Today we are keeping it basic, with these Chocolate Macarons.
And I when I say keeping it basic, of course I mean keeping it BASICally AWESOME!
Here at Pies and Tacos, I share lots and lots of macaron recipes.
I have tons of macaron ideas. I literally keep a list around with the title: Macaron Ideas. And everyday I write down some ideas for macaron flavors. Some come true, some not. Some merge.
But one day, I didn’t have so many macaron ideas. In the past, I struggled with macarons. I kept failing at making them. So I started to dive deep and research, and experiment with every tip I could find online that would work for me.
And now that I have some knowledge, and an immense amount of tips and tricks, I get to teach you how to master your own macarons.
I’ve always loved being a teacher. My mom is a teacher, and a good one. When I was growing up, playing school with my sister, and playing in the kitchen were my favorite activities.
Which is why you shouldn’t be surprised to find out that just a little before I started my blog Pies and Tacos, I was thinking about going to school to be a teacher.
I was a first grade class assistant for 4 years back in Brazil (2008), while I was going to college. And I’ve always really loved teaching.
Teaching is so special to me, because anytime I am teaching something, I always feel like I am learning more than I am actually teaching.
When you are teaching something that you already know, it’s like you are learning it with different eyes, because you have to externalize and put into easy words and sentences what that concept means, so someone else can also understand it. Learning how to teach a concept gives you a deeper understanding of that concept.
With that being said, that’s the reason why I started writing a Macaron ebook, which is in the works right now. I’ve talked about it on my last post, if you haven’t seen it (which is actually another macaron recipe, Neapolitan Macarons.)
Anyway, like I always say, if you want to learn how to make macarons, master the mindset first.
Online, you will find an immense amount of tips on how to make macarons, macaron recipes, different methods, foolproof instructions, etc. However, you should know that not all tips are going to work for you. Not all methods are going to work for you. Take notes of what works, discard what doesn’t work.
Try again, and again. You probably will have to. Unless maybe you have the fortune of quickly mastering macarons. That’s fantastic too. If that was your experience, that’s amazing. However, some people (like me) do go through a struggle period with macarons, when going over the learning curve. It’s a matter of sitting with it, keeping at it, taking the failures as big lessons of what not to make next time, or what to change.
Please wish you make all the mistakes with macarons sooner rather than later, so then you’ll quickly know what not to do.
And trust me, stick with it, and it will work for you. I hope my tips offer some help.
If you want to check out some macaron recipes, and tips, I have a few suggestions of some of my most popular/favorite posts for you:
- Toffee Macarons
- Brownie Macarons
- M&M’s Macarons
- Cookie Dough Macarons
- Caramel Popcorn Macarons
- Blackberry Macarons
- Dulce de Leche Macarons
- Coffee Macarons
- Pistachio Macarons
- Lemon Macarons
- Matcha Macarons
Ok, so can we quickly talk about these Chocolate Macarons, since they are the star of the night?
They are super simple, easy Chocolate Macarons.
The chocolate macaron shells are simply my favorite! I just got this new silicone mat, and I absolutely love the way it baked my macarons. So much better than parchment paper.
What’s better for baking macarons: parchment paper or silicon mat?
Hands down silicon mat. With the parchment paper, I would often get uneven bottoms on my macaron shells. You can even see it on some of my older macaron posts.
Ever since I started making macarons using a silicon mat instead of a parchment paper, I never looked back!
Check out below what I mean about the uneven bottoms. The first picture is my Neapolitan Macarons, and the second is my Banoffee Macarons.
Now let’s move on to that delicious rich frosting in the middle of the chocolate macaron shells.
This super dark and rich chocolate frosting is amazing, and will completely blow your mind.
It only takes 5 ingredients, and about 5 minutes to put this super rich Chocolate Frosting together. Go for it, see for yourself!
Check out my Brownie Macarons post. Where I also give a lot of tips on how to troubleshoot your oven when baking macarons!
