I’ve been on a bit of a macaron craze lately. I’ve been away from Paris for too long and I needed these little bits of sunshine to melt the winter away. Winter equals comfort though; fruity macarons would be made in the spring. I needed melt-in-your-mouth with a touch of home flavors. Chocolate was an easy first choice, and on my to-try list, there had long been the classic pistachio. Looking around for a third, and never-heard-of-before flavor, I found Mandy Mortimer’s mouth watering Maple & Pecan Macarons. Three is a charm! I was good to go.
Once you know how to master the basic macaron recipe, you can get adventurous and try these new flavors. My instructions are pretty straight forward; don’t hesitate to refer to my detailed step-by-step walkthrough close to fill you in on the details. Pay close attention to the cookie recipes because they incorporate additional ingredients compared to the classic recipe. Make sure you use the exact measures and cooking temperatures!
As you can see on my pictures, I’ve played around with the flavors. Once I had made all three recipes, I thought, why not mix it up? I even had a vanilla butter cream leftover so I added that in the mix. Chocolate and pistachio is especially divine.
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Chocolate Macarons
Makes about 30 macarons.
Cookies:
3 egg whites (from large eggs)
200 g powdered sugar
125 g almond meal
15 g good-quality cocoa powder
30 g granulated sugar
Brown food coloring
Ganache (cream):
120 g 70 % dark chocolate
80 g butter *
30 g heavy cream *
To make the ganache:
In a double boiler or the microwave, melt the chocolate, butter and cream together. Mix well, take off the heat and let cool. You can put it in the refrigerator if you want the ganache to firm up faster.
To make the macarons:
Finely grind the powdered sugar, almond meal and cocoa in a food processor. Sift mixture to make sure no lumps or bigger bits of almonds are left.
Whisk the egg whites on medium/high speed for a minute or two, add a tablespoon of the granulated sugar, continue beating and add the remaining sugar slowly. Beat until the egg whites are stiff, dense and creamy.
Fold in the brown food coloring with a spatula. If you don’t have brown, you can make it as I did with the basic colors with the following recipe: 1 drop green, 3 drops red, 3 drops yellow. I added three times this recipe to reach the right color. Your eggs will look a bit orange but everything will turn out fine when you incorporate the cocoa mixture.
Delicately fold in the cocoa mixture in 4 or 5 additions. Slide your spatula all the way to the bottom of the bowl and comes back up several times to make sure no pockets of dry ingredients remain and the color is evenly blended.
Prepare your baking sheet by lining them with parchment paper.
Transfer your batter in a pastry bag fitted with a ½ tp ¾ round tip. Pipe 1 ½-inch rounds of batter, evenly spaced but still close to one another as they will not expand much.
Let your macarons rest on their baking sheets for a minimum of 20 minutes (30 to 60 minutes is best).
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Macarons with cocoa in them need to bake at a higher temperature to come out brown and well done. Bake the macarons for 13 to 16 minutes.
Let the macarons cool to room temperature before assembling them with the ganache. Put them in an airtight container and let them sleep for one night in the refrigerator before indulging.
* I make my ganache with goat milk butter and soy cream and it turns out delicious. Nobody can tell the difference.
Pistachio Macarons
Makes about 30 macarons.
Cookies:
3 egg whites (from large eggs)
205 g powdered sugar
125 g powdered almonds
20 g unsalted and shelled pistachios
30 g granulated sugar
Green and yellow food coloring
Pistachio Cream:
45 g unsalted and shelled pistachios
1 cup powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the pistachio cream:
Finely grind the pistachios with the powdered sugar in a food processor. Cream this mixture with the softened butter until you reach a creamy consistency. Incorporate the vanilla extract. If the cream is too thick or won’t blend well, add a tiny bit of cream or milk until you reach the right consistency.
To make the macarons:
Finely grind the pistachios with the powdered sugar and almond meal in a food processor. Sift mixture to make sure no lumps or bigger bits of almonds or pistachios are left.
Whisk the egg whites on medium/high speed for a minute or two, add a tablespoon of the granulated sugar, continue beating and add the remaining sugar slowly. Beat until the egg whites are stiff, dense and creamy.
Fold in the green and yellow food coloring with a spatula. For light green, try 6 drops yellow to 1 drop green, adding more using this ratio until you reach a nice pistachio color.
Delicately fold in the nuts/sugar mixture in 4 or 5 additions. Slide your spatula all the way to the bottom of the bowl and comes back up several times to make sure no pockets of dry ingredients remain and the color is evenly blended.
Prepare your baking sheet by lining them with parchment paper.
Transfer your batter in a pastry bag fitted with a ½ tp ¾ round tip. Pipe 1 ½-inch rounds of batter, evenly spaced but still close to one another as they will not expand much.
Let your macarons rest on their baking sheets for a minimum of 20 minutes (30 to 60 minutes is best).
Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C). Bake the macarons for 12 to 15 minutes.
Let the macarons cool to room temperature before assembling them with the pistachio cream. Put them in an airtight container and let them sleep for one night in the refrigerator before indulging.
