Homemade French Macarons

Macarons are delicious French sandwich cookies made from meringue and almond flour with buttercream, ganache, or jam in between. They have a notorious reputation for being hard to perfect the consistency of the sandwich part, but this easy to follow guide will make it simple and easy to create these sweet French delicacies. This recipe roughly makes about 20 macarons.

Ingredients

Macarons

• 1 1/4 cups powder sugar
• 1 cup fine almond flour (not almond meal, it needs to be very fine)
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon rum extract (optional)
• gel food coloring (optional)

Buttercream

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream

Tools

• Food processor or blender
• Electric mixer
• Various bowls; 2 large bowls for mixing and smaller ingredient bowls if needed
• Baking spatula
• Baking pan
• Parchment paper
• Piping bag with a rounded tip
• Measuring cups/spoons
• Sifter/Sieve

You will want to set your eggs and butter out so that they can become room temperature. It is much better if you separate your own egg whites rather than using egg whites out of a carton. If you want this done fast, you may set them in warm water while you do your other prep work. You want your butter room temperature because this will make it malleable to create the cookie filling. Do not try to microwave the butter to soften it because the oils from the butter will be improperly released which will change the consistency of your buttercream.

Blend your granulated sugar in pulses to ensure that your sugar is extra fine for this recipe. Strain your sugar into a separate bowl. You can see that even after blending, there were still sugar granules that were not able to pass through. This is good because we want to avoid any chunkiness in the batter and cookies.

Combine and blend your almond flour, powdered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt until fine. Strain this mixture into one big mixing bowl.

Separate your room temp egg whites into a mixing bowl. Add your cream of tartar and your 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Both of these ingredients ensure that the egg whites do not collapse. As you mix these ingredients together, gradually add your fine sugar. An electric mixer in this situation is imperative to have. It takes quite a while, but at medium to high speed, whip your mixture until stiff peaks form. If the peaks do not maintain form and slightly droop, whip the mixture for a couple more minutes. At this point, you may add your desired amount of gel food coloring and 1/2 teaspoon of whatever extract you would like to use. Gel food coloring maintains the shape of the meringue. If you used regular food coloring, it might destroy the consistency of the whipped egg whites.

Slowly incorporate your powdered sugar and flour mixture into the egg whites 1/3 cups at a time. Gently use a spatula and fold the flour and sugar into your whipped egg whites. Once everything is combined, continue folding until ribbons fall from the spatula.

Transfer your Macarons to your piping bag and place them on your parchment paper on top of the baking pans. Tap the baking pan up and down so air bubbles escape from the batter. They will spread out a tiny tad, but for the most part will remain where they are. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour or so on a flat surface so that they are dry to the touch. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Once your oven is ready and they have sat, pop your pans in the oven and set your timer for 17 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they aren't burning.

Whip your room temperature butter until 'fluffy.' Sift and mix your powdered sugar into your butter a little at a time until everything is combined. Add your cream 1 tablespoon at a time and beat until you reach your desired thickness. When you are done, transfer to your clean piping bag.

Once your timer is done, you may set your macaron slices out to cool. It should not take too long, just feel for their temperature since we don't want the buttercream to melt. Once they have cooled, gently scrape your slices off of the paper. I used a flat spatula to achieve this. Try to find matches for your cookies as best as you can, not all of them will match up with each other perfectly. Once you have done this, pipe your buttercream onto your slices and finish them by completing the sandwich with their top. For best results, let your macarons sit in the fridge for 24 hours. I tried them before and after and they did taste best after they had settled in the fridge.

Enjoy these yummy sandwich cookies and feel free to share. These are absolutely delicious and very addicting. The crispness of the cookie and the sweet richness of the buttercream are irresistible pairings. There are endless flavors you can use these for and so many color variations as well. Happy baking!