I have a lot of tips and resources in all of my macaron posts that can help you in your macaron baking journey, so make sure to check them out!!
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE MACARON POSTS!
As always, I really appreciate you being here and reading my posts, and recipes!! Thank you! Have a lovely day. Happy baking!!
Ps. this is the container I use to store my macarons and specially if I want to freeze them. Make sure you use an air-tight container if you want to freeze your macarons!
This page contains affiliate links. Which means that every time you make a purchase of an item you clicked through my website, I receive a percentage from Amazon. It doesn’t cost anything extra to you, but helps my blog! Thanks!
Chocolate Macarons
Ingredients
Chocolate Macaron Shells
- 3 egg whites 100 grams 3.5 oz
- 1/2 cup white sugar 100 grams 3.5 oz
- 1 cup almond flour 96 grams 3.4 oz
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar 75 grams 2.64 oz
- 2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder 14 grams 0.8 oz
Rich Chocolate Frosting
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Chocolate Macaron Shells
- Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
- Under my parchment, I put a layout with circles that measure about 1 1/2 inches each. That’s how big I like to pipe my macarons.
- Measure out all of your ingredients.
- Sift powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
- Now you can finally start.
- Place egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes.
- Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
- Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. (I use my kitchenAid bowl when doing this, because it makes it easier)
- With the whisk attachment, whisk mixture on high speed for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
- Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
- You don’t want to overbeat the mixture at this point, because you don’t want to add too much air to it. Just whisk until stiff peaks have formed.
- Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
- Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
- It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this, and you might have to have a couple failed batches before you get this right.
- First, I pick up some batter with my spatula and try to form a figure 8. If the 8 forms without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
- Then, I grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto my parchment paper or silicon mat.
- If the batter stays stiff and doesn’t spread out a bit, I start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.
- Test again.
- Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy on the parchment paper, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
- You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
- This is the most important part about making macarons in my opinion.
- Once you’ve piped as many 1 1/2” circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
- Let your trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
- Pre-heat the oven to 325F.
- Bake one tray at a time.
- Bake for 4 minutes, rotate tray.
- Bake for 4 more minutes, check if it needs to be rotated again. You will know if it needs to be rotated again depending on how the macarons are baking. Take a look at them, if one side seems taller then the other, maybe you have to rotate the tray again.
Bake for around 4 more minutes or so. I would say I bake for a total of 18-20 minutes.
When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will peel off the tray easily.
- Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
- Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Rich Chocolate Frosting
- Start by sifting the powdered sugar, and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Add softened butter to the mixer bowl, and cream on medium-high speed for 1 minute.
- With the mixer off, add powdered sugar, and cocoa powder sifted mixture.
- Mix on low until dry ingredients are incorporated with the butter.
- Raise speed to medium-high, and cream from 30 -60 seconds, until smooth.
- Add vanilla and mix.
- Add milk if necessary for consistency.
- Frosting should be smooth, thick, not too stiff. Add more milk if the frosting is too stiff, and add more powdered sugar if your frosting is too runny and you went overboard with the milk.
- Always remember the a little bit of liquid here goes a long way, so you don’t want to be adding too much milk to your frosting.
To assemble
- Place frosting in a piping bag and pipe on top of half of the macarons. Top with another macaron.
Storage
Keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days, and in the freezer for up to 1-2 month. Make sure to package macarons really well in an air tight container to place it in the fridge.
Covardia esses macarons, fantásticos, muito fantásticos!!!!!!!!
Can I take away some sugar? And can I swap the white sugar for golden granulated sugar?
I really don’t recommend doing that. The sugar is really important for the structure of the macarons, and I’ve made several recipes with different ratios until I came to this one. About the golden sugar I do believe it could work.
just reading the recipe and checking the pics just makes me salivate and drool for this….
thank you that’s really kind!
So my macarons recipe says to bake them at 300F but I’ve been trying to make these at work . Do you have a tip on how to adjust the timing ? Because at work we have a convection oven with the option of low fan or high fan that’s it ! Not sure if you know about ovens much but obviously the higher the fan the faster things will bake. When I make them at home On my regular oven no fan ! They’re typically done in 15 min. Any suggestions?
Hey there Rosa, I would just bake them for longer. After the 15 minute mark you can start checking, and just try to lift one off the tray, if it lifts up easily without having a wet batter in the center sticking to the paper/mat, you are good to go!
Best of luck!!
hi ! i want to make these macarons tomorrow and i wanted to ask if there’s a way to use actual melted chocolate for the frosting?
Yes absolutely and I have two different chocolate frosting recipes on my blog that feature melted chocolate, but you will have to make less because they are meant for frosting cakes/cupcakes, so they make a lot of frosting. You may also freeze leftover frosting, or place it in the fridge for up to 7 days if you want to.
https://www.piesandtacos.com/chocolate-strawberry-cupcakes/
https://www.piesandtacos.com/smores-cake/
Thank you so much, I hope you like the recipe!! 🙂
I’ve wanted to try macarons for ages but never had the time and always been too nervous to try as I know they can be tricky. I followed your recipe for chocolate macarons to the letter and they came out perfectly. I can’t wait to try some other flavours.
That’s so awesome!! I am so happy to hear!!!
So, there is no creme de tarter in this recipe? Also do you use unsweetened cocoa? Thanks!
No cream of tartar needed in the Swiss method. Yes I do use unsweetened cocoa powder
Thank you!
Great recipe! So rich and fudgy. I prefer the French Method but these proportions still worked well. Could you simply double the quantities to make a double batch?
Hey Courtney,
I believe it would be fine to double the quantities to make a double batch! It will work just fine!! Thank you so much!
Is there a reason why you start the macarons in a double boiler?
yes, because in the Swiss method you have to melt the sugar and egg whites together to form a syrup, which then will be whipped into a stiff meringue before it’s folded with the dry ingredients.
thank you! have a great day!
We tried these and they’re delicious! Thank you for your detailed instructions and tips on what to look for. Definitely will be making them again!
Thank you so much Christina! That’s awesome that you found this recipe helpful!! Have a great day!
If I wanted to make these with matcha powder instead of cocoa how much should I add? Ps I made these and they were a huge hit! I just didn’t boil the egg and sugar and they still turned out wonderful
Hi Cass! so I do have a matcha macaron recipe and I use 1/2 tablespoon of matcha powder in the batter, but I use more powdered sugar than in the chocolate macaron batter. If you wanna check out the recipe here it is https://www.piesandtacos.com/matcha-macarons/ it’s the same method and everything else stays the same, the only things I change is using 1/2 tablespoon of matcha powder instead of 2 1/2 of cocoa powder, and 90 grams of powdered sugar instead of 75 grams.
Thank you so much for your feedback!! I appreciate it so much!
Have a fabulous day!!!!
Hi I just made these macarons. They turned out pretty well. I have been learning how to make macarons for several years now and have had many failed batches. And I have been searching for a good macaron recipe. I came across yours and decided to give it a try because you do something that I have never tried before when making the macaron batter. You put the egg whites and sugar mixture over a double boiler to dissolve the sugar and froth up the mixture before whipping it in the mixer. I think I really like this method because the sugar is full dissolved. Thank you so much for this recipe! I will continue to experiment with this recipe. Hopefully I will have more success than I’ve had in the past.
I am so glad you like it!! The Swiss method where you dissolve the sugar and whites together is indeed my favorite and most reliable method to make macarons! Best of luck on your macaron journey! Let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great day!
Followed the recipe and came out with a great batch of macarons. only question, how do I avoid the pimple on the macaron shell? after piping the macarons, I slammed the tray to let the macarons settle but the pimple remained. How do I get the flat surface? did I miss a step?
That means the batter needs to be mixed a bit longer.
