Macarons are so expensive to buy so why not make your own Raspberry Macarons at home for a lot less "dough"!
Don't Be Afraid to Make Your Own Macarons
I finally did it and you can too! I made Raspberry Macarons - the mysterious French cookie. My daughter has been asking me to make them for at least a year and I was actually afraid to try them. They seemed so hard to make. But they're also $2.00 per cookie which is a bit pricey if you ask me. They're so small! But so delicious. And since I can't afford to buy them very often and only in very small quantities, I decided to be brave and try to make them at home. It worked! And they're just as scrumptious as the bakery version. I'm excited to share the recipe with you!
Macarons make a great gift
I also had a special occasion to give me some incentive. I made these Raspberry Macarons for my son's teacher. It was teacher appreciation week and I thought they would make a nice little gift for Mrs. Roberts. She's an extra special lady who deserves some extra fancy French cookies. And guess what, they're not that hard to make after all. They came out perfectly on my first try!
Make your own Macarons and save money!
You can do it! And you don't even have to spend $2 per cookie. This recipe makes 20 cookies, so I'm actually saving you about $40 bucks! You're welcome.
How to make Raspberry Macarons
- Start by tracing circles onto 1 sheet of parchment paper. I used a 1 ½" round cookie cutter and traced 20 circles. If you want to skip this step, you can buy a pre-marked silicone mat on Amazon which is really convenient. I sometimes use this Macaron Kit - 15 piece set includes TWO mats with macaron template, plus much more! (Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
2) Place your almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor. Process for about a minute.
3) Beat egg whites on medium-low until frothy. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. It should look like this. Gradually add the granulated sugar.
4) Increase speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form like this.
5) Stir in pink food coloring until completely combined.
6) Using a fine mesh strainer, sift the flour/sugar mixture into the pink egg whites.
7) Stir to combine. It will be thick at first. Keep stirring until batter is smooth and forms a ribbon. Do not over mix!
8) Pour into a large pastry bag fitted with a plastic coupler (no tip).
9) Place a clean piece of parchment paper over the one with the circles and put them both on a large cookie sheet. Pipe batter to near the edge of the drawn circles. Gently pull out the circle sheet, place on another cookie sheet and cover with a fresh piece of parchment. Pipe 20 more. Let them dry for 15-30 minutes.
10) Bake at 350°F. for about 12 minutes. Let cool. Meanwhile, carefully remove the bottom piece of parchment from the cookie sheet. Place on another cookie sheet with a clean piece of parchment on top. Pipe the remaining 20 cookies. Let them dry 15-30 minutes, then bake for 12 minutes. Let cool.
How to fill your Raspberry Macarons
Fill the cookies with seedless raspberry jam. You could also fill them with nutella or vanilla buttercream frosting. Note: Macarons always taste the best the next day (if you can wait that long).
Raspberry Macarons make a beautiful gift or rainy day treat. Enjoy!
If you want strawberry macarons, try this recipe.
TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Macaron Kit - 15 piece set includes TWO mats with macaron template, plus much more!
Blue Diamond Almond Flour - My favorite brand for this recipe!
Chefmaster Food Coloring Gel in Rose Pink
Note: The above items are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Raspberry Macarons
Ingredients
- ¾ cup ground almond flour (also called almond meal) 85g
- ⅔ cup powdered sugar 42g
- 2 large egg whites at room temperature
- 3 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar 50g
- 1 drop pink food coloring I used Wilton brand
- ¼ cup seedless raspberry jam (or half recipe of my vanilla buttercream frosting)
Instructions
- Place a piece of parchment paper on a large cookie sheet. Using a 1 ½" round cookie cutter, trace 20 circles on to parchment paper (I used a colored pencil). Place another clean sheet of parchment paper on top. Set aside.
- Place the almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor. Process for a 1 minute. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium-low until frothy. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. There should be soft peaks at this point. With the mixer on low, gradually add the granulated sugar.
- Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form. Add food coloring and stir until completely combined.
- Place a fine mesh strainer over bow and sift the flour/sugar mixture into the egg whites mixture. Gently stir the flour into the egg whites until completely incorporated but be careful not to overmix. It will seem sort of thick at first but keep stirring until it's smooth and forms a ribbon. It should take about 50 strokes.
