Easy French Macaron Recipe (Macaroons)
I am often asked why have my macarons failed?! Why are there no feet?! Why have the macaron shells cracked? And which recipe do you use for your macarons? So here it is… french macaron recipe and troubleshooting.
On a recent holiday I found a 200 year old cookbook on my mums bookshelf. It tells that King Henry VIII granted an estate in Leadenhall Street to a Mistress Cornewallies in reward for the fine puddings that she presented to him. Follow these easy steps to make macarons fit for a king. You will aquire such indulgence that is pleasing to the palate and if you’re lucky enough perhaps you too will be granted an estate!
The picture above shows the 200 year old macaron recipe. They called them almond puffs. Personally I prefer to make them using my electric mixer using the recipe below.
French Macaron Recipe Ingredients
4 large egg whites (or 5 small) approx 140g (4.94 ounces)
1/3 cup or 70g (2.47 ounces) caster sugar (also known as superfine sugar)
1 1/2 cups or 230g (8.11 ounces) pure icing sugar. IF you wish to use icing mixture INSTEAD of icing sugar you will need 1 3/4 cups or 275g (9.7 ounces) icing mixture
1 cup or 120g (4.23 ounces) almond meal
2g (0.07 ounces) salt (tiny pinch)
gel food colouring (optional) note too much liquid will make the macarons fail so if it is your first time making them try with no colour until you’ve got the technique sorted.
Macaron Recipe Directions
This recipe makes approximately 40 shells or 20 filled macarons
Preheat the oven to 150C (302 degrees Fahrenheit)
Sift the almond meal and icing sugar and salt together, discarding any almond lumps that are too big to pass through the sieve.
Place egg whites and caster sugar into a bowl and mix with electric mixer until stiff enough to turn the bowl upside down without it falling out. How long this takes will depend on you mixer.
Continue to whip for 1-2 more minutes.
Add gel or powdered food colouring and continue to mix for a further 20 seconds.
Fold the almond & sugar mixture into the egg whites. This is the most important step and where most first time macaron bakers have trouble.
It should take roughly 30-50 folds using a rubber spatula but obviously this will vary depending on your folding technique. The mixture should be smooth and a very viscous, not runny. Watch the video to see what you are going for. Over-mix and your macarons will be flat and have no foot, under mix and they will not be smooth on top. See the macaron troubleshooting post for examples.
Pipe onto trays lined with baking paper, rap trays on the bench firmly (this prevents cracking) and then bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. Make sure you are using NON-stick baking paper or they will stick. Check if the macarons are done by quickly opening the oven and slightly pressing on top of one – if it squishes down slightly it’s not yet ready, close the oven so the oven temp doesn’t change. Taking them out of the oven too soon will mean the insides will drop and you’ll have hollow shells.
PLEASE make sure you watch the macarons FAQ and troubleshooting video. This way you can learn from the mistakes and questions of those who have made them before you.
Filling your macaroons
My favorite is flavoured ganache, but you can use jam and cream, butter cream or just eat them plain.
Ganache Recipe
100g (3.53 ounces) chocolate
30ml cream
Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute and then stir. If it is not adequately melted then microwave for 20 seconds and stir – repeat until smooth. Allow to cool and thicken before piping onto macarons.
More macaron recipes for you:
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Macaron trouble-shooting & FAQ
|
nut free macarons
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orange choc macarons
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 macaron ice cream sandwich |
SEE ALL RECIPES |
chocolate macarons
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fun with macarons
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Salted Caramel Macarons
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My Cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country:
http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.
Hi there, Made macarons using your recipe and they turned out great (I’ve tried them around 3 times using other recipes and they never work out!). Could I just ask how long do the macaron shells last without a filling?
Thank you 😀
Hi Tracey, I have kept them for a week in an airtight container, I have been told you can freeze them but they are always all eaten before I need to do that.
Hey ann i was just wondering if you could make a cookies and cream recipe or tell me what i could replace cookie crumbs with. They are my favourite and i would really appreciate it thanks 🙂 xx
Hellooo..
Omg macarons (to me) would have to be the most easiest but most difficult things to make.. after many failed attempts including Zumbos and Donna Hays packet mixes.. my disasters included no feet.. under cooked .. over cooked .. not rising.. not crunching.. i could go on for ages lol but anyway .. where have you been all my life?!?!?
My first attempt with your recipe and wham bam thankyou mam.. macaron perfection!!
This is a photo of them and it is just your basic recipe with nothing else added to it and they are filled with my kids favourite.. Nutella!!
My oven is gas and I set it to 180C then dropped it to 150C as soon as i put them in. I tried two trays on different shelves at the same time but found 1 single tray in the middle of the oven worked better as the bottom ones didn’t grow feet. I whisked the egg whites and caster sugar on high for 5 minutes exactly and I used room temp eggs. I only sifted the almond meal and icing mixture once.
And now that i have made them.. i can’t stop eating them!!
Thankyou for sharing your recipe and hints 🙂
Great job MacaronMarney they look lovely 😀
Hi Anne,
I’ve made two batches of these in the past week and unfortunately mine don’t look like yours! Or any in photos for that matter!
