Vegan Egg-Free Macarons!!

As you can probably tell from the double exclamation mark in the title of this post, I'm SO excited to have successfully made EGG-FREE macarons! Macarons are traditionally made out of egg whites, sugar and ground almonds, with the egg whites providing the key component for their structure. 

Egg-Free Vegan Macarons!

But, before I tell you about the successful ones, let me tell you about the massive failure of my first attempt. I happened upon a box of Orgran Gluten Free No Egg Egg Replacer on the supermarket shelf. On the box, it says "You can even use it to make meringues!" and I immediately wanted to try to make macarons with it, just to see if it could be done! The instructions say to replace 1 egg white with 1 tsp of egg replacer and 2 teaspoons of water, so I substituted the egg white in my regular French macaron recipe with this. The egg white replacer+water mixture didn't really whip up to anything more than a goopy, slightly thickened liquid, even though I whipped it on high on my KitchenAid for a good 5 mins. In hindsight, maybe I should have let the mixer keep going for however long it took to form stiff peaks because the product claims that this can be done. It just didn't specify how long to whip it for... 

didn't manage to get any volume whatsoever

Anyway, cuz I was impatient to keep waiting, I dumped in the almonds+icing sugar mixture and folded to incorporate. As you can imagine, the result was one thick batter. No beautiful, lava-like consistency. I kept folding and folding but the batter just stayed thick! Already knew this wasn't gonna work, but I let them rest for 20 mins in an aircon room (and I was surprised that they still developed a "skin") and then popped them in the oven. 

Eggless macaron disaster, using Orgran Egg Replacer

As expected, the result was a catastrophic macaron failure. Because the batter was lacking the structure of properly beaten "egg whites", they came out as flat as pancakes. Oddly enough, they tasted like macarons, but really sweet and dense ones. 

miracle "Aquafaba" makes an excellent substitute for egg whites!

I was a little let down. This egg-free macaron experiment wasn't going anywhere. So, I got to Googling (which I really should have done before buying the Orgran, which was NOT cheap!). There were numerous recipes out there raving about "Aquafaba", which is the liquid from a can of chickpeas. What?! Who knew that this stuff could be whipped up like eggs, and until stiff peaks?! (PS I hate chickpeas and beans of any kind...) But the recipes I read called for reducing the liquid, and then refrigerating it overnight before using. I'm not a patient person and didn't want to do this. So I kept browsing and clicking until I found a recipe I liked, one that used the liquid straight outta the can! Now that's my kind of recipe. 

whip the liquid for 15 mins or until medium-firm peaks

I immediately went out to buy a can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) and then rushed back to attempt egg-free macarons for a 2nd time! I followed Pizza Rossa's recipe, not bothering to scale it down cuz if this was gonna fail, I didn't want to blame it on proportions. It's an Italian Macaron recipe, so bust out your candy thermometer.

Egg-Free Vegan Macarons
(adapted from Pizza Rossa's Vegan Maracon recipe)

Ingredients
140g ground almonds
140g powdered (confectioner's) sugar, sifted
100g chickpea canning liquid, room temperature, divided 50/50
1 tsp vanilla paste
100g granulated (white) sugar
40g water

Directions
Line two baking sheets with baking (parchment) paper. Set aside. 

Weigh out and mix the sifted icing sugar with the ground almonds (I don't bother to sift or run my almonds through the food processor. I buy Superfine ground almonds, though I'm sure my shells would be so much smoother if I did run them through a food processor together with the icing sugar)

after 10 mins of whipping the Aquafaba

Drain the liquid from a can of chickpeas, and weigh out 50g in two bowls, with one of the bowls being the bowl of your mixer (less to wash!). Get the liquid in the mixer's mixing bowl whipping on high power, with the whisk attachment of you stand mixer. A stand mixer is important for this, because I timed how long it took to whip them up to medium-firm peaks and it was literally 15 minutes. 

In the other bowl of chickpea liquid, add a teaspoon of vanilla paste. (I used vanilla essence). Add this to the ground almonds and icing mixture, forming a sort of paste.

get the sugar syrup to 118C soft boil stage

Put the granulated sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat it up til the mixture gets to 118C (244F). A candy thermometer is essential for this because with the Italian meringue method, you need to make your sugar syrup gets to the soft ball stage but doesn't overheat and get to the hard ball stage. This takes less than 5 mins, so try and time it such that your sugar gets to the right temperature around the time your chickpea liquid has whipped up to medium-firm peaks.  

After 15 mins of whipping, go ahead & add the hot sugar syrup

after 5 mins of whipping the sugar syrup with the Aquafaba

Once the the liquid in the mixer gets whipped up to medium-firm peaks, slow the mixer to the lowest setting and drizzle in the sugar syrup slowly on the side of the bowl, trying not to pour it on the beater so that the hot sugar doesn't fly everywhere. Crank it up to high speed again and whisk for 5-10 minutes until the mixture has completely cooled and has become firm and shiny. You will be able to get a stiff peak when you lift the beater. If you want to add some gel food colouring, add it at this stage. Remember to add a drop or two more of your desired end colour, cuz the macarons will fade slightly after baking.

stiff enough peaks. Hooray!

fold in the whipped chickpea liquid to the almond mixture

Add this mixture to the almond mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until you get to the lava stage, where the batter ribbons off of the spatula and flattens in 10-12 seconds with a few taps on the mixing bowl. As with regular macarons, do not over-mix!  (you'll notice I only added the food colouring at this stage cuz I forgot to do it earlier)

Add a dab or two of food colouring, if desired

Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a round tip (I just use a piping coupler without a tip). Pipe out circles on baking paper-lined baking sheets (Mine are about 3.5 cm in diameter). 

let the shells rest until they're dry and have a skin

Bang the baking sheet against the counter a few times to knock out the air bubbles and flatten the surface of the batter. Let the macarons dry until they develop a skin and are dry to the touch, 30 mins in an air-conditioned room. (Really, here in the tropics, I believe drying them in aircon is necessary. The humidiy is 95% here, so I can't understand how the shells would ever dry, though there are folks around here who have successfully made macarons by drying them at room temperature in all that humidity!)

look at those purdy little feet and domed shells!!

Bake them in a preheated 140C oven for 30-35 mins until you can cleanly peel one from the baking paper without too much sticking. (the original recipe calls for a 150C oven for 18 mins).  I may have over-baked mine just a tad that's why the shells got a little tanned. I pulled them out after 23 mins but couldn't get them off the baking paper cleanly, so I kept adding 5 mins to the baking time until I could get them off of the paper.

Cool them on a cooling rack (I do this again in aircon, with a fan blowing, cuz I'm impatient), and then peel them from the baking paper. 

fill with dark chocolate ganache & smoked salted caramel

Fill the shells with whatever you like: ganache, caramel, nut butters, jams etc! To keep things egg-free, I filled mine with dark chocolate ganache and smoked salted caramel.  As with regular macarons, the flavour and moisture from the filling needs time to soak into the shell, so let your macarons mature for at least 24 hours in the fridge (48 hrs is better!) before you bite into one. If you can't resist and sink your teeth into one as soon as you've done making them, you'll find that they're unpleasantly too hard and crunchy. 

gooey smoked salted caramel

Once again, I just cannot say how osome it is to have made egg-free macarons!! I literally  jumped for joy when I saw these little babies developing beautiful feet in the oven. And then then I jumped again after taking them out of the oven! Haaaa. 

Egg-free & Vegan Italian macarons!

Happy baking!! Whip up a batch of these for your vegan/egg-free friends and they will love you even more. 

Egg-free macaron goodness. Almost (95%) like the real thing.