- Pour the batter into a large pastry bag fitted with a plastic coupler and no pastry tip. The coupler is the perfect width, about ½". Pipe the batter on to the parchment with the circles. Let the cookie batter go to just inside the edge of the circle line. Preheat the oven to 350°F. and let the piped batter dry for about 30 minutes.
- Bake cookies for 12 minutes. Let them cool completely. Meanwhile, carefully remove the bottom parchment with the circles and reuse it on another large cookie sheet covered with a clean piece of parchment paper. Repeat the above piping and baking process.
- Let all the cookies cool completely before filling. Place about ½ teaspoon of jam in between 2 cookies. You should have about 20 sandwich cookies when you're done. Voila! You just made French macarons. You're awesome! (Note: If you want to fill them with vanilla buttercream, place frosting in a piping bag fitted with a #12 round pastry tip and pipe a large dollop onto 20 shells. Then gently place an empty shell on top of each of the filled cookies.)
- Store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days. Or store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
Nutrition
All text and images © Lise Ode for Mom Loves Baking. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate. This post may contain affiliate links.
Lidia says
Hi, Lise! Sadly I'm too young to make a Instagram account even though I am turning 13 in a couple months. I would really like to, but I can't 🙁 I do have a photo so I could email it to you!
Lise Ode says
Hi Lidia, No worries. I love that you are starting so young with your baking adventure. Yes, email it to me at lise@momlovesbaking.com. :-))
Lidia says
Hi again! They came out wayyyy better than I was expecting! Some of them cracked, and that might be because of I just dropped the tray from one way. But at least they had feet this time!! I'm so glad they turned out. I wish I could send a picture. Also I am not the best at piping so I had large, medium, and small macarons. But my family loved the size difference! I will definitely be making these over and over again!❤
Lise Ode says
Hi Lidia! Hooray! That's great news. I'd love to see a photo. If you're on Instagram, tag your pic with #momlovesbaking and I'll see it, then share. :-))
Lidia says
Hi! The first time I tried this, I think I over mixed the batter, and that resulted in no feet. I became so discouraged, but my love of cooking made me try again. Right now I am waiting for the Macarons to dry out. And I will update on how it goes! Also Mom Loves Baking, I thank you so much for the pictures!
Lise Ode says
Hello Lidia, I'm so glad you're trying them again. Keep us posted!
Rachel says
Just made these and had an Elle Woods moment of "what, like it's hard?" So easy and so delicious! I ended up only able to make 10 cookies instead of 20 and I don't think mine were much bigger than 1 1/2" but they came out perfect
Mom Loves Baking says
Haha! Yay! Tag your photo #momlovesbaking on Instagram for a chance to be featured on my feed with 193K followers! :-))
Becky says
Can you freeze these?
Mom Loves Baking says
No, I don't think so.
Laura says
Do you have other macaron recipes?
The raspberry recipe turned out PERFECT
The first time I made it 🙂
Mom Loves Baking says
Hi Laura, Yay! I'm so happy to hear that! Just curious, which brand of almond flour did you use? I'm sorry that I don't have any more macaron recipes at this time but hope to have more in the near future.
Charlie says
I just used this recipe. They did not come out right at all. Maybe next time I shouldn't double the recipe the first time I'm making them. But I'm trying to figure out what went wrong
Mom Loves Baking says
I'm so sorry! Macarons in general are extremely tricky. I never tried doubling this recipe. That could be the problem.
meagan says
Ugh! I knew the ingredients seemed scarce for this amount of cookies! I was only able to make 20 cookies following you measurements to the T, not 40... 🙁
Mom Loves Baking says
I'm sorry. The cookies I made were small. Macarons are just very tricky.
Jennie @ The Diary of a Real Housewife says
These look so good! I love macarons, they are so pretty! I'll be trying these raspberry ones!
April @ Girl Gone Gourmet says
On the first try?? Wow, awesome job -- I've never made macarons, but have heard they can be tough to master. Although, everything you make looks so good I'm not surprised you pulled these off so easily -- love the pink 🙂
Veronica@downcakerylane says
These are sooo pretty! And I love all the step-by-step photos. You've inspired me to try my hand at macarons 🙂