Mine have feet (yay) and they don’t crack (yay) and they are full not hollow. However they are not glossy like the ones you make. You can really see the almond meal texture in them.
I have followed your recipe to the letter, and another recipe to see if it made any difference.
But they look very grainy. I passed the almond meal through a sieve (took forever) but it still looks ‘grainy’.
Any ideas? I’m in Brisbane Australia and have measured all ingredients meticulously.
Regards,
Amanda
hi amanda, Well done on getting feet, no cracks and not hollow, you’re doing great. What brand of almond meal are you using? I am using the store brand one from farmer jacks. Try the caramel macron recipe and see if it is any better for you, I have tweeked the quantities a bit and think it a gives smoother shell.
Hello Ann, I saw your recipy and I was very happy with the significant explanation for cooking…. Thank You 🙂
I haven’t tried the recipe yet – I’m still grinding my almonds to make almond meal – just kidding. After reading all of the posts, I wanted to comment about the effects of humidity. When I took candy-making classes many years ago, we were taught to never make divinity when it was raining — probably due to the humidity. Divinity uses stiffly beaten egg whites, too.
Yes, thanks to you Ann after years of mess I finally know how to fill a piping bag without a total explosion of filling all over the bench!
And as for your macaron tutorial, WELL. Let me just say that after looking longingly at them for several years, wishing I could make them and contemplating a $300+ weekend course on making macarons, I read lots online and I found your post. : ) I even considered
As I speak I have my first ever attempt at macarons in the oven, (your recipe of course!) and am about to take out my last tray. I had somehow undermixed them despite your tutorials, leaving irregular and peaked shapes, but scraped them back into the bowl, repiped them and am now have – smooth, round lovely little macarons with FEET – 0n my first attempt!! I must add though that I did age the eggs overnight and let them sit too. But bottom line is you’re a legend!!
No longer will I break out into a cold sweat thinking about these lovely little mouthfuls of yum. A thousand thanks!!
Awesome 😀
Do you have any tips for making making macaroons at high altitude (over a mile high)?
I am going to try this out! And nutella would be great in the middle!
Hi I had a go a following your recipe, when making my macarons I made 3 batches: one had pink food colouring gel, one had green food colouring gel, and one had blue food colouring liquid instead of the gel. When I put them in the oven they all looked colourful, however when I took them out of the oven they had all lost there colour. Please, why is this? I followed step by step your recipe, not sure what went wrong!
Hi Ann! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe! It worked but I have cracked and ugly ones too. I am so bad at piping, I need to practice more. I have to ask a silly question, does macaron shell taste crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside? Is it meant to be chewy or have I underbaked? I really like your recipe but I find it very sweet personally. Is it possible to reduce the sugar? Will it still work?
I have posted a pic of my final product, is it passable?
great job yvonne, yes the shell is crispy and it is soft or chewy on the inside it should not be hard all the way through. to make it less sweet you usually add more salt rather than decreasing the sugar in macaron shells
Hello Ann,
Great video and detail int eh recipe! thanks!
I tried them for the first time – each step looked perfect – except when i piped the batter it seemed a bit runny – the shells seemed to spread more than what i’s expect – so eventually they turned out bigger and thinner – though i did get “feet”!
The second bathc that i piped (same batter) was not as runny (not sure why?) but i got no feet!
What might have gone wrong?
Thanks!
Thanks for that great tip about placing the piping bag over a cup!Macaroons look amazing – can’t wait to try – thanks for the great tips too!
Hi, how come my macarons always gets very soft after i have filled them?
hi kelvin if you are filling them with something that contains a lot of moisture it will absorb into the shells, e.g.: cream, fill just before serving. Ganacahe or buttercream you can fill ahead of time
what if you cant find caster sugar?
Do you have a favorite recipe for coffee or mocha flavored macarons? I’m wondering if the coffee flavor should go into the filling or the cookie… or both?
Thanks Ann for this lovely tutorial/recipe especially the video which is super helpful! I tried this two weeks ago but my batter came out to runny so my macarons were flat. 🙁 But I’m a novice baker so it’s probably my own fault (didn’t beat in electric mixer enough, left it out for too long, blah blah). So I am trying again today! But I’m only going to make 10 macarons (20 shells) this time. How should I adjust the baking time? How many folds should I do? Thanks in advance!
Love this! I can’t wait to try it.
Side note, the link for the button to follow you on Google + (at the end of the post) does not work. It goes to https///. 🙁
thank you thank you morgan, I have just fixed that sending a little book of frosting your way
These are beautiful!! Thanks for the recipe Ann!!
I put two trays in the oven at the same time, one above the other, and I noticed that the bottom tray were cracked. When I did my next batch I put an empty tray on the bottom shelf and the tray of macarons on the top one and it worked a charm! They were perfect 🙂
Hi Ann,
I baked mine tonight and they look funny. Maybe I’ll have luck next time. I wonder if I cut down some sugar, would it mess up the whole thing? I love the taste but if I want to eat more I think I should use less sugar 🙂