easy macarons

This foolproof french macaron recipe will give you perfectly smooth, chewy macarons every time. Follow our step by step guide for french macarons for a sweet French treat!

Foolproof Macaron Recipe (Step By Step!)

g egg whites

g sugar

almond flour

salt

Food coloring (optional)

Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

sugar

vanilla extract

Foolproof Macaron Recipe (Step by Step!)

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Heat a small pot of water over medium-low heat until it steams. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine egg whites and roughly 3 tablespoons of the granulated sugar. Place bowl over steaming pot, creating a double boiler.

Whisk egg whites and sugar continuously until sugar melts completely and egg whites become white and frothy, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and place the bowl back onto the stand mixer.

Fit stand mixer with whisk attachment and whisk on high speed while slowly adding in the remaining granulated sugar. Add the food coloring (if using). Continue to whisk for another 3-4 minutes, until stiff meringue peaks form. Congratulations, you just made a Swiss meringue!

Next, sift together the almond flour, powdered sugar, and salt twice, then gently shake the mixture into the meringue bowl.

Place the bowl back onto a stand mixer, still fitted with a whisk attachment. Turn the mixer to medium speed and whisk for 5 seconds (just enough to combine the almond flour mixture with the egg whites).

Stop the mixer and use a large spatula to hand-mix the batter for the remainder of your mixing. You’ll want to gently fold the mixture with your spatula, scooping up the batter from the outside of the bowl and gently twisting it into the center in a circle-like manner. You’ll know to stop mixing when you can make a figure-eight out of the dripping batter without the batter breaking. If you cannot yet make a figure-eight, repeat the process if necessary, and try the figure-eight again. The best way to describe the perfect consistency is like slow moving lava. It should give, but only slightly, like in slow-motion.

Once your batter is the correct consistency, scoop it into a large pastry bag fitted with a 1 inch tip. Pipe silver dollar-sized circles onto prepared baking sheets, keeping about 1.5 inches between each meringue. Bang baking sheet on counter two times to remove any air bubbles. Sprinkle tops with a little sea salt as a garnish.

Let the macarons air dry for 15 to 30 minutes or until dry to the touch. Just pop them into the prepared oven for 13 minutes, turning around halfway through, then allow to cool completely before removing from baking sheets.

While the macarons are cooling, make the filling. Combine all filling ingredients in a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until fluffy and fully combined, about 2 minutes.

Scoop mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1/2 inch tip and set aside until ready to assemble the macarons.

Once the macarons are completely cool to the touch, pipe the filling onto a macaron and sandwich with another macaron. Repeat with all macarons.

looking forward to trying this method.  What kind of tip did you using for the butter cream, and how to you achieve the details of the filling.

I'm a novice macaron enthusiast and was getting a bit discouraged after several failed batches based on recipes culled from other websites. I had tried French meringue and Swiss meringue with and without cream of tartar, fresh egg whites, aged egg whites and egg white-to-dry ingredient proportions that were all over the map. How I wish I had started with this simple straightforward 1:1:1:1 recipe! I love that you can easily adjust the amount of batter just by weighing out the egg whites (I used 2) and then weighing out the other ingredients proportionately. Made a batch of red velvet and another of pumpkin spice so far that were pretty enough to box up as gifts. I did get a few cracked ones, most likely due to my oven heating unevenly, but even those with a flawed appearance still had the perfect taste and texture. Have un-bookmarked all those other sites. This will be my go-to recipe from now on. Thank you so much!

This recipe was easy to follow and the macarons turned out incredible! I will definitely be making these again .

I made with a hand mixer and they came out great!! Will definitely make again!!

This recipe will walk you through how to make macarons. These sweet, decadent treats are tricky to master, but once you get it, it&#x27;s totally worth it!

Basic Macaron Recipe

confectioners sugar

almond flour ((see notes on how to make your own))

egg whites, room temp

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

sugar ((see notes on how to make your own))

gel food coloring

prepare baking sheets and ingredients

Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Make sure ALL of the ingredients are at room temp.

sift almond flour and powdered sugar

SIFT together the almond flour and powdered sugar. Discard any lumps in the sifter, do not force through, and set the bowl aside.  (tip: your almond flour should be as dry as possible, you may need to spread it out on a baking sheet and allow it to dry for 1-2 hours).

begin to whisk egg white on low, add cream of tartar

Put the room temperature egg whites in the mixer bowl with a whisk attachment. Start at low speed and move to medium speed until foamy (see pic). And add the cream of tartar.

increase speed and add superfine sugar

Once you have soft peaks, add the superfine sugar. Continue to whisk until stiff peaks form. Add the vanilla and food coloring and continue to mix until all of the color is mixed in.

sift almond flour/sugar mixture into egg whites

SIFT the flour and sugar mix once again into the egg whites and discard any lumps in the sifter.

fold ingredients together until lava-like consistency

Fold until everything is combined. I use a silicone spatula and that works very well. Press the batter into the sides of the bowl to get out some of the air to avoid hollow macarons. The mixture will be sticky and should have a lava-like consistency, meaning when you pour it onto itself self it sinks back into the batter with no lines after about a minute or less.

