I have been meaning to write a post on making macarons at home for ages, so here it is. 🙂 Macarons are one of our favorite cookies, but they are SO expensive to buy. If you make them, you will understand why they are so expensive. This is not a 30 minute baking project. I will be honest, these are time consuming and they aren’t the easiest baked good to make. However, they are really satisfying and fun to make and there is a nice reward at the end, eating your tasty macarons.
One of the cool things about making these, is that you can customize the base recipe to whatever colors and flavors you like. I would suggest going basic the first time or two though. It is good to get a foundation of understanding for the basic method before getting crazy with it.
I’m going to walk through the process of making these here. There are a few really key points to getting them to come out correctly. I suggest reading the whole post through before attempting any baking. This recipe uses basic almond flavored shells with no add ins because that is a good starting point. You can customize the filling as desired. I used a cake flavored frosting and homemade raspberry filling to make a jelly doughnut flavored macaron.
A note of encouragement before we get into it. Macarons are finicky. A lot of little things can affect the end result and it takes time and practice to figure out the tricks. I’m still learning too and I make mistakes. I am including a pic later of my first tray, which I baked too soon. Even your non perfect macarons will taste great! You can eat the weird ones and they are yummy. Don’t get discouraged if they don’t come out just right. It can feel frustrating but it is all experience and the next time will get easier. 🙂
Equipment/Ingredients:
There are a few things you need to have to correctly make macrons. I am including links to where you can get them.
Cake batter flavoring (if making my flavor combo)
Kitchen scale (not absolutely necessary, but helpful)
Candy thermometer or Instant read thermometer
Prep your cookie sheets/parchment:
The first step before you begin the process is to prep your parchment and cookie sheets. You want your macrons to be the same size since you will pair them up, so drawing the circles on the parchment as a guide really helps with piping them equally. I use a paper template like this one, and place it under the parchment and use a sharpie to trace the circles. Then flip the parchment over so the marker side is on the bottom. You can also get silicone baking sheets with the circles already on them. These you can just pipe batter directly onto. Whichever you chose, set up your baking trays with guides so they are ready to go. I usually need 5 or so sheets to use all my batter. You can recycle sheets after the macarons cool if you only have one or two.
Baking setup:
There are some conflicting opinions on how best to bake macarons at home as compared to professional ovens in bakeries. My person experience has been that I have better results not using convection. My regular bake setting works the best. Different ovens can be hotter or cooler at the same setting, and also in different sections of the oven. You have to play around a bit with your own oven to find the right temp window. For mine, the macarons seem to come out the best at 310 degrees F. I would suggest starting at 300 and if that batch doesn’t come out as you’d like, try increasing 10 degrees.
Mix your dry ingredients:
In a large, heat safe bowl that will allow plenty of mixing room, sift together the almond meal and powdered sugar. I weigh mine with a scale, but you can use measuring cups/spoons if needed. Make sure they are well combined. Make a well in the center, leaving some flour on the bottom of the well.
Separate your two batches of egg whites and mix first with dry ingredients:
This is where a scale really comes in handy, but you can use still make it work with measuring cups and spoons. Take the 82 g (1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp) egg whites and fold them into the sugar/almond meal mixture. It will seem like there isn’t enough liquid, but if you keep pressing and folding it together, you eventually get a cohesive mix. Cover this mix with plastic wrap while you do the next steps, or the top will dry out and affect the texture of your macarons (learned this the hard way).
Place second batch in mixer and heat your sugar syrup:
Once this is well mixed and covered, move on to the other 90g (1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp) egg whites. Place these in the stand mixer with whisk attachment. In a small sauce pan on the stove, heat sugar and water over medium until boiling. Watch the temp and when it hits 203, turn on the mixer on to medium speed with a pinch of sugar and begin whipping the egg whites.
If the whites reach stiff peaks before the sugar is ready, turn the mixer to low to keep it moving while you finish the sugar. When the sugar reaches 248, turn the mixer to medium low and pour the sugar between the side and center slowly, allowing a little at a time to drizzle in. Increase speed to medium and whip for about 5 minutes until stiff peaks form and the egg whites are glossy. The meringue should have cooled by this time, although the bowl may still feel a little warm.
