll have to do a bit of math! (Math despisers, bare with me, it’s not too bad)
Before you start adding any ingredients to your mixing bowl, you’ll need to weigh out the empty weight of the bowl in grams. Write it down somewhere so you won’t forget!
Prepare your meringue as usual in your electric mixer’s bowl. I will be basing my instructions off of my Basic French Macaron Recipe with the adjustments of the split color and no macaron techniques.
Next, split your sifted dry ingredients between three medium size mixing bowls using the following proportions. Two bowls should have 1/4 of the dry ingredients (200 grams), and one bowl should have 1/2 the drys (400 grams).
Note: This tutorial is for a one sided textured wave, so you will have a flat shell on one side to create balance with a traditional textured shell. The bowl with half of the dry ingredients will be the one where you fully macaronage as normal to pipe your backs.
Once meringue is complete, weigh your mixing bowl with the meringue, and then subtract the bowls empty weight to find out how much your meringue weighs.
Weight of bowl with meringue – Weight of bowl empty = Weight of meringue
Once you know how much your meringue weighs, divide that number by two. Add that number (half of your meringue) into the bowl with half of your dry ingredients. Split the remaining meringue by placing 1/4 each into the two remaining bowls.
Two Tone Coloring the Batter
In one of the smaller bowls with the 1/4 batch amount, fold the dry ingredients, meringue, (and white gel food coloring if using) together JUST until your dry ingredients have been incorporated. Not a fold more! If you continue to fold, your batter will be too soft to hold it’s shape.
Repeat the above step with the other 1/4 batch, adding a few drops of blue food coloring at the very beginning. I used Sky Blue from Wilton which I’ll link below.
Lay out a piece of saran wrap and place one color of batter in a line. Roll it up and twist off the ends as shown below. Repeat for second color.
Place a 1M tip in a large piping bag. Prop up bag using a bag holder or a large clip. Twist off or clip the end of the piping bag so your batter won’t flow out of your tip while you load it.
Holding your two rolls of batter together, cut off the end of the saran wrap creating an opening (or just untwist one end).
Place both rolls into the 1M piping bag, lining up the ends of the saran wrapped colors equally, working them down together towards the tip. Set aside.
Before moving to the next step, prepare the traditional macaron batter for the back shell. Add a few drops of the same blue shade to the bowl with the 1/2 batch. Pour in the remaining powdered sugar and almond flour, and continue folding (approximately 10 more folds) until dry ingredients are fully incorporated, and your batter is no longer super clumpy. Do not overfold. Please note this recipe stays a bit thicker than most, and should not be folded to the traditional figure 8 test or V flow test consistency. Start checking your batter’s readiness every 2 folds or so at this point by scraping all batter down to the bottom of your bowl, and then wiggling your bowl back and forth several times. If the batter levels out with few peaks and lines remaining, it should be ready. (See photos in Basic French Macarons post for reference.)
Bag traditional batter in a medium sized piping bag fitted with a #12 round piping tip, and use a tie or twist to seal the open part of the bag. Set aside.
Pipe your waves using the two tone batter on to a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. Video will be added soon below for piping technique. You can either free hand pipe the waves onto your standard circle template, or you can download the template below to slide under your silicone mat as a guide.
Using the traditional macaron batter, pipe the mirrored wave shape for the back of the shell.
Drying and Baking
After resting (or check out my post on oven drying) bake traditional macaron batter shells as usual.
Rest textured macarons until the outer layer is COMPLETELY dry. I use a fan all the time thanks to the constant humidity of my area, but I think a fan would be beneficial regardless of where you live with this 3D technique. Make sure to rotate your tray every 5 minutes or so to make sure each side of the tulips gets adequate air flow from the fan.
Drying Tip: If the crevices are still looking a bit shiny, tilt your tray up a few inches by propping one side up so more of the tops will be hit directly by the air flow of the fan.
Once macarons have formed a dry layer in every nook and cranny, bake as you normally would with maybe an extra minute or two tagged on to your bake time.
Match a textured wave shell to a traditional batter shell, fill, and enjoy!
I hope this tutorial was helpful! If you have any other textured macarons you’d like to see, feel free to leave a comment. Thanks for stopping by!
Looking for more textured macaron ideas?
Textured Wave Macaron Tutorial
Learn how to create beachy two toned textured wave macarons using the no macaronage method.
130gramsEgg WhitesApproximately 4 Large Eggs: Measure with Scale
120gramsGranulated Sugar
1/2tspCream of Tartar
200gramsAlmond Flour
200gramsConfectioner’s Sugar
Blue Gel Food Coloring
White Gel Food Coloring
Instructions
Prepare Macaron Batter Base
Line two baking sheets with silicone mats.
Prep a large piping bag with a 1M piping tip. Pinch off the piping tip end with a clip, and place piping bag in a bag holder or large pitcher with the end of the bag held open so it’s ready to load your batter into.
Prepare a second medium sized piping bag with a #12 round tip.
Weigh your empty mixing bowl in grams and jot the number down somewhere.