This is the first time I ever succeeded macarons ! I am thrilled and it came out beautifully! Thank you so much. Thousand thumbs up!
Yay!!! I am so happy! Thank you so much!!!
While making the frosting, it was just powder. Any idea what I’m doing wrong?
Hello Amber, please add a bit more milk, or even heavy cream to the frosting to make it come together! Thank you for your question!
Ok thanks so much… it worked!!!
yay!!
Thanks for posting this! I was worried about the same thing since it seemed that the milk was optional. I came back and read through the comments and added the heavy cream and, like magic, I had frosting! 🙂
I had this same issue. 5 Tablespoons are not enough to handle 2 3/4 cups of powdered sugar!! It’s just powdery powder. The recipe says to cream the butter, sugar & cocoa together BEFORE adding the vanilla and milk. I think that’s impossible? Anyway, I just added some milk before the recipe said to…
They were delicious but I had very chunky frosting and had to use strawberry jam instead. any tips on making sure the frosting is perfect and not lunpy?
Add more milk, heavy cream, or even water to the frosting. And I’m talking 1 teaspoon at a time, until achieving the perfect consistency 🙂
I made these and they were so good! I tried another recipe before this one and it was a total disaster despite being a pretty savvy baker. This time, my macarons got super puffy. They cooked through perfectly but were more similar in shape to pate choux. Did I over whip my meringue? I’m not sure where I went wrong.
Do you have a picture I can see? Did they crack? Cracks could be due to oven temperature being too high, under whipping the meringue, not resting the macarons enough, overmixing the batter. It gets easier to pin point by looking at a picture.
Do you have an oven thermometer?
Over whipping the meringue actually won’t cause cracked or puffed macarons, but can cause extremely tall and large feet, as well as hollow macarons.
Hi!
This is such a cool recipe! I’m yet to try it out, but I just wanted to ask, do you have to use super fine almond flour, or will regular almond flour work?
Thanks!
You don’t have to use super fine almond flour. Regular almond flour will work, just make sure to sift it 🙂
Thank you!
Hello! Thank you for sharing this recipe in such details 🙂
I tried it out, and got wrinkly tops. They had nice feet though! Any idea why?
Wrinkly tops can happen from oily almond flour. It could also be from too much cocoa powder, did you weigh the cocoa powder with a scale? Under baking could also cause wrinkly tops.
Let me know if I can help with anything else 🙂
I made these and they were going so well but while they were baking all the shells cracked at the top… I have no idea what I did wrong 🙁 please help.
Cracked shells happen because of under whipped meringue. Or too much heat in the oven. Do you have an oven thermometer?
It can also happen because of humid climate, combined with under whipping the meringue, or over mixing the batter.
Not resting the macarons enough on a humid day can also cause cracked shells.
This recipe turned out well for me. I didn’t quite read all of the steps because they were too detailed, but am now realizing it would’ve benefited to follow all the details.
Heavy cream or milk?? I’m in the process of making them now….it says milk one place and cream another place. SOS
You can use either. sorry about the confusion.
thank you! awesome recipe they look great already!
My batter started to get crumbly and dry while mixing I have no idea what happened. Help!
While mixing the almond flour and powdered sugar in with the meringue? Do you have any pictures you can dm me on instagram or email camila @ piesandtacos.com?
Yeah, when I was mixing the flour with the meringue. I redid it and it worked perfectly though.
Oh great to hear!!!!
Where did you buy your silicone macaron mat. I cant find that brand anywhere
Hey Robyn, so this is the mat https://amzn.to/36NY4Sj and I really recommend it, it’s a great mat, I’ve had it for a long time and it’s still going strong for me. However, the set comes with 2 mats, one with the template and the other one without the template, so you’d need to place a template under the mat without the circles to pipe the macarons.
I was wandering if it would taste ok if I added some raspberry jam in the middle next to the frosting? I would love for you to visit my blog at fromyourchum.blogspot.com!!! I am getting ready to do a post on all of my bakes!!!
