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.
Hi
Your recipe looks great , I dont have caster or icing sugar , just the ordinary white one ! What can I do or how can I use it instead , thank you 🙂
Hi Ann,
It’s a wonderful recipe and my macarons came out pretty well. Was wondering what would happen if I cut down on the sugar though? They were a little too sweet for our tastes. Would the macarons collapse?
Hi sharm, try using a less sweet filling rather than decreasing the sugar int he shells. Adding some more slat will decrease the sweet taste but will obviously make no difference to the actual sugar content.
If I use liquid colouring how much can I add for it to work?
Hi Macaronlover, I found a teaspoon of liquid was enough to make the macarons not work, less than 1/2 a teaspoon seemed to be tolerated.
Hi Ann, Thanks for the great recipe. I have made 2 batches now, both pretty bad. I have made macarons before, with success and feet, but that was in a different oven. Both batches came out cracked on top, no feet, hollow inside and extremely fragile, when I touch them they shatter. (They taste good, though!)
Second batch, ONE cookie in a batch of about 36 came out perfect–how strange! It had feet and everything! The first batch was put in at 365F, lowered to 305F. The second batch I tried the oven temp a little lower, I started at 350 and immediately turned it down to 308F, for about 15 minutes.
I baked 2 sheets at a time, rotating them about 1/2 through. My oven is convection, but I baked these with convection mode off. I kept a blank cookie sheet on the top rack to diffuse the heat.
What am I doing wrong? 🙁
Yes your oven will make a big difference. You can buy an oven thermometer cheaply on ebay and check the temp. Or experiment with increasing the heat in case it was too low. Try convection on. If you make one batch and pipe 10 onto each baking sheet, slide them onto a tray and bang them immediately and then bake one at a time experimenting with your oven position and settings. Try the top shelf and then move down when they look done and put the empty tray on top then.
Do you think the oven temp was too low then? Is that what causes the fragility/hollowness?
I try making them but they didn’t come out good 🙁
they were flat and didn’t seen. to cook
but they taste really good just but I didnt like that they were flat. I will try again soon
Hi Angelica Rojas, they sound over-mixed – watch the FAQ video and see how to do a ‘test batch’ and practice the differnt levels of folding so that you can get a feel for how mixed they should be.
Hi Ann,
i am new to your website and am going to try the macarons recipe even though i’m just 11 🙂 i’m just wondering if the ingredient measurements are Australian or American… i’m Australian and i want to make sure i do the recipe correct, thanks in advance
Hi Victoria, Australian cup measures, I am in Australia too : )
if you cut back on the sugar, they wont come out right!
good luck..
🙂
I want to give these a go for a birthday at work…. Would cost a fortune to buy enough for everyone! But I like the look where the colour graduates, like a tray from pastel to bright pink or blue/green etc.
Can I add the colour later in the mix?
Pipe some, add more colour, pipe more, add more colour etc etc
The way I do when colouring buttercream…. Or does it have to be added at this first stage and i need to make batches of different shades?
Many thanks
Hi Joanne if you watch the FAQ video you will see that the amount you fold the macarons makes a big difference to what they look like, you are likely to end up with over-mixed flat macarons by the time you add the second colour. I would suggest instead making 1/4 of the recipe at a time.
Can I use a hand held electric mixer instead of a stand mixer? Will it effect the recipe?
Hi April, yes you can use an electric hand mixer, the egg white will not go as ‘dry’ as with a stand mixer so just beat them until they are stiff and then continue to beat for a couple more minutes.
Hi Ann,
I’ve tried your recipe twice now and I’m getting better, but my macarons still aren’t perfect. My first batch came out a little lumpy and the macarons were hard like a biscuit. I’m guessing I might have over mixed the egg whites with my mixer. I had the mixer on high for 10 minutes. Your instructions don’t say what setting to have the mixer on, just how long to mix for. For my second batch, I tried mixing it on the medium setting and I had better results. The macarons tasted better and had a better texture, only problem is that most of my macarons cracked and had very little if any feet. Another difference between the two batches is that for the second batch, I ground the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor to make it more fine. Even after sifting twice for the first batch, I found that the mixture was too lumpy which resulted in a bumpy looking macarons. Does the speed setting of the stand mixer have any bearing on the results at all? Or is it another issue?
Thanks for all your help!
P.S. I’ve attached a picture of my second batch 🙂
Hi Suzie, they look yummy. Every mixer is going to vary a little, I have it on highest speed but some people with other mixers on highest speed find it is too long – perhaps a more powerful mixer, so cut back the time. Basically mix until stiff enough to turn the bowl upside down and then keep mixing for another couple of minutes. The finer your almond meal the better.
Hi ann,
I like to cut down the sweetness of the macaron, how many caster sugar or icing sugar must i put??
Pls tell me 😀
Thanks
Hi Joyce, nice photo, to cut down the sweetness use a less sweet filling. Cutting down the sugar is the shells will effect the results. You can add salt to the shells to offset the sweetness but htat does nothing if you wanted to eat less sugar.