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Maple & Pecan Macarons
Maple and pecan are a match made in heaven. In Quebec, we have a great community of more than 10 000 maple producers providing us with genuine maple products all year round. Don’t try to serve me maple-flavored, or worse, corn syrup! There’s nothing like the real thing and this recipe is a real tribute to this sweet delicacy.
Makes about 30 macarons.
Cookies:
3 egg whites (from large eggs)
205 g powdered sugar
62.5 g almond meal
62.5 g pecan nut meal
30 g granulated sugar
Brown food coloring
Cream:
You can try Mandy’s Maple Swiss buttercream, but because I love an intense maple flavor – and because it’s so much easier – I cheated by simply filling my macarons with maple butter. Not a trace of butter in this, it’s just maple syrup whipped to a creamy and decadent spread.
To make the macarons:
Process the pecan nut and almond meals with the sugar. Sift mixture to make sure no lumps or bigger bits of nuts are left.
Whisk the egg whites on medium/high speed for a minute or two, add a tablespoon of the granulated sugar, continue beating and add the remaining sugar slowly. Beat until the egg whites are stiff, dense and creamy.
Fold in the brown food coloring with a spatula. If you don’t have brown, you can make it as I did with the basic colors with the following recipe: 1 drop green, 3 drops red, 3 drops yellow. Your eggs will look a bit orange but everything will turn out fine when you incorporate the nuts mixture.
Delicately fold in the nuts/sugar mixture in 4 or 5 additions. Slide your spatula all the way to the bottom of the bowl and comes back up several times to make sure no pockets of dry ingredients remain and the color is evenly blended.
Prepare your baking sheet by lining them with parchment paper.
Transfer your batter in a pastry bag fitted with a ½ tp ¾ round tip. Pipe 1 ½-inch rounds of batter, evenly spaced but still close to one another as they will not expand much. You can sprinkle a bit of ground pecans on your caps to make them even prettier.
Let your macarons rest on their baking sheets for a minimum of 20 minutes (30 to 60 minutes is best).
Preheat your oven to 275°F (135°C). Bake the macarons for 14 to 18 minutes.
Let the macarons cool to room temperature before assembling them with the maple cream. Put them in an airtight container and let them sleep for one night in the refrigerator before indulging.
Hi,
I am planning to make macaroons for my friend's wedding and I am going to do a try out of recipes before and also think ahead on the colours, flavours, etc. My question is, how many macaroons per person you think we should plan, do you know where I can find your size macaroons mat, which you used in your video and the best way to store them and for how long before? Any sugestions will be welcome. Thank you.
Hello Jojo, making macarons for your friend’s wedding is a great idea and very generous of you! I’m assuming that the macarons won’t be the only dessert offered (there will certainly be cake, no?) so I would plan for 3 macarons per person. Some will eat more, others less but you should be alright with 3 per person overall. Depending on how many guests will be present, you should make 3 to 5 flavor combinations so people can try different things. About the mat: do you mean the template? If yes, you can print your own, the links to the template I’m using is on this page: All About Macarons. As for storing, macarons can be frozen, assembled with the buttercream filling, store in an airtight container (if using a deeper container, separate macaron layer with wax or parchment paper to make sure they won’t break rubbing against each other). They keep surprisingly well in the freezer, I have kept them up to a month without problem. I have read that they can keep for up to 3 months, but I wouldn’t go that far – you don’t want frost bites on your macs, especially if you don’t have a chest freezer to store them in. Aim for preparing them 1.5 to 1 month in advance and you’ll be just fine. Take them out of the freezer last minute – they need just 20-30 minutes at room temperature to defrost! The closer to serving them you defrost them, the fresher they will taste. Good luck!
Thank you for the chocolate macarons recipe. They came out perfect. It's the second time that I am making macarons. The first time I used the simple almond one and they also came out really good. I only want to ask if it is ok to freeze them without the filling as I intend doing that a day before serving them. Thank you so much!!!!!!!1
hi marie
thank you so much for your faithful recipes .
i wanted to ask about the egg yolk can i save them inside the freezer like the egg white????
what can i do with them regarding cream brulle
Check out this troubleshooting post for ideas to use leftover egg yolks.
Can u also give me the cup measurements…?I don’t own a scale…how are they supposed to taste?
It’s preferable to use a scale to make macarons because they are very sensitive even to the slightest change in the ratio of ingredients.
Hello . I tried the chocolate macarons . it tastes great . just that it looks like cookies and i cant get the macaron's shape . there's no cracking or anything . pls help ? =(
Check out this troubleshooting entry for help with warped/uneven shells.
[...] Chocolate, Pistachio and Pecan-Maple Macarons [...]
OMG! they look so delicious. I did try making them but mine didn't have any feet =(
Check out this troubleshooting post for help about macaron feet.
Thank you for your really helpful post. I am new(ish) to baking and decided to try the macaroon after seeing a VERY MISLEADING recipe that only had 4 steps. I felt like such an idiot after trying it and failing miserably. I looked online and found you. Now I realize the work involved and am determined to succeed (at some point). I ended up with 90% of them being broken and "dome" like, but try try again.
