Homemade French macarons recipe is here! These “priest’s belly buttons” gained their popularity in France (Europe) during the French Revolution back in 16th century. But became trendy in North America only in 2010.

French macarons fever

Hello my dear reader, I find, that everybody is going crazy for macarons lately! Are you too?? So many beautiful pictures on Instagram, so I had to try it as well! Let me give you a little info about macarons.

What is French macaron

What is French macaron actually? A macaron is a type of small circular cake, typically made from ground almonds, coconut, and/or other nuts, with sugar, egg white, and sometimes flavorings, food coloring, glacé cherries, jam and/or a chocolate coating. So here we go, we are going to make a real French macarons!

What ingredients to use for French macarons

The ingredients sound very easy, and it actually is easy to make, it just needs a little practice and patience. You actually might not need any special tools, if you are an amateur baker, who already have some baking experience. For those, who are not reassured, if they could make it without any special tools, then for those here are some tips, what you can get to help you out to perfection your macarons, like this macaron mat or this macaron set. Usually simple parchment paper, piping bag, round tip and usual baking tools as this cute spatula should be enough.

Almond flour
Egg whites
Fine sugar
Powdered sugar

First attempts for French macarons might not be easy

Don’t worry if the first batch will come out a bit of cricket and crumbly, next time it will get better, I promise! I am speaking from my own experience. It can happen to everybody, and it happened to me. So my first batch ever of Macaroons wasn’t looking good at all. Lots of crumbles of almond powder on the surface, they were big and misshaped, little discolored (let’s say lightly brownish on the top). But I adjusted the recipe, and now it comes out smooth, well baked and uniform.

How to make macarons uniform

To have your macarons uniform, you need to draw a template on the parchment paper. Take a circled cookie cutter in about 1 1/2″ in diameter and draw circles on the parchment paper 1″ apart. Then you will turn around the paper, so you don’t pipe macarons on the side you draw your circles. If you think ( as I did the first time) that you don’t need any template, you might be wrong (as I was), but it’s completely up to you, if you try doing it without or with template, I strongly suggest using it.

yellow macarons filled with mango cream — Mango macarons

FAQ & storage

Do I have to use blanched almonds?

All the recipes for macarons asks for blanched almonds, and then you have to ground them together with icing sugar to obtain smooth texture. At my first attempt on macarons, I was so excited to make these, that I skipped this step. And let me tell you, the texture on the top of the macaron wasn’t really presentable. So please, follow precisely step by step my instructions, so you can have a mission macaron accomplished on 100%.

Oven temperature for making macarons

Then another thing, I had to adjust the temperature of my oven. I was using first convection mode on my oven and that was burning my top of the shell of macaron. So I tried the conventional (regular bake) program and yay it came out perfectly well!! I found, that it bakes more evenly, and it didn’t leave the macaron with brownish color on the top. But this very much depends on your oven. You might have to play with your oven, which mode or temperature is the best for your oven.

Measure precisely the ingredients, use electronic scale !

Last and the most important tip, when you measure the ingredients please use the scale, because you want to be really precise with the quantities, trust me, it’s better with the electronic scale.

I think now you are ready to make some macarons!

More recipes

FRENCH MACARONS

Julia

Delectable french pastry made of almond flour and egg whites in a form of a belly button. Filled with jelly or flavored buttercream.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 13

Total Time 33

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Ingredients

70 grams eggs whites
71 g powdered almonds
117 grams powdered sugar
53 grams granulated sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 150C/300F (don't use convection, simple bake program). Put the rack on the lower third of your oven. Prepare your parchment paper and draw a circle with a help of a round cookie cutter. Turn the parchment paper, so you will pipe on the side where you didn't draw the circles.
In a mixer, blend powdered almonds and icing sugar until very smooth powder (for about 1 min). In a stand mixer, add egg whites with granulated sugar and mix on low speed for 2 min. Increase the speed to medium high and mix for another 2 min. Last time increase the speed for maximum and beat for another 2 min. Egg white needs to forum stiff peaks.
In this stage, you can add food coloring or flavoring. Beat for another 30 seconds to incorporate the food color and flavoring. In this recipe, I used more almond essence and light blue (turquoise) coloring.
In another bowl, sift the blended almond powder and sugar and add it at once to your meringue mixture. Fold carefully until almond powder with sugar is perfectly incorporated in the meringue. You should get a glossy, lightly runny texture. Get ready now your piping bag with a 3/8" round tip.
Pipe the batter in your drawn circles on parchment paper. Try to pipe a thin layer, because the Macaron will raise in the oven. At the end, tap the baking sheet against the table to release bubbles and let sit the Macaroon for 5 min, so it flattens. Bake them in the lower third of your oven for 13 min.
Before removing from oven try to remove one Macaroon with a metal spatula or knife, if it comes off well, it means it's baked. You can then remove the baking sheet from the oven. If it's still sticky, leave it for another 5 min in the oven.

And there you have your macarons. Fill with your favorite buttercream or jelly.

SUBSCRIBE