Try putting your eggs whites in the fridge for about 15 minutes after you separate them. See if it helps with the skirting. You can send me photos through my email and we could continue the conversation there if you like. I am currently taking medication for an allergic reaction I recently had so I might not reply until tomorrow as it knocks me out within a few minutes of taking it. 🥴

French method, no heating of meringue. I used room temp egg whites. It could be my house is too warm…80 degrees but the kitchen could be hotter. I literally go crazy. I wish. I could send you pictures

Is it this recipe or one with a heated meringue? I ask because the heated meringues are notorious for this. If it is not a heated meringue, are you using room temperature eggs or ones straight from fridge? If room temperature, what is your temperature in the house set at? I’ve seen this happen when the house gets too warm as well.

I have big feet that spread like a shirt. I dried them well. They did have good skin before I put in the oven.

Hello!

Glad to hear from you. What exactly is going on with the ruffle feet? If they aren’t appearing, it’s either a ratio issue with the recipe from either the writer of the recipe or leaving out or reducing the sugar in the meringue will cause feet not to form.

Also, not drying them long enough will cause the shells to have little to no feet and they often crack open. This is a common problem with humid climate. If you under mix them, the feet naturally are taller as they have more air to burst the feet upward. If they are really small, this is often a sign of over mixing as well as under drying.

If these suggestions aren’t helpful to your issue, please let me know and we can troubleshoot some more.

Hi again,

I wanted to ask you a question. I was making beautiful macarons until last week when I ran into ruffle feet issue and I can’t seem to fix it no matter what. I barely mixed my batter and tried to be on the undermixed side of things. Do you have any suggestions as to what is going on with my batter? Or rather my technique? Thx so much for any advice you can provide! 🙏🙏🙏

Hi Wendy!

I don’t know what macaron mat will be the “best” as I haven’t tried all of them. I will say I have a favorite and one I wouldn’t use of the ones I’ve purchased.

I have a brand called “Cook Time” that I got off Amazon I really like. They are usually around $5 each on sale. You can often get deals on them around holidays.

The brand I would avoid is Amazon Basics. They are hit or miss if they will release the macaron shells. Some work, others stick horribly. Plus, some will emit a horrible odor while baking that transfers to your food. They all seem to do this initially, but the Amazon ones were still doing it over a year later whereas other brands stopped after a few uses.

If you want a name brand, a lot of people like the silpat variety. I have never used this due to the cost, but have heard good things about it.

One thing to note about silicone mats: they all pick up hair, fur, dust, lint easily. When I dry them, I use a lint free towel. A paper towel will make it look like it snowed on the mat. And I always wash them right before using as no matter how clean you are, they seem to attract everything. I can’t tell you how many times I pulled a clean mat out of the cabinet and found a piece of lint, dust or dog fur on them.

Hope this helps!

Danner, you are absolutely correct there are different ratios depending on which type of macaron you are making (French, Italian, Swiss, American, Japanese, etc.) I actually have a spreadsheet of all the most common ratios an recipes if you are interested.

This particular ratio is based on the original French meringue method. This is also the least sweet macaron. They really let the almonds and fillings shine through instead of sugar!

However, as a result, these are also the most difficult of macarons to master due to the natural of the French meringue. This is because of it being less stable due to the least amount of sugar used and not being heated or stabilized with other ingredients. They are so easy to go awry.

If you are having trouble getting the macarons to turn out, I am more than happy to assist you until they do. I stand by this recipe and want everyone to be successful making it. There are lots of people I have tutored over the years and several are using my recipe a selling these in their home bakeries. So I am sure I can help you as well if you tell me where things went wrong for you. Feel free to contact me further if you want help.

However, if these simply are not sweet enough to your liking, I highly recommend you look up Italian, Swiss, or American macaron recipes. The American will be your sweetest. All of these use a much higher ratio of sugar to egg whites which stabilizes the meringue and makes them much more easy for the novice to master. You will want to pair them with more bitter fillings to balance out the macarons or they quickly become sickly sweet.

Unfortunately, not everyone will like the taste of macarons or will favor one type over the other and perhaps you simply do not like this recipe since you stated it was in a “bad way.” Taste is subjective so I can’t help with that, but I am more than willing to help you troubleshoot making macarons if you had trouble having them turn out. Regardless if you liked my recipe or not, I’m am happy to assist you in learning how to master the world’s most difficult cookie as they are a passion of mine. Happy baking!