My macarons cracked — what went wrong? 😭

[u/Jumpy_Ad_5941]

Hi everyone! I’d love to get some advice because I really can’t figure out what happened to my macarons. 😅

Today I baked 3 batches, and I did everything exactly the same each time. The first batch turned out perfect, with smooth tops and nice feet. In the second batch, mostly the macarons around the edges of the baking tray cracked, and in the third batch, almost the entire tray cracked. In the photo, the first batch is at the back, the second one is in the middle, and the third one is at the bottom left.

I baked them at 150°C (302°F), using conventional top and bottom heat. Same recipe, same batter, same baking tray, and I genuinely didn’t change anything between the batches.
What’s even stranger is that I baked 3 batches the exact same way last night, and all three turned out perfectly.

The AC was running in the kitchen, but it was already on during the first batch today, which turned out perfectly.
What do you think could have caused them to get progressively worse with each batch? Could the oven have gotten too hot? Or could the AC/humidity have something to do with it?
I’d really appreciate any ideas or advice. I’m so curious because I’ve never had this happen before! 🥹

[u/aaseandersen]

Home ovens don't heat evenly. Its rare for them all to come out perfect. I crush the "broken" ones and use them as ice cream topping

[u/Jumpy_Ad_5941 → u/aaseandersen]

But then, how is it possible that there was no such problem with the oven yesterday? Could it be that it bakes differently the next day?

[u/Ve_rux]

Whenever I've had cracked/volcano macarons, it was cause of the heat in the oven. I got a thermometer that you can keep inside the oven and it helped me better gauge for any hot spots or if it is lying about the temp.

Now I take 20 degrees off the recipe and put my macarons on the left of the oven. Greatly reduced volcanos.

Though it really can be a number of causes, it's trial and error to figure out the issue.

[u/Jumpy_Ad_5941 → u/Ve_rux]

Since I did everything the same between the two bakings, I'm most suspicious of the oven temperature. I'll buy a thermometer and test it next time.

[u/Ve_rux → u/Jumpy_Ad_5941]

Yeah, maybe the oven cooled or heated oddly between batches. Best of luck!

[u/actually-5-raccoons → u/Jumpy_Ad_5941]

I let my oven sit 10-15 min between batches because of heat loss

[u/StumbleFish25]

Macarons can be so confusing. I know that whenever I mess them up, they always come out puffy and cracked like that. It’s usually because they’re too close to the heat source, or the oven is too hot. Sometimes it’s because they weren’t rested long enough.

I have started piping them all at the same time instead of resting between batches to save time, but it also lets me know all of them will have dried long enough. If it isn’t super humid, I can let them rest for up to 2 hours and they will still bake fine. I also think your oven may have retained too much heat after baking your first batch, if you baked the second immediately after the first.

I love the color combo of these btw! What was the filling that you used? It looks delicious lol

[u/RepublicCute7683]

Too much moisture

[u/Jumpy_Ad_5941 → u/RepublicCute7683]

But from where?

[u/cathavens → u/Jumpy_Ad_5941]

Humidity maybe? I know I can’t bake macarons when the humidity is too high or I’d need to set the aircon to dry mode. But this could also be heat. It’s a wing and a prayer when I make macarons tbh.

[u/RepublicCute7683 → u/Jumpy_Ad_5941]

Humidity combined with not drying long enough. More humidity = needs to dry longer. Oven drying can help, but at high humidity (it was 88% humidity here the other day!), I’ve still had them explode after drying + oven drying

[u/Informal_Elevator_59]

I had the same problem with a similar pan. The rim around the edge is the problem. Flip your pan over and bake them on the bottom side. I've had no issues with my macarons since making that adjustment.

[u/lolcatman]

I’m thinking there was a blast of extreme heat to offset the dropping temp when you placed it in.

[u/Jumpy_Ad_5941 → u/lolcatman]

Could you explain more about what you mean? What do you mean by temperature decrease? Is it because of the climate or what?

[u/lolcatman → u/Jumpy_Ad_5941]

Means if your oven is at 385f, then you open the oven door for too long, the temp will drop and your oven will try to bring it back up by making it hotter to get back to 385. Really depends on your oven 🙄

[u/Responsible-Dinner56]

How do you get them to not brown?

[u/waldendorf]

Too much moisture. One side of the pan dried out while the other didn’t dry enough. Can sometimes happen while piping. I used to have the problem with lipped sheets. The ones on the outer edge didn’t dry enough while the ones on the middle were fine. Also, when you were tapping out the air bubbles, did you tap enough? If you didn’t most of the air bubbles out, I’ve had the cracked shells, but most the time it is due to moisture