Ann,
Thanks for your advise,i will try again on less sweet filling.
😀
I would suggest using some sort of mascarpone filling! I does an excellent job of offseting sweetness. Also you could use already flavored mascarpone, my favorite is tiramisu mascarpone.
Hi! I tried out this receipe and I failed badly! 🙁 the macarons turned out very awful looking and I was ashamed to let my family members try it. I bake for more than 20 minutes and it turned brown. Initially I put 10 minutes but it’s uncooked so I added another 10 minutes. When I was piping, the foot formed for a second and becomes flat immediately. I guess I over mixed it 🙁 and the shapes are really bad, some even stick together. What should I do? How can I improve it? I’m so disappointed with myself. 🙁 I’ve saw many used this receipe and they did perfect. But I just can’t get it right. 🙁
Hi Momo, don’t be so hard on yourself, practice makes perfect. Watch the macaron FAQ video and follow the suggestion for making a test batch where you fold – pipe some, fold some more and pipe another row… so that you can perfect the folding. As for the foot, that forms while they are in the oven – but by taking it out after 10 minutes and then putting back in it probably disrupted this process, or collapsed it if they were not yet cooked. Oven temp is extremely important with macarons. Try putting them on a shelf just above the middle for 15 minutes and then moving them down a shelf and putting an empty tray on the shelf above to shield them from heat coming from above while they finish cooking (this helps them not to brown). Also use non-stick baking paper or it will stick even when done.
hi
i wanted to make the ganache,
you said 30ml of cream..?
what kind of cream?
heavy whipping cream?
and whats the best chocolate selection for the best taste.
(i like drk chocolate)
thanks
Hi Giselle, I personally like to use dark chocolate but some people find it too intense, so sometimes I use a mixture of dark and milk, it is up to your personal preference on that one. What cream – in Australia you can use cream, whipping cream or thickened cream, you can also use double cream but you do not need to so you might as well save your money. In the US what you need is called heavy cream.
hi
I DID IT!!! thank God 🙂
i got them right the 1st time!
i made them with the chocolate ganache..
mmmmmmm super good!
thanks for your awesome site!
Just saw this photo – wow they look splendid Giselle
Hello Ann ,
Your instructions and recipe look great , and I am looking forward to trying it out. However , I live in Mauritius and I can’t find the gel food colouring that you have used for the macarons. May I use the liquid food colouring , or will it affect how the macarons will turn out to be ?
Please advise 🙂
Hi Nushrut, you can only use a small amount or it will add too much liquid and the macarons will not work. So yes – to give a pale colour. Cake decorating shops online have gel colour and some stock the powdered colour too.
Thanks so much you are the best.
Sorry one more question. I really want to make macaroons this week and I was woundering if you could tell me what the oven tempature for feirhight and i dont have a fan force oven. Also you said After further experimenting you get the best ‘foot’ on your macarons if you set the oven to 180 degrees C then when you put the macrons in the oven decrease to 150 degrees C. Thanks
Where should the oven rack be placed, and should i push them more to the back, also can I bake on tray at a time?
I place mine one shelf above middle, once they are looking done but are not quite ready i move them down a tray and add another shelf on top. Every oven is a bit different so experiment with what works best for you.
150 degrees C = 302 degrees f, 180 degrees c =356 F
Is it ok if i don not use food colouring and what size would you say the macaroons were when you first piped them out?
Thankyou.
You do not have to use food colouring. Approx 4cm in diameter before the tray was banged on the bench – they spread out a bit when you bang the tray.
Hi Ann,
I just made this recipe but it seems that the macarons have air pockets in the tops.. Any thoughts on what could have caused this?
Hi Tara, If everything else worked out perfectly then do everything else the same as last time but beat the egg whites for a little less time. Try 4-5 minutes, depends on you mixer power.
Hello Ann!!!!
I´m so sorry to writing you again!! This macarons are my frustation this is the 5 time with your recipe. I make the folds, and prove it with different number of them. The eggs were in the mixer for 9 minutes. But I have a question about the temperature, it is the only thing that I think I can´t controle enough. My oven has a minimun temp of 160°C and I’ve been trying to open the door a little to control it since 148 or 150, this is possible, or I have to give up!!!
I attached a picture, when you can see them without foot, and the are cracked.
Thanks!!!
Hi Margareth, oven temp is very important with macarons – I just made some today and the oven had been turned off when I had not realized, even though I turned it straight back on they turned out cracked and with no foot – so yes I think your oven temp is the issue. Try 160 and if that does not work try a friends oven. It seems unusual to me the the oven would not go lower – it is not in degrees F is it? I am guessing not as you still managed to bake them and at 160 F they would not bake.
Ann, I have tried two other macaron recipes. With my most recent one, I got beautiful feet and shape, but the treats were too crispy and not “cakish” on the inside like the ones we tried in Paris. I would love to try your recipe. Could you please tell me the texture I should expect from your recipe? Thanks.
Hi Latha, If they are overcooked they will not be ‘cakish’ If cooked just right hey should have that texture inside.