Easy French Macarons Recipe for beginners (step by step + video + checklist)

Making French Macarons from scratch is surely not an easy recipe to master. It takes lot of courage because intimidating, extensive of knowledge, practice, experiments and ingredients. It it in my experience one of the most temperamental recipe but more so because its unforgiving, we might get away with some steps, replacing ingredients in other baking recipes but not this one.  

I have tried to break down each and every step of making macarons, explaining in detail through the video, answering most frequently asked questions and resources to some amazing information that is present out there. In the end there is a link to download printable checklist of each and every step so you don’t miss out anything and reduce the chances of failure considerably. So let’s get started.

How to make macarons from scratch?

I started making macarons in 2009 and my first try was with Daring Bakers. You can read it up here. Over the years I have developed confidence of making french macarons from scratch even using my own grinded almond flour. If you break the steps and do all the pre requisite in a timely manner, it is not only possible to make the french macarons from scratch easily but also successfully.

Are Macarons really that hard to make?

Macarons are finicky but not hard to make.

• It only has three basic ingredients, Egg white, sugar, icing sugar, almond flour. Coloring and flavorings are optional.
• Given you have aged the egg whites properly
• Weighed out your ingredients
• Pulsed and sifted your icing sugar and almond flour really well
• Made your meringue to stiff peaks
• Achieved macronage
• Dried, baked, filled and matured your macarons well
• Then congratulations, you have enough persistence and motivation to master this cookie.

Make Macarons like a pro

Here are some tips if you want to make macarons like a pro:

• you should be practicing them, get and avail every opportunity to make them
• master basic recipe and then experiment with flavors
• pay attention to your environment, specially humidity
• learn your oven well, bake a couple at a time if you need to, to learn the best possible settings

Can you use regular flour for macarons?

French Macarons are naturally gluten free because it uses almond flour and not regular flour. Hence the original traditional macarons are not made using regular flour.

Also I think I will clear one more frequently asked question and that is difference between almond flour and almond meal. Almond flour is grinded almond powder of blanched almonds (no skin) whereas almond meal is grinded almonds with skin.

Best Easy Macaron recipe

Contrary to popular belief, there is no ‘best’ recipe of French Macarons. Infact, if you compare and observe, almost all macarons recipe our same. It is the techniques used during the process that make them successful or otherwise. Tr y to master and pay attention to the technique rather than trying out different ratios.

How do you make the perfect Macarons?

First, lets define the idea of perfect macaron. In my humble opinion and experience, here is a ll a good macaroon should have.

• physical characteristics – smooth top, ruffled feet
• inside texture should be soft, bit of chewy-ness and no hollows/crispness
• perfect ratio of filling to cookie

If only I had to give three suggestions, it would be these to answer the above questions:

• practice
• observe (by maintaining dairy/notes)
• repeat

How long you should bake the macarons for?

Baking the macarons is one of the most crucial steps. Keep in mind the following tips:

• Macarons are typically baked for 12-15 minutes
• Macarons are relatively baked on lower temperatures in preferably conventional oven (you don’t want additional heated air) at 300-325 F.
• Macarons are baked on upper rack for less heat exposure
• Macarons are baked on two stacked trays for even heat distribution
• Macarons tray is rotated half way
• Macarons shells are peeled off the parchment or silicon sheet rather then lifting up like traditional cookie
• Some tips might suggest to open the oven door ajar with a wooden spoon but i experienced crinkled tops so be careful when applying this tip

How to make macarons for beginners?

For a beginner in baking or to Macarons world, things can be confusing or even daunting. My advice is to take it slowly and step by step, digesting all the information and get in the kitchen fully equipped with sound knowledge. Here are my two cents:

• my mantra is, if you want to master a recipe, read up and watch all possible material available, for example, out of so many tutorials i read and watched, someone mentioned to dry the almond powder in oven by roasting it for 5 mins and that played a huge role in my macaron making journey because I store my almond flour in fridge hence it absorbs a little moisture
• Practice small batches – halve the recipe
• Start with plain macarons, not even chocolate and take it from there
• I tried lot of macarons, but this is the recipe and my first successful batch of macarons, I did for breast cancer awareness and named them pinkarons. Check it out here.
• To make things a little manageable and digestible not to forget any step, I have created a checklist of bullet point for all major steps. Go ahead and download your free checklist here.

Why do macaron shells crack?

I would refer you guys to wonderful resource who answers most of the troubleshooting questions related to French Macarons. Please see Indulge with Mimi.

Easy Step by Step French Macaron Recipe Tutorial Video

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