DIY French Macarons

Ever since I went to Paris with my family, I have been interested in macarons. We bought some Pierre Hermé ones in Paris that weren’t too great, but I was convinced they weren’t all that bad. The best macarons I’ve had so far are where I used to live in in Wiesbaden, Germany, at L’ArteSucré. My favorite flavor was the hazelnut chocolate, so if you’re ever in Wiesbaden be sure to stop by this cute patisserie! Today, I’ll be sharing a macaron recipe that I tried yesterday. I would recommend giving this recipe a try if you’re looking for something new to try in the kitchen.

French Macarons adapted from Food Network

First, lets start with the ingredients!

1 ¾ cups powdered sugar

1 cup almond flour (also called almond meal)

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

¼ cup sugar

2 to 3 drops food coloring

½ teaspoon vanilla, almond or mint extract

Filling of choice

Now for the instructions!

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with silicone mats. I used my silicon mat and some of the macarons didn’t peel off smoothly or broke (probably because I didn’t let them cool all the way). Measure the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour, transfer to a bowl and whisk to combine.

After you have whisked the sugar and almond mixture, sift the mixture thoroughly with a rubber spatula. This will take a while and if there are pieces of almond or sugar left, just toss them (you don’t need that negativity in your life…haha)!

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt with a mixer on medium high speed until frothy. Then turn up the speed to high and slowly add your granulated sugar and beat on high for about 5 minutes until the stiff and shiny.

Gradually fold in the sugar-almond mixture by drawing a spatula through the middle and gently folding it over and then giving the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat until all combined. Next add the food coloring and flavoring and fold in until combined. The consistency should be like molten lava.

Now take a plastic Ziploc bag and pour the mixture into the bag and snip the tip of the bag and begin piping your macarons onto the baking sheet. Once you finish this, firmly tap the baking sheets on the counter to loosen any air bubbles that might be in the cookies. The cookies then need to sit at room temperature for 30-45ish minutes in order to form a “skin” for baking.  

Bake the first batch of cookies until they are shiny and form a “foot”, about 20 minutes (mine took 17). Slip another cookie sheet on the rack beneath the cookies while baking to protect the cookies from the heat. After the cookies are done, let them cool on the silicone mat on the cooling rack. Once cool, carefully peel them off the mats and place a thin layer of filling on one cookie and sandwich one more.

I used a regular buttercream with a heaping spoonful of Nutella for the filling. You could use any filling that you like. Next time I would probably use a hazelnut ganache or something similar.

This week I also made a YouTube video tutorial of how to make these macarons. I hope you’ll watch the video and try this recipe out for yourself and leave me comment on how it turns out!

Weekly Truth:

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use well to serve one another.” 1 Peter 4:10 (NLT)

Use your talents to glorify God in whatever way possible! He loves us so very much and is so blessed when we honor Him with the gifts He has given us. Take a moment today and thank Him for all He has blessed us with!

I hope you enjoyed this post and the video and will join me next week for another post! Thanks J