Yes it will absolutely be ok! it will taste delicious! Thank you
Hi! How long can I let these dry before cooking them? Is 2 hours too much?
Also, if the feet are stuck to the mat did I take them out too early?
Thanks!
2 hours is too much, the batter was probably over mixed, or the meringue under whipped, which made the batter too wet. And if they stuck to the mat it could be because they were pulled out too early, or because the batter was too wet due to one of the factors I mentioned above.
How did the feet turn out after baked?
Thank you for this recipe … they are great … my first time making macarons ever… 🥰
Yay! I’m so happy thank you!
Can you make the shells ahead and freeze them. Then another day do the filling. I made theSalted caramel Macarons and they were delicious thank you
Yes, you can absolutely do that. The shells will stay frozen for a couple of months 🙂 and thank you!
my macrons did not have feet. any idea what i did wrong?
Many things can cause macarons not to develop feet. Without seeing a picture gets harder to tell, but even seeing a picture may be hard to determine what could have happened. Did they also crack? Or just didn’t develop feet but were smooth on top?
Well anyway, not developing feet can be a cause of:
-over mixed batter
-under whipping the meringue
-baking temp being too low
-not letting the macarons dry enough before putting them in the oven
some cracked and some didn’t but i tested the batter before i piped them
UM. OKAY. I’ve been watching Great British Bake Off like too much lately and this is my third recipe attempt at macarons and it slayed. My husband threatened to eat them all before I took them to the superbowl party. I will be making like all of this angel who writes “pies and tacos” ‘s macaron recipes in the next few months.
awe that’s so nice to hear!! Thank you so much Callie!!! 🙂
I love all of your macarons! Can you help me figure out why some of my shells seem to not completely make a smooth bottom? Some of them have an area that doesn’t form to the silpat, not moist and sticky, just not there. Thank you.
yes! This is a classic sign of over mixing the batter. so some shells won’t even have a chance to develop a bottom, and the macaron will end up being concave. Try mixing a bit less. When you pipe the shells, they should spread out slightly and slowly. Try to do the teaspoon test. Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the silpat, tap the tray gently a few times, and watch how the batter spreads out. It should spread out slightly, not having a point forming at the top, but without spreading out too much. Also, watch my youtube videos, I show how the batter should be flowing off the spatula before the macaronage should be done. Thank you!!
Do the eggs need to be aged? and what does that do. So excited to try this recipe out!
I don’t age my eggs! Some people do, but I don’t unless I’ve used yolks the day before and had the whites separated already. I don’t notice any difference between the batches made with aged egg whites and new ones. Thank you!
I made these and used a dab of lemon curd in the middle to give it a nice tart filling and they came out perfectly. Well almost perfectly, everyone that tried them loved them but I think I may have over baked them a bit, it was hard for me to tell when they were finished. I ended up baking them for about 12-14 minutes per pan. I thought they were a little too crisp with not enough of the soft chew that I remember. The only thing I can say is that letting them sit for a day(in a container) definitely helped them out! I would post a photo if I could.
Omg! That sounds fantastic with the lemon curd!!! And yes letting the macarons sit for a day or two will definitely help! Thank you so much for reporting back!!! Wish I could see them you can email them to me camila @ piesandtacos. com or send them to me on instagram if you have an account there 🙂
Hi. Do you cool your macarons on the tray? Looking forward to trying some of your delicious looking recipes!
Yes! Cool them on the tray and don’t remove them until they have cooled down all the way, or the bottoms may stick to the mat 🙂
I think it was bad because my stuff was all very runny and nothing worked how it should have.
If it was runny it means you either over mixed the batter, or under whipped the meringue.
Hey where you have said white sugar should I use castor or granulated
I use granulated usually but have used caster sugar before and works fine as well.
My macaron batter is always very thick and no matter how much I work it, it does not thin out. Any suggestions? We are at about 7k feet. TY!
