I love French macarons, but retailing at about $3 per cookie, they are way too expensive to get often, so I decided to try and whip up these fool proof French macarons for myself. I scoured multiple recipes until I came up with the recipe below, which combines bits and pieces of various recipes with a little bit of my own technique.
Contrary to popular belief, these fool proof french macarons were actually not hard to make! It’s definitely a process, but totally worth the wait, and way more economical than buying them already made. I actually had everything on hand in my pantry, so they were even less expensive than I thought! There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but if you follow along and do everything as written, you shouldn’t have any problems.
These fool proof French macarons are perfect to bring for parties because they feel very indulgent and special. They are a total show stopper and everyone is super impressed when you casually mention that you made them from scratch. Trust me, if you have a little time, these are so worth it!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup almond meal (71 grams)
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (117 grams)
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 2 tbs meringue powder
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (53 grams)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Jam or other filling (See bottom of instructions for filling ideas)
Place almond meal and powdered sugar in a food processor (I used my NutriBullet); process until as fine as possible, about 1 minute. Next, pass almond mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to get out all of the lumps and aerate the mixture. It sounds like a pain, but it is totally worth it!
In a separate bowl (or the bowl of a standing mixer), whisk egg whites and granulated sugar by hand to combine. Next add in the meringue powder and whisk to combine. Beat on medium speed (4 on a KitchenAid) 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high (6) and beat 2 minutes. Then beat on high (8) 2 minutes more. The beaten egg whites will hold stiff, glossy peaks when you lift the whisk out of the bowl. Add in vanilla extract and beat on high speed 30 seconds.
Add dry ingredients all at once, folding them into the egg white mixture with a spatula from bottom of bowl upward. Repeat just until batter flows like lava, 35 to 40 complete strokes.
Next, Line baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray. Rest a large ziplock bag inside a glass. Transfer batter to bag and cut off the tip, about 1/8 inch up from corner. With the tip of the bag 1/2 inch above sheet, pipe batter into a 3/4-inch rounds, spacing rounds 1 inch apart. This recipe makes about 60 round disks, 30 sandwiched macarons.
If you notice that your macarons slightly resemble Hershey’s kisses and have little peaks on them, wet your finger slightly and just pat them down so they are perfect little disks.
Let the rounds air dry for one hour so they form a skin/crust on them. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! This will ensure that the macarons hold their shape when baking and keep their pretty appearance. I let them dry for an hour to an hour and a half for best results.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake 1 sheet at a time, rotating the pan after 3 minutes, baking the macarons for an additional 2 minutes, until risen and just set, (Total baking time of 5 minutes).
Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack and let the macarons cool completely before filling them. Pipe or spread filling on flat sides of half of cookies; top with remaining half. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate.
NOTE** You can use jam, curd, or buttercream to fill these. If you want to go in the fruit direction, I suggest sticking to jams and curds, however if you want to go a different route, I use this buttercream recipe as a base and add from there.
To Make Buttercream Filling:
1 stick of room temp salted butter, 1 ½ cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Cream everything together to make a base, then add additional flavoring such a coffee or chocolate to taste. I typically divide this base into 3 and make 3 different flavors.
For coffee flavor, add mix ½ tsp water with 1 heaping tsp instant coffee, then add that to the buttercream base. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar, 1 tbs at a time. For chocolate, mix 2 tsp coco powder with 1 tsp vanilla extract, then add to base.