Place egg whites, granulated sugar, and cream of tartar into your mixing bowl, and begin beating with a whisk attachment using either a handheld mixer or a stand mixer for 2 minutes on a medium low speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 4).
Turn up the mixer to a medium speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 6) and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
While meringue is mixing, sift almond flour and powdered sugar into a large bowl and whisk thoroughly. Split the sifted almond flour and powdered sugar mixture between 3 medium size bowls, filling one with half of the mixture (400 grams) and two bowls with 1/4 of the mixture (200 grams each). Set aside.
Turn mixer up to medium high speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 8) and beat for 3 more minutes, or until peaks are very stiff and the meringue clumps up in a ball in the center of the whisk. Test stiffness by removing whisk and pointing it upward. Once the peaks can hold their shape flipped upright, your meringue is ready.
Weigh the bowl WITH the meringue in grams, and then subtract the original empty bowl weight to find the weight of the meringue. Once you have your meringue weight, divide it by two.
Using a scale to measure, add exactly half of your meringue to the bowl with ½ (400 grams) of your dry ingredients.
Using a scale to measure, add exactly ¼ of your meringue to each of the bowls with ¼ (200 grams) of your dry ingredients.
Coloring and Folding Two Toned No Macaronage Batter
For the first 1/4 batch bowl, add in several drops of white gel food coloring (optional) and fold ingredients together JUST until your batter has no dry ingredients remaining. Do NOT continue folding as you would with regular macarons. Your batter should be stiff, but not have any dry ingredient streaks.
For the second 1/4 batch bowl, add a few drops of blue gel food coloring, and similar to the white batter, fold ingredients together JUST until your batter has no dry ingredients remaining. Do NOT continue folding as you would with regular macarons. This batter should also be stiff, and not have any dry ingredient streaks.
Lay out a piece of saran wrap and place the white stiff batter in a line. Roll the batter up and then twist off the ends. Repeat for blue batter in a second roll of saran wrap. See photos in post for reference.
Cut off one end of each roll, and then place them both in the piping bag together with your lighter shade closest to the small part of the 1M tip. Scoot both colors of batter down so they remain evenly close to the piping tip end. Set aside.
Traditional Macaronage Shells (Back side of waves)
In the bowl containing ½ the meringue and ½ the dry ingredient mixture, add few drops of blue food coloring and fold (approximately 10 times) until dry ingredients are fully incorporated, and your batter is no longer clumpy and stiff. Do not overfold. Start checking your batter’s readiness every 2 folds or so at this point by scraping all batter down to the bottom of your bowl, and then wiggling your bowl back and forth several times. If the batter levels out with very few peaks and lines remaining, it should be ready. (See photos in Basic French Macarons post for reference)
Preheat oven to 300 ℉ (Use an oven thermometer if possible)
Using the standard macaronaged batter, pipe the mirror image of the textured waves on a circle template to use as the backs.
Once you’ve piped a full tray, firmly bang the tray on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles and smooth out shells. Pop any remaining large bubbles with a toothpick or scribe tool.
Set aside shells to dry until they form a skin and are no longer tacky to the touch. Once you can gently run a finger over your shells, they are ready to bake. Use a fan to speed up the process, rotating the tray every few minutes to ensure even drying. This usually takes at least 20 minutes for me even with a fan. (To skip the resting/drying process, check out my blog post on oven drying macarons. Note: Oven drying works for traditional macaronaged batter, but is not usually successful for textured no macaronage shells.)
(Hint: Go pipe the textured waves while the traditional batter shells for the back are drying) Once shells are dry, and the oven has fully preheated to 300, place one tray in the center of the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 18 minutes.
Quickly open door to check the shell’s doneness by gently pressing on the side just above the feet to see if it’s firm. If it moves at all, bake for another 2 minutes.
Check shells by performing the same test, pressing on the side. If they are still unstable, bake for one more minute, and check again. Repeat until shells are firm and do not budge.
Allow shells to cool completely, and the carefully remove from silicone mat or parchment paper by gently peeling them off.
Textured Wave Macaron Shells
With the two tone batter piping bag, pipe a small amount of batter back in to one of your mixing bowls until both colors of batter are showing.
Pipe wave shapes onto circle templates.
Rest your macarons with a fan blowing on them until the outer layer is completely dry in every crevice. Rotate trays every 5 minutes or so to ensure even air flow to each side.
Bake one tray on the middle rack for 18 minutes.
Rotate tray and bake for an additional 2 minutes. Test doneness by gently tapping on the side of your tulip shells. If it wiggles, bake for another minute. Repeat until shells are no longer wiggly.
Once macarons are fully baked and set, remove from oven to cool completely. Repeat with second tray.
Match textured waves with a traditional macaron batter shell for the back. Fill macarons and mature in the fridge in an airtight container for 24 hours before eating for optimal texture. Textured macarons may take an extra day to mature depending on the filling. Enjoy!
Keyword 3 Dimensional, 3D, No Macaronage, Textured
I'm Megan, a professionaly trained baker who loves making delicious and beautiful desserts feel approachable. Let's bake something unforgettable together!
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