You’ll love this step by step guide to making foolproof macarons almost as much as you’ll enjoy eating these delicate French sweets!

This post is sponsored by Café Appliances. As always, all opinions are mine.

How to make French Macarons

Now, I don’t know about you, but I LOVE eating macarons. However; I haven’t always loved making them. Macarons are notoriously finicky. Beat your egg whites too little or too much and you’re left with flat macarons. Fold in your powdered sugar and almond flour a few too many times and the tops crack. Even a rainy day (something completely out of your control) can ruin them. All these factors give these delicious, delicate pastries a bad rap.

The base of macarons is made from whipped egg whites, which you then fold a mixture of powdered sugar and almond flour into. This batter tends to be unstable and unpredictable, which can be pretty disheartening to even professionally trained bakers.

But don’t worry guys. I have a solution for perfect macarons.

What makes this classic macaron recipe foolproof?

Years ago, I had the honor of making macarons with the amazing pastry chef Alon Shabo. He taught me a new technique for making macarons and I haven’t looked back since. Instead of making a French meringue (uncooked egg whites) you make a Swiss meringue (warmed egg whites). The result? A much more stable base for otherwise finicky macarons.

This base is also more forgiving when it comes to the folding stage. Instead of painstakingly counting the number of times you fold the almond flour into the egg whites, you mix everything in a stand mixer. Of course you still have to watch the batter, but it comes together in a flash and is incredibly reliable.

Ingredients for Macarons

This is the easy part! You’ll only need a few ingredients to make these scrumptious French confections. You’ll probably have most of these on hand aside from almond flour.

• Super Fine Almond Flour: Repeat after me, almond flour is NOT almond meal. Make sure you use almond flour, which is much finer and made from blanched almonds (no skin) as compared to almond meal which is usually less fine and contains almond skin. You want almond flour (we love Bob’s Red Mill!) for smooth, bump free macarons!
• Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar will both sweeten and thicken your macaron batter. You’ll also use powdered sugar in your desired filling.
• Granulated Sugar: You’ll need granulated sugar to help aerate and whip up your egg whites into stiff peaks.
• Egg Whites: Some people swear by “aged egg whites”, but we don’t mind our egg whites youthful. I jest, but we don’t find that it makes a difference with the swiss meringue technique! Just make sure you measure out the egg whites by weight and that absolutely no egg yolks make their way into the separated whites.
• Food coloring (optional): If you want to color your macarons you’ll need just a few drops of food coloring.

What tools do you need to make macarons

From the stand mixer to the piping bag to the oven you bake them in, your tools really matter when it comes to macarons.

• Kitchen Scale
• Standmixer
• Sifter
• Parchment Paper
• Cookie Sheet
• Piping bag

And obviously you’ll need a reliable oven to bake these sweet french cookies in. We absolutely love baking in our Café Appliances Range because it’s so darn reliable and easy to use. Macarons bake at a low temperature, so it’s super important that your oven temperature is accurate and consistent. We love our Café™ 30″ Double-Oven Range because it preheats in a flash, has consistent heat throughout so you don’t get any burnt corners and under baked centers, and has a bright oven light so you don’t need to open the door to peak at any cookies and risk them falling.

How to make macarons:

Now that you’re all geared up for homemade macarons, let’s break it down step by step.

Step One: Measure out your ingredients.

Macarons don’t have to be hard, but you do have to be pretty precise in your preparation. We like to measure out all our ingredients using our kitchen scale before getting started to prevent messing up any measurements once you get started.

   

Step Two: Sift together the powdered sugar and almond flour three times to get out any clumps that would cause air bubbles or lumpy macarons.

*You can also pulse your powdered sugar and almond flour in a food processor, but as long as you sift it very well, there’s no need to break out another appliance.

    

Step Three: Whisk egg whites and roughly 3 tablespoons of the granulated sugar continuously until sugar melts completely and egg whites become white and frothy

One of my most favorite features of our Cafe Appliances Range is the 15K power boil burner which heats up quickly and evenly so you can make a double boiler in moments. We make our macarons with a swiss meringue, which means you’ll cook the egg whites a little before using them in your macaron batter. This will create a super stable macaron base that is much more forgiving.

   

Step Four: Transfer the egg whites to a stand mixer and slowly add the remaining granulated sugar, beating on high speed until stiff peaks form and the mixture is glossy. If using food coloring add here as well! 

You’ll know it’s done when the mixture is not longer grainy when you rub it between your fingers.

Step Five: Add the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour to the egg whites. Turn the mixer to medium speed and whisk for 5 seconds.

   

Step Six: Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl and gently fold the batter from the outside of the bowl and gently twisting it into the center in a circle-like manner.

Do this until the batter is a lava like consistency and you can make a figure 8 with the batter without it breaking.

Step Seven: Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fit with a ½ inch tip. Pipe the macarons out a few inches apart onto two cookies sheets lined with parchment paper.

Step Eight: Bake the macarons at 300°F for 13 to 15 minutes (depending on the size).

Step Nine: Allow the macarons to cool completely before transferring to a cooling rack.Step Ten: While the macarons cool, make the filling. Combine all the filling ingredients together in a bowl and beat until fluffy and creamy.

Step Eleven: Once the macarons are completely cool, sandwich together with the filling.
Step Twelve: Devour!

Et voila! French macarons without the trip to Paris 🙂 We hope you enjoy this easy macaron recipe just as much as we do!

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