Mix your macaron batter:
Now you are ready to mix your batter. You may not use all the whipped egg whites here. Remove the plastic wrap from the mixture and add about 1/4 of your whipped whites. Carefully fold this in, it will take a bit of time to come together, as the initial mixture is thick. Make sure to use a folding motion so you don’t deflate the egg whites. Once this is fully mixed, add another 1/4 of the mixture. The correct consistency of batter will create a ribbon when you let the batter fall off your spatula while moving it back and forth. It should create a ribbon that slowly moves, but doesn’t disappear fully into the batter. If the batter won’t slowly come off the spatula, it is too thick. If the ribbon of batter disappears you’ve added too much egg white, so proceed slowly. It is better to err on the side of slightly too thick than too thin.
Pipe your macarons:
To pipe the macarons, insert your 1/2 inch tip into a piping bag and cut the end so that the tip fits snugly in the end of the bag. I like to flip the tip up to close the bag and then place it into a cup or jar to hold the bag in place while I fill it. Turn the open bag edges down over the glass to prevent getting batter on the top edges of the bag. Fill the bag, then twist it to close and clamp it with either a chip clip or a bag tie. Hold the bag at a 90 degree angle to the cookie sheet and squeeze from the top of the bag until you reach the edges of the circle. Stop squeezing and make a quick twisting motion with your hand to break the stream of batter and move to the next circle. I forgot to get a video of this, but there are many online to watch if it is hard to picture. Use all of the batter to fill your trays.
Rest your macarons:
Resting is a super important step for making macarons as they will not bake correctly if not rested. The outer surface of the batter has to form a skin in order for the macaron to bake up pretty with nice feet and a smooth shell. Here is a picture of my first batch I baked, which had only rested for 15 minutes, so they did not fully form a skin. The time it takes to dry them depends on the humidity of the kitchen, time of year etc. You can gently touch the top of one of your circles and if it feels dry and doesn’t stick to your finger, it is likely ready. This can be anywhere from 20 min in the winter to 60 in the summer if you live in a humid climate like I do.
Baking the macarons:
As I mentioned above, you may need to experiment a bit with the best oven temp for your oven to bake these. The baking time also depends on the size and on your oven, but typically they will bake about 12-14 minutes. You know they are done when they have feet, are not yet browned much at all, and you can press gently on the caps from the side and they don’t slide very much.
Cooling and filling:
Cool the macarons on the tray until they are cool. Match up tops and bottoms that are the most alike in size and shape (because even with the circle guide, some will be slightly different). I filled mine here with a quick and easy raspberry jam, and a cake flavored icing. If you are using jam or another somewhat fluid center, it is a good idea to also use a ganache or icing around the outside edge to keep the filling from seeping out.
Curing:
This last step is optional, and we usually do eat a few of these right away, but it does really make a difference to having the flavor and texture be optimal for macarons. Curing involves freezing or refrigerating the cookies for 24/48 hours before returning them to room temp when ready to eat. I like freezing them as they are also really tasty when eaten straight from the freezer. These keep well frozen and you can pull them out whenever you want them. Good luck and enjoy your tasty macarons. If you have any questions, please post a comment. 🙂
Jelly Doughnut Macarons (with Macaron Tutorial)
Equipment
- baking sheets
- parchment
- macaron template
- scale
- candy thermometer
- 1/2 inch piping tip
- piping bags
Ingredients
- 212 g almond meal or 1 3/4 cup plus 2 1/2 tbsp
- 212 g powdered sugar or 1 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp
- 82 g egg whites or 1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp
- 90 g egg whites or 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp
- 236 g sugar or 1 cup plus 3 tbsp plus a pinch for the whipped whites
- 158 g water or 2/3 cup
For the raspberry jam filling:
- 2 cups frozen raspberries
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp powdered gelatin
For the cake icing filling:
- 1/2 cup shortening or butter room temp
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp doughnut or cake batter extract
- 2 tsp water or milk as needed
Instructions
- Prepare your baking sheets and templates as directed in the post and have them all set up before you begin. This is one of those recipes that you want to prep all your tools and ingredients before you start the process.
