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.
Hey Ann! I need some help here! I followed your recipe accordingly and did every step as according to your instructional video. Everything the same except that i halfed the recipe. But what comes out is this thin burnt sugar cookie-ish that sticks to the baking paper. Any idea why?
I used powdered sugar, ground almonds, table salt and sifted it. I whipped up the egg whites and granulated sugar till it was stiff and dry. I folded them both with the back of a spoon. Then piped it out and placed it in to the preheated oven at 150 celcius.
Hi Ann, I’m new to baking so when you said cream… Do you refered to heavy whipping cream, coffee creamer or half & half? Thanks
Hi, she means heavy whipping cream.
How come my Macaron has no feet, it’s
flat & no skin even when I let it rest
for an hour? My recipe calls for 4 egg whites & 1/4 caster sugar, 1 1/4 almond flour & 1 1/2 cup icing sugar. Oven @ 350 & bake for 13 min. What am I doing wrong? Thank you
Hi, I saw your comment just wondering to help you, I was study pastry, anyway meringue have to be baked 150°C for 15-20 mnt.
no need to rest your macaron for 1 hrs, only until you see the skin on the macaron, you can baked it straight away. Hope it’s helping you
Hello Ann, I just made some macarons the other day, and I did all of the instructions in your recipe. I’m almost completely sure that I didn’t overmix the batter, but when they came out of the oven, they didn’t turn out with feet! 🙁
I rested them overnight, I rapped the tray, and baked them at 300 degrees F. I’ve made macarons loads of times, and I did exactly what I always do when making them, and this batch turned out without feet! What have I done wrong?
Hello my name is jordyn I am 11 years old year 7 at school. I made these all by myself and I used 3 drop of liquid food colouring and I followed EXACTLY what the video did.
You didn’t mix these enough sweetie 🙂
They look great 🙂 good on you!
Hi ally, I just posted a comment. I forgot to attach a picture of my macarons…..btw I used turmeric as a colouring, not sure if that affected anything or not.
Hi ally, I just posted a comment. I forgot to attach a picture of my macarons…..btw I used turmeric as a colouring, not sure if that affected anything or not.
You can’t use tumeric powder as a colouring in the macarons so thats what went wrong.
Hi Ally, I made your macarons today! But for some reason I found that the amount of sugar was way too much when I mixed it all in. The mixture was soooo thick! I can even discribe how they looked when they came out of the oven lol. In total in used 460g of powdered sugar. Is this correct? Please get back to me when you can, thank you!
FYI to anyone trying and failing. I tried 3 times and got flat cracked macarons. The 4th time I let them rest for an hour (despite suggestions this is uncessary) and they turned out great.
Hi Ann!
My mixture is too runny and oozes out of the piping bag too fast. What am I doing wrong?
I think you are over folding! This will also result in flat macarons.
Hi Ann. can you clarify something in the ingredients list? I want to use icing sugar and almonds, but unclear of the quantities of each from the recipe – it reads like its either 230g icing sugar or 120g almonds. Am sure I’ve missed something! Thanks
Hi Ann! I first would like to thank you for all the detail and visuals you have on baking the macarons. You have been a life saver, especially on the piping technique. I’m still having a hard time with the macarons being hollow. Do you know why this is? Also I tried a batch with almond flour and another batch with mixture of pistachio and almond flour. I got two different results. Is there a different technique needed when using any other flour than almond? Thanks!
Hey Ann, I have always feared making Macaroons but im going to give it a try now i do have 2 problem –
1. I do not have a stand mixer, I use a hand mixer. Will it affect my macaroons? I’ll make sure the egg whites are beaten stiff
2. I use a gas oven (part of my cooking range) which has a lower burner only. Do i need to increase the heat further or do i stick to the 180 and then 150?? Please help. I want to make these over the weekend.
Hi Nats, using a hand mixer is not a problem, I often do that. The oven may be though, macarons really are fussy on oven temp. I suggest buying an oven thermometer and checking the temp at your middle shelf where they will be and making sure it is 150c
stand mixers are just [usually] stronger and faster and you don’t have to keep watching it or holding it. A gas oven being a dryer cooking environment will produce a crispness and promote browning but it shouldn’t make much difference haha, though i can’t attest to it since i use a electric oven. if there is moisture just keep the oven preheating a little longer and check on your macaroons haha
You missed ou the most important part. Leave the unbaked macarons on the tray for 30 mins to form a skin. Then put them in the oven. This step gives them the ‘foot’.
Hi Lisa, please watch the FAQ video, leaving on the bench makes no difference to the foot of the macarons in this recipe, I put them straight in the oven. I have tested leaving them out for varying times and there was no difference, give it a go.
Can you please make the largest egg chocolate with the liquidy crentre
Can I use wax paper instead of non-stick baking paper?
no do NOT use wax paper, it will melt!! You need parchment paper aka baking paper.
Hi every1,
How can i use instead the almond meal? grounded almonds? amounts? thks
Almond flour and meal are both just ground up almonds. Almond flour is most often made with blanched almonds (no skin), whereas almond meal can be made either with whole or blanched almonds. In either case, the consistency is more like corn meal than wheat flour.
Hi Rozo. almond meal is the same as ground almonds
Hi, Ann! Is there a vegan version that’s equivalent to this? I’m stumped on what to replace the eggs with.
hi sayu there si arecipe here but I’ve never tried it http://susanna-dan.com/2013/07/french-macarons-part-ii/
Hi Ann what is icing mixture? Can I replace it with icing sugar or some other sugar instead?
Of course. U can either use icing mixture or icing sugar.
I baked my macaroons at 150 degrees and they burnt! What degree should I bake at?
Oh yes, I did a chocolate macaron. Pls reply cause I’m going to redo it on sunday
Hi Ann, noticed that there’s no resting time after piping. There’s no need to wait for them to dry outside after piping it? The other recipes require me to leave it to dry… Could you Pls confirm… Thanks!
Hi Gwen, that is correct no resting with this recipe put it straight in the oven. If you don’t have oven space for all of them you can leave on the counter while waiting for the other tray to cook.