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
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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.
whether its almond flour can be replaced with another?
Ann your macaroon recipe is the most reliable I’ve found. It is all about oven temperature and not over mixing (as you say). Here are some white and dark chocolate ganache ones that I made 🙂 Thank you for your tutorials!
hi , tanks for this Recipe
please help me. its my macaroon 🙁
crashed all of them , why???
U prob over-mixed them. Egg whites/merengues are delicate. Minimal folding! 🙂
tanks cristina 🙂
maybe in combine almond meal level
wow…..really, you got issues
We love your recipe for macarons! We are going to Utah on vacation and I want to make these while we are there. Do any of the measurements need to be adjusted for high altitude? Can you freeze macarons that are filled with genache? And do the macarons have to be kept in the fridge once filled with genache, since it contains cream? Thank you so much!
I’m very excited to try this recipe. I’m curious about the cookbook you found this recipe in… what is the name of it and who is the publisher and author? Thanks!
How can i make my macarons less sweet? Cause they came out too sweet.
Do you have to put your egg whites in the fridge for a few hours before making the macarons?
You did not spell ‘properly’ properly.. awkward much :/
I don’t want to offend anyone but Macarons and Macaroons are two different things. Macarons are pronounced “macarones” Macaroon is pronounced as it looks and is made with coconut. The ones that I’ve seen made look like a dollop or a mound. A lot of people are confusing the names and using macaroon for both types of pastries.
thanks for spelling that out….I had noticed the different spellings but saw pictures of the two cookie types when researching…now its clear.
It would be nice if you removed the nasty comments from some low life soul. Also, I was wondering whether you have to use jel food coloring or can I use the liquid drops. What are “feet”? Thanks for the tips!
Hi Ann,
I have a request, could you show how to make pistachio macarons please? 🙂
Please and thank you!
xx
Hi simmi, you make them in the same way just swap out all or part of the almond meal for pistachio. They need ot be peeled and really finely ground.
Hi,
I tried making pistachio macarons before. It tastes best if you play with the stuffing, keeping the almonds in the shells (almond is lighter than pistachio and it’s usually a good balance for a strong flavored stuffing).
Good luck.
Kat
What is caster sugar and pure icing sugar and where can i buy this items?
Hi vicky caster sugar is similar to superfine sugar just a little finer. Pure icing sugar is sugar ground so fine that it is a powder sometimes also called confectioners sugar. Pure icing sugar contains nothing but sugar, icing mixture contains icing sugar and cornflour.
May I know the specific recipe for ganache recipe? What type of chocolate and cream are you referring to? Thanks! 🙂
Hi Ann,
I just made these and the flavor is great except mine have no feet at all they rose up fine but still no feet not even skirts could this be due to low oven temp? cause I turned mine down to 145 since our oven cooks hot.
thankx feedback would really be great id love to achieve these
Can you please share which electric mixer are you using for this specific recipe??
Still trying to make the perfect macaroons but what I did was take the leftover batter, mixed in the extra coarse almond meal that didn’t go through the sieve, baked for 20 mins and I get this delicious almond crisp!
i meant Macarons 🙂
Today I tried for the first time making chocolate macarons & I knew it’s a bit runny! What can I do to perfect it? Will extra fold helps?
If it’s too runny, it may be because you over-folded it
If it’s too runny, it may be because you over-folded it and let too much of the air out of your mix
Just tried this recipe last evening and followed it to the tee (I have one of those electronic precision scales). It is only my second attempt at making Macarons, but I’ve got to say they came out amazing! Feet and all! Thank you so much for posting the trouble shooting vis at the end.. It really helped me know when to take the Macarons out. I also had to play around a bit with the temp as my oven got really hot at 150 (I reduced it for the 2 & 3 batch and they maintained their colour) I have to add, I aged my egg whites for a day at room temperature.
Love your baking can you do different colours