put batter in a piping bag and pipe macaron shells

Put the batter in a pastry bag or macaron dispenser (see photo below, Amazon has a bunch to choose from). Try to get all the air out of the bag before you start. Pipe circles with the bag/tip straight up, you&#039;ll figure out what works best for you. I don&#039;t use a stencil which is why my macarons are not all the exact same size, but you can if you want to.

tap pans, pop bubbles and rest for 30 minutes

Tap the pans on the countertop...A LOT, you might see bubbles come up and that&#039;s what you want. You can also carefully poke any other bubbles with a toothpick before you let the macarons rest. Let the pans sit for 30 minutes and do not touch or tap anymore or you will get cracks or holes. This allows the macarons to create a crust and helps with the feet. You know they are ready when you lightly place your fingertip on the outside and nothing comes off on your finger.

bake macarons for 10 minutes then cool on rack

Preheat the oven to 325°F. TIP: While the macarons are baking and cooling, you can make the filling if you have not already (recipe below). Bake for 10 minutes, one pan at a time and rotate once after the first 5 minutes. Let the macarons rest on the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

fill each shell with prepared filling

Once cooled, make your favorite filling and place it in a pastry bag with a round tip. Fill a circle around the edge of one half of a cookie and place the second half gently on top. Be careful not to push too hard or you will smash your beautiful creation. Enjoy!

Vanilla Bean French Macarons. These are my base recipe for making French Macarons and will be the foundation of any flavour.

Vanilla Bean Macarons

almonds

powdered sugar

egg whites,

vanilla bean paste

Preheat oven to 300˚f / 150˚c, and position the oven rack in the centre of the oven. Using a round cookie cutter or the base of a large piping tip (something about 1.5 inches in diameter), draw a "template" for your macarons on a piece of parchment paper, leaving about 3/4" between each circle.

Combine the almond meal and powdered sugar together in a large bowl. Sift the mixture twice, to ensure there are no large lumps and that the mixture is properly aerated. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add the sugar, increase the mixer speed, and whip on high until the meringue starts to firm up. Add gel food colouring, if using, a few drops at a time, until the desired colour is reached. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated. Continue to whip until the meringue forms stiff peaks (there is a good example here).

Remove the bowl from the mixer. Add half of the ground almond and powdered sugar mixture, and fold into the meringue. You want to deflate the meringue just a little at this stage, to combine the meringue and ground almond mixture.

Add the remaining ground almond mixture, and stir lightly to combine. Now comes the important part - mixing the batter to the correct consistency. Again, this video does a good job of explaining it. Fold the mixture in a series of 'turns', deflating the batter by spreading it against the side of the bowl. Turn the bowl slightly and repeat the movement - scooping the batter from the bottom of the bowl, and spreading it against the side.

Continuously check the consistency of the batter - you want it to flow like lava when you lift the spatula from the bowl, and you should be able to 'draw' a figure 8 with it, without the batter breaking (again, watch lots of videos to get an idea! They help so much). This step can take some practice until you know what it should feel and look like. If in doubt you are better to under mix them than over mix them - the process of putting the batter into the bag and piping out will help mix a little too.

Fit a large pastry bag with a medium sized round tip, such as an ateco #805. Place the macaron template on a sheet pan, and place a second piece of parchment over it. Holding the piping bag at a 90˚ angle to the surface, pipe out the batter into blobs the size of the circles drawn on the template. Finish off each piped circle with a little "flick" of your wrist to minimise the batter forming a point (it will still form a small one, but we can get rid of this with banging). Remove the template from under the macarons.

Hold the baking sheet in two hands, and carefully but firmly, evenly bang it against the bench. Repeat this a few more times - this will get rid of any air bubbles, remove points on the top, and help them to spread out slightly.

Repeat the piping and banging process until you have used up all of the batter - I usually make three sheet pans worth.

Allow the macarons to dry at room temperature for approximately 30 minutes, or until they form a skin that you can touch without your finger sticking to them. This time will drastically vary depending on the humidity.

About fifteen minutes before you are going to bake the macarons, place a spare sheet pan in the oven to preheat - this is going to be used to place under the pan with the macarons on it, to double up, which should help with even baking. Bake the macarons one sheet at a time - place the sheet with the macarons on the preheated sheet, and place in the oven.

Bake for approximately 18 minutes, rotating the pan once during the cooking process, and checking for doneness after 15 minutes. The macarons should develop a foot (the ruffled part on the bottom of the macaron), and bake without browning. To see if they are done - press down lightly on a shell. If the foot gives way, it needs a little longer, if it is stable, then it is close to being done.

Test a macaron shell - if you can peel it away cleanly from the paper, they are done. If they are stable but cannot yet peel away cleanly, give them another minute or so. Again, this part takes a little trial and error depending on your oven. If they seem done but do not peel away cleanly, do not worry - there is a little trick for that!

Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on the sheet pan for 10 minutes before peeling off the parchment paper and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack. Repeat the baking with the remaining trays, using the same spare sheet pan to double up.

If your macs do not peel away cleanly, place them, on the parchment paper, into the freezer for 5-10 minutes, then peel away from the paper.

Store cooled macarons in an airtight container until ready to use.

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The most viewed easy macarons recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine