Basic French Macarons

French macarons are variety of sandwich cookie based on almond meringue and a sweet filling.
Ingredients
- 125 g icing sugar
- 125 g almond flour
- 125 g white superfine sugar
- 90 g (3 ea.) egg whites
- Food coloring (concentrated variety)
- Filling as desired (see notes)
Steps
- Combine almond flour and icing sugar. Sift to remove lumps. Set aside.
- Add superfine sugar to egg whites. Whip to stiff peaks.
- Add food coloring. Beat until incorporated.
- Fold the almond flour mixture into the meringue in 3 batches with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Mix to a lava-like batter.
- Transfer batter to a pastry bag with an 8 mm round nozzle. Pipe 3 cm rounds on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
- Tap the sheet lightly on the work surface to even and flatten. Air-dry 30 minutes until a film forms on the surface.
- Bake 12 minutes at 150°C with convection.
- Remove from oven. Cool completely, moving the parchment onto a cooling rack to avoid carryover cooking.
- Peel shells from the parchment. Sort into pairs of equal size.
- Sandwich with desired filling.
Notes from the original
- Common fillings for macarons include jam, buttercream frosting, and ganache.
- It's very important to get the batter to the correct texture when making macarons. After adding the almond mixture, the mixture will get thinner as you continue to fold it. If it is too thick, you won't get nice, smooth, even shells—they will be too stiff and full of air. On the other hand, if the batter gets too thin, it will spread too much and will not hold the proper cookie shape. Your goal is to stop folding the batter when it flows off the spatula in a ribbon (not in one clump) and takes about 10 seconds (not less) to dissolve back into the rest of the batter. Note that you cannot go back once you have over-mixed the batter.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Basic French Macarons” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-20, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Macaron love, February 2011.jpg by Rebecca Krebs, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.