- Make the jam so it has time to cool, and you can also make the icing so it is ready to go and just store it in a piping bag until ready to use.
- For the jam, heat the raspberries, lemon juice and sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat. Dissolve the gelatin in 1 tbsp of water and microwave for 10 seconds until melted. Stir and mash the raspberries to break them down and cook until you have a mostly liquid jam and the sugar is dissolved. Strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds, then whisk in the gelatin. Cover and place in the fridge to set up. When fully cooled and set, mix it gently and place into a piping bag and set aside for filling.
- For the icing, add the butter or shortening to a mixer with paddle and whip on medium until fluffy. Add in the extract and the powdered sugar and mix well again, scraping the bowl as needed. Thin with a little milk or water if needed to get a consistency you'd use to frost a cake. Place into a piping bag and set aside until later.
- In a large bowl, sift your almond meal and powdered sugar to be sure they are well combined. Add the 82 grams of egg whites and fold together until you have a cohesive mix. This will seem too dry, but it will come together if you fold it long enough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
- Place the 90 g of egg whites into a clean stand mixer with whip attachment. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add the sugar and water. Mix well and start watching the temp. When the temp reaches 203, start your mixer on medium and add a pinch of sugar. Keep whipping the whites while your syrup is heating. If they reach soft peaks before the sugar hits 248, turn the mixer to low.
- When the sugar hits 248, turn the mixer to medium low and very slowly drizzle the hot syrup between the whisk and the side of the bowl. Do this slowly so you don't curdle your eggs. Continue slowly adding the syrup and then turn the mixer up to medium and whip for 5 minutes, or until you have glossy stiff peaks an the meringue is cool. The bottom of the bowl may still feel slightly warm.
- Remove the plastic wrap from your almond meal mixture and add about 1/4 of the whipped whites to it. Slowly fold the egg whites in. This will take some patience at first as the mixture is thick. Be careful to fold gently as to not deflate your whites. Add another 1/4 and fold that in. You may not use all the whites, so start adding smaller amounts here.
- Continue to fold in additional whites until your batter makes a ribbon when you pick up your spatula and hold it over the bowl. You want the batter to fall smoothly off, but you also want it to hold its shape in a ribbon when it falls into the bowl and it should slowly move but not disappear completely. This takes some practice and there are some great videos on youTube on what it looks like when correct. I forgot to take my own. It is better to be a little stiff than too runny so proceed carefully.
- Once your batter is ready, prep a piping bag with the 1/2 inch tip and fill the bag.
- Pipe circles onto your prepped guides by holding the bag at a 90 degree angle and holding steady pressure on the top of the bag until the circle reaches your guide. Then quickly flick the bag in a circle to detach the stream of batter (plenty of good videos online of this too, it takes a little practice).
- Preheat oven to 310 degrees with no convection. Fill all your trays and then allow the macarons to sit for 30-60 minutes until they develop a skin. This depends on time of year, humidity, etc. If you can very gently touch the top of one and it feels dry and doesn't stick to you, they are likely ready. Wait 5 more minutes after this point and bake one tray at a time.
- Bake about 12-15 minutes, depending on the size and temp. They are ready when they have feet, have not yet browned, and when you press gently on the cap from the side it only moves very slightly or not at all. Remove to a counter to cool.
- When they are all baked and cooled, match them with the most similar other halves and pipe a circle of icing around the outer edge of the bottom cookie. If you want to make jam doughnut looking ones like my pic, leave a small hole in the piped icing for the jam to squeeze out. Pipe jam into the center and out towards the little gap. Top with your top cookie and gently press slightly to bring them together. Fill all the cookies. Eat a few because who can wait.
- Refrigerate or freeze the finished cookies for 24 to 48 hours to cure them, then return to room temp to serve.
Thanks for such a thorough tutorial. The macarons look amazing. Love the flavors you’ve chosen. 🙂