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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orange choc macarons
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There appears to be an error in this recipe: instructions are as follows: – sift almond meal and castor sugar together, discard lumps that do not go through sieve…. plaice caster sugar and egg whites into a bowl and beat until stiff…. fold almond meal- caster sugar into egg white…. Question: the caster sugar had already been sifted together with the almond meal… please clarify….
I just wanted to leave a little note here in the hopes it would help someone out. I used both parchment paper and a silicone mat to bake mine, and I found that they stuck more to the mat. In the video, Ann mentions how they should come off completely when they’re properly baked. While that seemed to work for parchment paper, they still stuck when fully baked to the Silpat, until you let them cool down some.
I cant find your printable template 🙁
Needs to be powdered sugar, flour consistency, not grainy
really good recipe, we couldnt get our oven to exactly 302 (as it only goes +5 or -5) so we did 300 for 25 minutes and they came out great, for me they were pretty sweet so i never added the icing but i myself am not a big fan of most super sugary desserts, other than that it was very easy and tasted great
Thank you SOO much for your recipe and your videos on how to do it! I have another recipe that I have tried a couple of times and it has never come out right. Using your recipe, they were almost perfect on the first try–just a few cracked. I love your content! Thank you!
Hello Ann!
I live in Hungary. When I search icing sugar in hungarian, it comes up as “porcukor”. When I search castor sugar it also comes up as “porcukor”. 😀 Porcukor is powdered sugar if you translate it exactly. And we do not have these different types of sugars here. There isn’t even a name for it. 😀 Can you tell me what is the difference? Can I make the macarons or will they fail?
Hey!
In the video she mentions that using icing sugar (the fine white powdered sugar) for both parts works okay, and mine ended up okay too!
Thanks for the answer! 🙂
Icing sugar is like powdered sugar, very fine. Castor contains no additives to prevent clumping, so it’s texture is just slightly finer than granulated sugar (white sugar). You cannot use castor in place of icing sugar, but you can use icing in place of castor. I would suggest going to the store, and just checking the ingredients list on the back of the package, for additives.
I tried the recipe I did bang the trays down a bit and still came out with cracks the second tray is worse how do I fix the problem?
I made macarons for the first time! Sorta. My batter was really watery. I put it in the oven and twenty minutes later… I get CAKE T.T. Tada magic trick. It tasted really good even though it was a cake. I’m not quite sure why that happened. I don’t know if it was because I replaced some of the sugar with different sugars or because I added cocoa powder to make it less sweet. I also added some vanilla extract. I also cut your recipe in half to just test it out. ( Cutting recipe is hard) Because it was so watery I left it to form a skin. Please respond. I searched online and there were no results on this kind of mistake. I have no idea how my macarons became chocolate sponge cake.
Hi Ariel, Changing the ingredients is not ideal for your first make of macarons as they can be a bit finicky. But changing so many things it is hard to know which one caused your problem. When experimenting with recipes I’d suggest changing only one thing at a time. In general if you’d followed the recipe given then watery would mean you’d over folded the batter – then it goes from thick to watery in the process of folding. ?
how much sugar can you cut out before the macarons can’t be made?
Now there is an experiment that I have not done – you will have to give it a go and let me know
After many, many failed attempts I finally did it! I now know my oven really well. I asked him to marry me. He said yes!!!
But during all these fails, i always used your recipe, because I knew it has to work. And it did work! Thank you very much, greetings and hugs from Austia! 😀
(i filled the macarons with white chocolate lemon ganache, dark chocolate Orange ganache and homemade Applejelly)
Hi Ann, I used your method last night to make macarons for the first time ever. I think I under-whisked the egg whites (never really baked before at all, but looking again they might have still been soft peaks), but I’m really pleased they came out awesome!
Beautiful Megan
Hi Ann! I came back to your recipe after not making macarons for a long time, but now all the macaron shells crack. Not sure whats going on, it use to work perfectly back then! I rapped the macarons for like 20+ times before putting it in the oven, are there other reasons why the macarons crack?
they may be cooling too quickly, so some people leave them inside the oven as it cools to help prevent cracks. Other inconsistencies in temperature can cause cracking so checking the oven too often can get your macarons to crack.
Hi, Anne! I’ve tried this recipe about 10 times now and I just can’t get it right! I have no trouble with making the batter, or folding or letting them set and everything seems to be working perfectly until it’s time to bake them. I just can’t get them to form those beautiful feet! They always rise really high and spread out to the side and when I leave them to cool they just completely deflate and end up having hollow shells! I’ve tried just about everything ( lowering the oven temperature, baking them with the fan on and baking them with the fan off, baking them for longer and baking them for a shorter time, I’ve tried under mixing the batter just a little, I’ve tried over mixing it, I’ve tried under beating the egg whites, I’ve tried a silicone mat and I’ve tried parchment paper) and still nothing seems to be working! I’ve also tried several other recipes and I always end up having the same issue! The thing is though, I have no trouble making chocolate macarons, they always turn out perfect, so I’m just really confused as to why these fail every time! They taste amazing by the way, even failed, but I don’t know what I’m doing so wrong. Do you have any advice? Thanks Anne, xx
Try resting the piped macarons on the tray for ~30 mins before baking. They form a “skin” which helps to stop cracking and ensure even feet! I haven tried this recipe yet, but that is what I usually do when making macarons and it always works a treat!
Check out the comparison of leaving them to rest or not in this video ? https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/baking-hacks-tested/
Hey Ann !
The first time I cooked macarons, it was a disaster. Second try with your recipe, I wasn’t sure at first (well, I’m french so it was a bit humiliating to take advice from a foreigner haha), but they were perfect ! Thank you for explaining so well, letting us understand all the steps and not assume we already know half of the technique. I love your videos and your recipes, you’re great ! Thank you and tons of love from Paris 😉
Charlotte
Hi Ann, do you suggest waiting 30 minutes to an hour before the macrons enter the oven? Or can you place them right in? Also is almond meal interchangeable with almond flour?
Hi Kirsten I compare putting in straight away and waiting 30 minutes in this video https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/baking-hacks-tested/
Yes, almond meal made from blanched (peeled) almonds and almond flour are the same thing.
Thank you very much for posting measures in gramms. Its always a problem for me.
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Thank you for your video! I haven’t tried making the macarons yet, but will this week. I think your video will really help with the visuals and what to look for in texture.
Great, If it is your first time and you’ve never made them before do try folding until you think it’s ready, pipe half the mixture then fold a little bit more and pipe the rest. So you get a feel for the right amount of folding.
which rack did you cook them on?
Hi Andrew, I use the centre rack
Hi Ann, I have never made macaroons before, and everyone told me it was super hard!
But I watched the video, and followed your recipe, and it was SO EASY! Thanks so much for helping me sate my craving 🙂
-Cat
Awesome, well done Cat, macarons are one of the more difficult things to bake so if you can do that you can do everything ?