Best French Macaron Recipe

Make sure the bowl of your mixer is very clean and free of grease. I like to wipe the bowl out with a bit of white vinegar before getting started.

Scale out your egg whites, granulated sugar, salt, and cream of tartar into the bowl of your mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. This is going to be your meringue. Start to whisk on low speed to combine ingredients. Once the sugar has dissolved, raise the speed to medium-low and continue whisking until the mixture is full of tiny bubbles.

While the mixer is running, scale out your almond flour and confectioners sugar into a sifter set over a medium bowl. Sift the mixture and make sure everything is well combined.

Check on your meringue. If the mixture is well combined and full of tiny bubbles, raise the speed to medium.

While your meringue continues to whip, you can get your piping bag and baking trays set up. Fit a piping bag with a number 12 round tip and place the bag in a tall cup with the edges folded over the top. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. If you don't have a mat with macaron guides, you can trace 1.5 inch circles or use my template (link below) underneath. You will need to fit a total of 30 circles on your baking tray. If you are nervous about baking, you can use two trays of 15 so that you can adjust the second bake if the first one doesn't turn out.

When the meringue becomes thick and white and starts to form soft peaks, you can add your food coloring. I recommend using only a drop or two. Too much food coloring can affect the final texture of your macarons.

Raise the speed to medium-high and continue whisking to incorporate the color and reach stiff peaks. You will know you are getting closer as the whisk begins to leave more and more defined trails in the meringue. The meringue is ready when you can flip the bowl upside down and it doesn't move. You can also look for a very small peak to stand up straight off the whisk. Be very careful at this point not to over whip your meringue.

Sift your almond flour and confectioners sugar mixture again, this time directly over top the meringue. Discard any bits that don't pass easily through the sifter. Using a rubber spatula, begin folding the dry ingredients into the meringue. Once the batter is homogeneous, begin to scrape the batter against the sides of the bowl to deflate it. Now start checking for the proper consistency.The batter should stream off the spatula in ribbons and sink back into itself after several seconds.

Transfer the batter to your piping bag and pipe out 30 circles. Pipe your circles a little smaller than your template because the batter will spread. Bang your trays firmly on the counter to release any air bubbles, then use a toothpick to smooth out any imperfections.

Preheat your oven to 310 F (or 285 F for a convection oven). Have a rack placed in the center of the oven.

Let your shells rest until they form a skin. The surface of the shells should be matte and shouldn't stick if you touch them gently with your finger. (If you are using a convection oven you can skip this step.)

Bake the shells for about 12 minutes. You will know they are done if you can nudge one with your finger and it doesn't wobble or move at all. Let the shells cool completely before removing them from the mat or parchment.

Put your filling into a piping bag. Pair up the shells and pipe a dollop of filling onto 12 of the shells. Don't pipe too much or the filling will squish out. Sandwich the macarons together and place in an airtight container. Let them mature in the refrigerator overnight so that the filling can absorb into the shells. Enjoy your macarons at room temperature!