The 'Mak Daddy' of macarons reveals the secret to nailing this tricky treat

Carlos Heng wears a T-shirt that says Mak Daddy – and considering he's the man behind MakMak Macarons in Sydney's Newtown, it makes perfect sense.

While other crazes come and go, the petite and delightful macaron has ridden its faddish-high of the last few years, and settled comfortably into the Australian food landscape as a much-loved treat, and Heng's been championing the macaron cause with his innovative creations since 2010.

9Kitchen was lucky enough to see how Heng creates his delights from start to finish and learn a mind-blowing cooking hack for nailing the notoriously tricky treats – watch the mesmerising video above to see how it's done.

Heng wants the world to know the dessert isn't as difficult to make as most people think, and he runs classes to prove it. Typically there's a stage called "skinning" in the baking process, where the meringue shells are left to set before going into the oven. It's this stage that creates the recognisable "foot" or slight rise in a macaron shell, and it's also the bit that typically causes a home cook trouble.

But Heng has revealed that this stage is only necessary if you use the French meringue technique, where he uses an Italian meringue technique that makes the mixture more stable, bypasses the skinning process and creates a more reliable result. It's this technique that he teaches in his macarons classes – and it's also the reason his shells turn out with such precision. See how comparatively simple it is in the clip above, from the whipping of egg whites to the luscious, slow, steady stream of warm sugar syrup.

"We whip the meringue for 20-25 minutes," says Heng, "This lets it take on plenty of air and add volume, and you end up with a beautiful, smooth, marshmallowy cloud."

Almond meal and pure icing sugar are mixed up with the colouring paste of choice and then added to the meringue. See Heng's artful demonstration of his folding technique above. 

"It's important to use pure icing sugar, not icing mixture, as any additives will knock the chemistry of the process." That's just another trick from the Heng macaron laboratory. 

"It's also important to get all the colouring out of the bowl and into the mix," says Heng, "otherwise your final result might end up a shade lighter than you planned." And make sure you mix all the colouring through, so that you don't end up with streaks or colour spots. 

After that, it's piping time – something that Heng recommends practising – and it's pretty mesmerising to see his hand-piping in action. A solid tap on the bench with the finished tray of shells helps them to spread evenly, reduce large air bubbles and flatten the nipple (or peak) that piping may leave. In fact, you can see that at MakMak, the solid bench thumping is part of the soundtrack of the day – you have to see the video to believe the beating these petite treats can take.
 
Then it's into the oven for a precise 9-10 minutes (depending on the time of year). In that 10 minute window, the iconic feet of the macarons come to life, and by the time the shells are ready to cool, they each have a perfect pedestal foot to show off. 

"You want the feet to set, no nipples, a nice shine and smooth finish," says the Mak Daddy. 

While they're cooling, Heng whips up a signature ganache filling for the meringue sandwiches. Today, it's white chocolate, green tea powder and buttercream, a shade of green to complement the shells. He matches the sandwich halves to their perfect top and bottom pair, pipes in the filling and voila! A perfect macaron. See, it's not as tricky as you might think.

See the Mak Daddy in action in our mouth-watering video above – or book yourself in for a class.