How to Fix Hollow Macaron Issue

You finally got beautiful macaron shells with smooth tops and pretty feet. But when you break into them, they’re hollow inside!! Ugh, how I understand the frustration!!

Well, good news is that you’re in the right place!

As someone who had struggled with hollow macarons for couple of years, I totally understand how frustrating it can be. After many, many testing I finally cracked the code to fix hollow macarons.

And because there’re many different things that could cause hollow macarons, you’ll have to test it out in your own oven. But if you try the following 7 tips, I can guarantee you perfectly full shells in no time!

1. Use store-bought powdered sugar, because commercial powdered sugar has cornstarch in the mix. Cornstarch helps to make meaty macarons.
2. Good stable meringue is the foundation to perfect macarons. Don’t rush this step! I prefer to make my French meringue low and slow, meaning whip the egg whites on low speed for longer time. Watch my French Meringue 101 video for more details. It’s also important to watch for the important visual cues of the perfectly stiff stage.
3. Over-mixed batter could cause hollow macarons. Make sure the batter is just runny enough to flow into ribbon and melt back into the rest of the batter within 10 seconds, but still thick enough to hold its shape when piped.
4. Piping technique plays an important role as well. Hold your pastry bag with macaron batter at 90° angle, squeeze the batter from the top at a consistent pressure and pipe the batter until desired size without swirling around. (Watching it in action.)
5. Too high oven temperature could cause hollow macarons. Double check your oven temperature with an oven thermometer, because it’s very normal for oven temperature fluctuate up to 50°F up or down.
6. Under baked macarons also collapse inside, leaving macarons hollow inside. That’s why it’s so important to keep close eye on the temperature of the oven.
7. And lastly, make sure to mature your macarons. If your macaron shells have just a little bit of gap at the top, don’t fret. Once you fill the macarons and mature them in the fridge for about 24 hours, they’ll magically fill back up.

For me personally, my French meringue technique and piping technique made the biggest difference.

Hope one of these tips will help you fix your hollow macaron issue once and for all. And I’d so appreciate if you share your success story down in the comments!