How To Make French Macarons

close-up image of four french macarons with a chocolate ganache filling, elegantly presented on a pastry plate

5 from 2 votes

Discover the art of making French Macarons with this expert guide. Whether you're a seasoned baker or new to the kitchen, these step-by-step instructions and tips will ensure success in creating these delicate treats in your kitchen.

Prep Time30

Cook Time16

Drying30

Total Time1 16

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: French

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: macarons

Calories: 87kcal

Ingredients

2 eggs whites
3.5 oz almonds ground, almond meal
3.8 oz icing sugar also called powdered sugar or confectioners sugar
1.4 oz caster sugar
gel food coloring optional, but not liquid coloring

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Get all of your ingredients measured and all of your equipment set up.
Put the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and blitz on a high speed for one minute. Scrape the sides of the processor down and blitz for a further minute. It is important to put the ground almonds and icing sugar in the processor together, and not just the ground almonds on their own, as this would make almond butter. After they are processed, sieve thoroughly into one of your big bowls. Put aside.
Separate the eggs into another glass or stainless steel bowl, ensuring that you have only egg white in the bowl. Start whisking the egg whites either in a freestanding mixer or with an electric hand whisk on a medium to high speed. You really want to get the air into the mixture. When they are just frothy, add the first bit of caster sugar. You want to add it in roughly three equal parts, whisking in between to give it some time to combine thoroughly.
When you have soft peaks it’s time to add whatever color you are using. For the sake of this example I have used a very pale color but you can use whatever color you like. Bear in mind that once baked, the macarons will be 1 to 2 shades lighter than the color of the batter when wet, so always add a little more color so that the mixture looks a bit darker than the color you want your final shell to be.
Once the color is added, whisk again until you have stiff peaks. This means that the mixture will completely hold its own weight. If you lift the whisk out of the mixture, you will be left with a “peak” that does not move or droop at all. The mixture will also “clump” in the whisk a bit. If you are brave enough to do the over the head test, hold the bowl upside down over your head. Nothing should fall out at all.
Add all of the egg white mixture to the almond mixture and begin folding. In order to not knock out too much air, I like to take the spatula all the way around the bowl, then cut through the middle and lift the bottom of the mixture up, then repeat. This whole process is called “macaronage”.
The batter will take a while to reach the correct consistency but it is important not to rush it. It will go through stages. Once the wet and dry ingredients are combined, the overall texture will be quite “fluffy” and a bit lumpy; this is not yet done. If you were to pipe it as it is you would have an undermixed batter which could cause the macarons to crack on top, and the mixture wouldn’t flatten causing uneven tops. The correct consistency is often described as like “flowing lava”. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t frequent volcano tops that often, so to me, it’s a bit of an ambiguous explanation… What you are looking for is batter that is still thick, but runs off the spatula when you lift it up in a ribbon like way, and when it lands on the batter in the bowl, it should re-absorb back into it within 10-20 seconds.
Get your baking tray with the template underneath the parchment paper ready and on a nice flat surface. Put your piping nozzle into the piping bag and stand it in something like a cup to give some support as you fill it. Once you have put the mixture in the piping bag, you can start piping your macarons. Hold the piping back with the nozzle above the centre of the template circle about 1cm away from the parchment paper. The nozzle and back should be 90 degrees to the baking tray so that when you pipe your circle, the mixture spreads evenly outwards. Apply gentle pressure until your mixture reaches the line on the template, then gently lift the bag away. You will be left with a small peak in the middle of the circle, but if the batter was mixed sufficiently these will sink back into the macaron.
Give the baking tray a tap on the work surface (put a tea towel underneath the tray so I don’t break anything), then turn the tray around and do the same again. This will help the little peaks fall into the circles and also bring any large air bubbles to the surface. You can then pop these air bubbles with either a cocktail stick or the tip of a sharp knife. Either way, you want to do this straight away, or the batter will start to dry. After you have tapped the tray, remove the template from underneath the parchment paper.
Now you need to let the macarons dry. This is essential. In order to get the macaron’s signature shiny tops and frilly “feet” along the bottom, we have to let them dry. If you put them straight in the oven, they will crack all on the top as they are effectively getting “feet” up there. You will need to leave them to dry for anywhere between 30 minutes – 2 hours. There is no way to give an exact drying time because they dry at different speeds depending on heat/humidity/environment. You will know when they are dry if you gently press your finger on the side of the macaron and there is a skin – meaning your finger comes off dry and does not stick at all. I like to check them every 30 minutes to judge how they are doing. They will also look a little duller on top than when they were first piped.
Preheat the oven to 302⁰F (150⁰C) while the macarons are drying. Once they are dry, place the tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 14 – 16 minutes. When the macarons are done, you should be able to tap one of the shells on top and it will be hard and sound hollow. If the shells have gone brown on top it means the oven temperature was too high, so try lowering it a little next time. As each oven is different, it is difficult to tell exactly what temperature you should set the oven at, but 302⁰F (150⁰C) is a good place to start and you will soon learn whether you need it to be warmer or cooler.
Take the baking tray out of the oven and put on a cooling rack for 10 minutes to cool down. After this the shells should easily peel away from the parchment paper in one piece. If you try and take them off while they are still too warm, they can stick to the bottom a bit and come apart.
The only thing left to do is fill the macarons with a filling of your choice! Pretty much anything goes as the shells are a neutral sweet almond flavour, so get creative! Chocolate ganache… jam… curds… buttercream… the world is your oyster!

Nutrition