Don’t give up! I’m convinced you’ll get them right. Macarons are definitely not easy to make! Patience and meticulousness are the macaron’s best friends. :)
hi ,wat is the temperature for the oven if i want to pipe the chocolate macaron 1 inch.oh n how long.
Please see the recipe instructions for baking times.
Thanks a lot for this useful method to make macarons,i’ve tried so many times to make macarons before this,but i failed,some are crack on the top and some are browning. I do have an electric oven with top fire and bottom fire function,i just want to ask you,to bake this type of cookies,do we need to use top fire or bottom fire? Or both ( top and bottom fire)?
You should preheat the oven using the bake (lower heater) setting.
Chocolate ones came out perfect! I’ve had many failed attempts at the italian version, and this one is definitely easier
I had to let them grow skin as the first tray cracked because I didn’t wait long enough. I found I didnt need colouring either because the cocoa made it dark brown already.
I’m happy it worked out for you! Sometimes macarons crack because the oven temperature is too high. Lower it a little bit next time, it’ll help – but make sure you leave them in the oven long enough to cook through.
I made the macaroons and they turned out really good compared to some other recipes I tried. The macaroons were a little too sweet to my liking. I was wondering how I can make the macaroons not so sweet yet still have a similar texture. Can I change the proportion of almond meal to powdered sugar? If so, what kind of exchange ratio would I be using (e.g. for every 1 g powdered sugar removed add 1 g almond meal)? Thanks for the awesome recipe and the instructions.
I wouldn’t change the recipe for the shells (it’s a delicate ratio to achieve the right meringue consistency), but you can play around with the filling. Use a filling that’s less sweet to balance out the meringue.
oohh…i wish i could come across this site before venturing on an attempt to make macarons.. i tried to make it yesterday and the result is: TOTAL DISASTER!
I didnt know at what consistency should be enough for the batter, so i guess i underbeat the egg whites. It turn out to be very runny (than compared to your illustrated step-by-step instruction)and when they were piped out, the circle joined each other..and they never formed an outer skin eventhough i left them stand for about 1 hr..
…sigh….
gonna try again soon…
really…this little angel is quite tough to make. No wonder they’ve been nicknamed “the world most difficult cookie to make”..;p
Yes, I don’t think they would be so popular if they were easy to make :) Don’t give up, you’ll get them right! Have a look at my troubleshooting post for even more tips and advice that will help you succeed.
Hi, I like to know if you age the eggs?
Thanks~
Yes! Always. Separate your eggs two to three days in advance and put them in an airtight container in the fridge until you’re ready to make the macarons.
Haloo!! thank you for posting this recipe! you make my life easier! i have tried make macaroon with other recipe but it did not turn out as what i expected, and i cant wait to try your recipe! but i wonder how did you make the filling for the lemon macaroon. it looks really yum!! thanks before! and keep it up! :D
Hello Vania! Have a look at this list of recipes for inspiration (there are lemon varieties in there!)
[...] were perfect. I think they are by far the best ones I have had since leaving France. She followed this recipe, used my chocolate ganache recipe for some, and then improvised a delicious orange butter-cream [...]
THANK YOU for the step by step.. I have made the macarons three times.. Each time they do brown on the tops a bit and I was wondering if you place the cookie sheet in the middle of the oven? Also, mine seem to flatten out more then the picture of yours…they get nice feet though. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I LOVE your site..your details are meticulous. Thanks
Anne
Hello Anne, if your shells brown, it means that your oven temperature is too high. Lower the temperature, you can go even lower than 300°F to make sure the shells won’t brown. Just make sure you cook them longer so that they’re dry and set when you take them out of the oven. I do place my cookie sheets in the middle of the oven. It’s ok if your shells rise less than mine, in fact, I think mine tend to rise too much! “Proper macarons” (according to the French standards) must rise slightly but not be all puffed up. They must remain fairly flat, not become little domes!
I just read the step bu step macaron post and then looked at these pictures and i have to say, i feel like i can do it. Thanks for putting this very delicious thought in my head :) these look absolutely gorgeous. the pecan ones especially, have stolen my heart i think…
Did you end up trying to make your own? If you did, you have to report back, if something when wrong, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback!
The pecan and maple macarons are my all-time favorites and everyone who tasted them are in love. You have to try and make your own!
[...] you want the recipes for three of the macarons featured here, go to my post: Macarons, 3 Ways: Chocolate, Pistachio, Pecan & Maple. They are my most popular flavors. If you need help in making macarons, or want more information [...]
My husband and I are working on mastering the macaron. You have done a phenomenal job, not only with your macarons but with your blog as well. I will be using your tips as I continue my quest for the perfect macaron.
Thank you so much for your comment! I really like making macarons and I've made hundreds of these delicate cookies before managing to master them. I'm now looking to try new flavors and fillings – as well as other techniques to test that would be the difference in texture and flavor. I hope my how-to will help you succeed in making your own.
I loved it.
Thanks.
thanks !! very helpful post!