Can you use store-bought liquid egg whites in macarons? My first attempt.

I am breaking the rules today.

But as I perused the grocery store and saw the above package, I thought, no way. Ever since I started making macarons I’ve been particular about my egg whites, aging them, loving them. And for good reason, every macaron recipe will tell you to start by separating eggs. If they make mention at all to the above pasteurized egg whites, they will tell you officially not to use them. I had held to this hard and fast rule myself. The fear? Liquid egg whites are pasteurized, which I’m guessing means those same proteins that you rely on to hold the structure of a meringue, are compromised by the heat required to pasteurize them.

They got relatively foamy right away. That was a good sign. But then I kept mixing and it seemed like nothing was happening. So I kept mixing. Finally, with much more mixing than ever required before, I started seeing a meringue. I never quite got the peaks or volume of the past, but I got a basically stable meringue to form.

So I added my food coloring and began my macronnage. But how would they end up? Baking time was coming, and baking macarons is the trickiest part.

I set my oven for 300 F, waited for the skins to form on my macarons, then popped the first tray in.

After about 10 minutes, they were looking awesome, beautiful tall feet, I was excited. But after the next five I saw the previously tall tops had sunk. Something wasn’t right. The meringue wasn’t holding. I was going to have hollow shells, or worse, collapses.

So now I had completely cooked shells without hollows, cracks or collapses. But they were still browning too much. I had one tray left. Once more chance for glory. I moved my oven rack lower and waited for it to come up to temp, then put my last tray in.

Oddest result – these were the brownest tray yet. But still, no hollows, no cracks, no collapses. My only thought is that I put my third tray in too soon after my 2nd, so the oven was kicking up heat to get it back to temp, and I had put them closer to that direct heat.

So there you have it. I have to admit that I’m surprised the liquid egg whites worked as well as they did. They make the batter a little more wet, but I think that with some practice baking, I could get a better result.

And the flavor? Honestly, the difference between the liquid egg whites vs separating them myself in terms of quality and texture, pretty darn close.

Close enough that I want to experiment some more and see if I can’t get this method perfected.

***Note: after a full 24 hours maturation, a few comments on the texture. The liquid egg white macarons seem to straddle right in between traditional french and italian macarons. They are definitely more toothsome than traditional french.

So what do you think? Have you tried making macarons with liquid egg-whites? Any differences in your results?

This subject has been updated! Click here for my updated recipe and post.