Hello, I’ve never baked macarons at high altitude, but this recipe here indicated a much much lower amount of granulated sugar than what I use on my recipe, maybe you could give this one a go, since she is at high altitude. Best of luck!
Hey there! I went to culinary school 6 years ago and worked in a few restaurant kitchens (on line and doing pastry) but I’ve been a stay at home mom recently so have had more time to bake at home. This was my first time making macarons; I didn’t watch your videos until afterwards and saw that I could have mixed the batter more right before piping. I was definitely baby-ing the meringue haha. So between my batches I got some good ones but they were a tad stiff- now I know how to make them better! They were very delicious and the Swiss method was straightforward! thank you for this recipe and all of your helpful tidbits!
I am so happy!! Thank you for this wonderful feedback, specially from an experienced chef! 🙂
All I’m going to say is I’ve tried about 10 different recipes with ALL of the tips for the past 6 months. I finally came across this recipe and it is the most successful recipe I’ve tried. Absolutely amazing! I will not look anywhere else for any other recipes.
Aweee that’s awesome!!! Thank you so much!!!! I’m so so happy!
What kind of cocoa powder is best for this recipe?
I tried it with some but I just don’t know.
unsweetened and non dutch processed
Do the egg whites need to be room temperature or will they work ok with cold eggs?
I make the Swiss method with whatever temperature egg whites, since the whites will be melted with the sugar over a double boiler, so it doesn’t really matter.
I keep my almond flour in the freezer, should I make it room temperature before using? And other than the butter do any other ingredients have a preferred temp?
Some people say that keeping the almond flour in the fridge makes their almond flour humid, so they dry them in the oven for a few minutes at 200F, and then let it cool down before using in the recipe. But I’ve never had to do that, since I keep mine in my cupboard. But if you feel like the almond flour feels humid or wet, I would do that.
And the other ingredients such as egg whites don’t necessarily have to be at room temperature for the Swiss method, since you will have to whisk it with the sugar and melt it over the double boiler.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Thank you 🙂
This icing y’all. It’s a situation. Honestly I don’t know if I already left a review because this is not my first time using the macaron recipes from this website but like FABULOUS.
Awe thank you SO much!!!!
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making macarons for awhile now. I found your recipe and decided to give it a try. Thanks to your clear instructions I was able to do it right the first time! Thanks so much ❤️
That’s so sweet! I am so happy to hear! Thank you Jessica!!! 🙂
I just tried this and it turned out so great! This is my second time at making macarons the first one i used a different recipe and it didn’t turn out so well, but this recipe I am keeping 😊. Thank you for sharing💕
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you so much!
Lovely recipe! Where did you get the silpat? I’ve searched online for the “For Bake” brand but can’t find it. Thanks!
I don’t think it’s available anymore. Which is a shame cause these mats are really good! They got a bit stained over the years, but they are seriously great!
Hi! I’m a teen baker and i’m planning on making macarons for the first time after seeing them in Shari Franke’s Youtube Video. I was just wondering since my oven has conventional and convection bake, which one would have a better outcome? Super excited to make these!
Lots of people use convection bake. They recommend lowering the temperature by 20-30 degrees. I have never baked with convection but I know of a lot of bakers who do, and this is what they recommend. 🙂 best of luck!!!
My macarons took forever to dry and when I baked them, they had no feet. Is it because my egg white was not stiff enough? I used egg white from pasture raised egg. I also used Hershey’s cacao powder, do you think this caused my batter to become too wet? Thank you!!!
Yes, the meringue was probably not whipped enough. Or the batter was over mixed. But most likely the meringue was under whipped.
Best macaron recipe ever!! I’ve made Macarons several times before and they’ve never turned out as good as these turned out! I was nervous making them, because I have had trouble with making them before, but the end result was fantastic! Thank you for such detailed instructions! Love, love love, this recipe! Will definitely make again!
Yay!!! I am so happy! Thanks Laura!!!