Depositing French Macarons

The explosion in popularity of the French macaron business in the United States over the past 15 or so years has been an incredible phenomenon. The ease of ecommerce and popularity of social media have allowed small macaron producers to dream big and grown their business to a nationwide level. The small, delicate, almond flavored cookies are popular for wedding favors, Valentines Day, and almost every other special occasion in between. We have been lucky to work with some bakers and business owners in this sector and it has been a great pleasure.

With the huge rise in popularity of the macaron, many businesses have integrated depositing machines to increase productivity and improve consistency.

At Westmere Baking Equipment we do offer depositors for French macarons, both in the table top and floor model version. Here is a link for more information. https://www.westmerebakingequipment.com/cookie-depositors

With that in mind we wanted to share some insight into using a depositor for making macarons.

Macaron batter is probably one of the most simple mixes to run through a depositor, but at the same time macarons can be quirky when it comes to the ingredients, type of meringue, the humidity, and the ovens.

In our opinion, macarons made using Italian meringue are more stable and ideal for running through a depositor. Transitioning from using a piping bag to a depositor does require some adjusting. The rollers in the depositor will apply a small amount of deflation on the batter, so it is best to slightly reduce the amount of folding before depositing. (macaronage)

In order to be most efficient with a depositor when making macarons, a 20 qt planetary mixer is the smallest size that we would recommend using for making the meringue for the batter.

Also when using a depositor it is ideal to have good oven capacity so you do not have any bottlenecks in the production process. Thankfully macaron baking time is relatively quick and having at least 10 sheet pan oven capacity can be reasonably efficient.

Adequate freezer space is also great when using a depositor for macarons, because they hold extremely well in the freezer and this allows producers to build inventory and reduce waste when some businesses may have up to 15-20 varieties available at any given time.

To reduce downtime and hopper cleaning between depositing different colors of macarons, some users of depositors will work from lighter color to darker colored shells and just scrape down the hopper and save cleaning for the end of the daily production.

The consistency in size that a depositor can provide is also important for packaging the macarons in clamshells that are designed to insure the delicate cookies arrive to their destination undamaged.

There are a lot of considerations when deciding to invest in a depositor for making macarons. Working with an experienced equipment company that offers a great product, and understands the nuances of making macarons can provide great value for the growing macaron business.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and please feel free to leave a question or comment!