Gingerbread Macarons

Hello! Let’s make Gingerbread Macarons today! One more Christmas Macaron flavor for my collection!

Gingerbread Macarons filled with gingerbread buttercream topped with christmas sprinkles

These Gingerbread Macarons are probably my favorite from the Christmas themed Macarons I’ve made so far!

They are filled with Gingerbread Buttercream, topped with a drizzle of white chocolate, which I used to stick the Christmas sprinkles on top of the macarons!

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Gingerbread Macarons filled with gingerbread buttercream topped with christmas sprinkles

Christmas is next week! And I’ve been baking up a storm! I have already made a Christmas Cookie Box, a Vegan Cookie box, and now I am almost done working on a Christmas Macaron box, which I can’t wait to show you!

If you like making Macarons, you can find many of my tips on how to make them in the recipe below, I try to be very detailed in explaining the steps.

I also have tons of other macaron recipes (over 50) and many of the posts are filled with tips on how to make macarons.

You can also watch my videos on Youtube, it makes it so much easier to get a video visual on how to make macarons!

Gingerbread Macarons filled with gingerbread buttercream topped with christmas sprinkles

If you are having a hard time making macarons, just know that it’s normal. Macarons are more like a journey.

There’s no such thing as a fool-proof macaron recipe. If anybody tells you they have a fool-proof recipe, believe them. The recipe is fool-proof for them, but might not be for others.

Just find the recipe that is fool-proof for you, which might take some (or a lot) of experimenting.

Gingerbread Macarons filled with gingerbread buttercream topped with christmas sprinkles

Tips for making Macarons

  • Read blog posts about macarons, watch videos on how to make macarons, do your research. A lot of it.
  • Pick a method and a recipe you like and stick to it, experiment with it a few times instead of hopping from one recipe to another. It helps you get familiar with what each step is supposed to look like.
  • Get an oven thermometer. This! Probably the most important tip! Make sure you have an oven thermometer! Home ovens are not accurate, and the baking stage is so important. If you’ve done everything right, but your oven temperature is fluctuating, or is a few degrees too high, or too low, the whole batch can go awry at the finishing line. And you probably don’t want that, right?
  • Make sure you have an oven thermometer. No, I didn’t make a mistake, I am repeating this tip because it’s THAT important that you have an oven thermometer.
  • Keep a notebook with notes of what works and what doesn’t, this will help a LOT! Take pictures of the stages too, such as your meringue, the piped macarons before baking, etc this will be helpful to keep track of what could have went wrong (or right!). Ps, if you have pics, you’re welcome to send them to me, and I can help troubleshoot!
  • Experiment with different trays and oven temperatures. Pipe the macarons in 4 different trays, and experiment with different oven temperatures, and rack heights. And, of course, make notes!
Gingerbread Macarons filled with gingerbread buttercream topped with christmas sprinkles

Anyway, these were just a few tips, I hope they can be helpful!

Like I said, I have plenty of resources and posts for you to dive in and get your research on, here on the blog, and on my Youtube Channel.

If you like these Gingerbread Macarons, here are some more festive and Christmas Macarons you may like:

To decorate these Gingerbread Macarons, before assembling the cookie sandwich, I drizzled some chocolate over the top shells, and topped with some festive Christmas Sprinkles.

The white chocolate helps stick the sprinkles to the shells.

drizzling white chocolate on top of macaron shells

Once the white chocolate was dry, I piped some filling on the bottom shell macarons. And then topped with the decorated top shell.

piping gingerbread buttercream on the macarons

And voila! After maturing the macarons for 24 hours in the fridge, they are ready to be enjoyed!

gingerbread macaron bite

These Gingerbread Macarons can also be frozen for up to 2 months, or kept in the fridge for 1 week.

Below are some of the products I use for my macarons.

Airtight container for storage in freezer and fridge

Piping bag (I’ve been loving these bags for the past few months, they have never ripped on me)

I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe for these beautiful Gingerbread Macarons! Share with me the Christmas Macarons you’ve been making on instagram, I love to see them!

Have a beautiful day!

Gingerbread Macarons filled with gingerbread buttercream topped with christmas sprinkles
Gingerbread Macarons filled with gingerbread buttercream topped with christmas sprinkles

Gingerbread Macarons

Camila Hurst
These are Gingerbread Macarons, filled with Gingerbread Buttercream! Perfect for Christmas!
5 from 6 votes
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 40 minutes
Resting Time 40 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, French
Servings 22 macarons
Calories 120 kcal

Ingredients
  

Macaron Shells
  • 100 grams granulated sugar 
  • 4 grams egg white powder optional, read notes
  • 100 grams egg whites 
  • 105 grams almond flour 
  • 105  grams  powdered sugar 
  • 1/4 tsp ginger powder
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg read notes
  • 3 grams cocoa powder optional, for color
  • Food coloring  I used a bit of brown and dijon by americolor
Gingerbread Buttercream
  • 1 1/3  cups  confectioners’ sugar sifted (170 grams)
  • tbsp unsalted butter softened (56 grams)
  • 1/2  tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 tsp molasses
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1-2 tbsp milk only if necessary to thin out the frosting

Instructions
 

Macaron Shells
  • Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/4” diameter tip, or a Wilton 12. Set aside.
  • Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
  • I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it.
  • Wipe the tools such as bowls, spatulas, and silicone mats with vinegar if desired, this helps getting rid of any grease particles that might be in the tools.
  • Measure out all of the ingredients.
  • Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour, along with the cocoa powder and spices together if using. Set it aside.
  • Start pre-heating the oven. I have two ovens, a regular electric one and a small countertop oven.
  • I pre-heat my large oven to 310ºF for 60 to 90 minutes, this helps with temperature fluctuations. I pre-heat the countertop oven for 30 to 45 minutes.
Meringue
  • Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the sugar and egg white powder to the bowl if using. If you’re not using egg white powder simply skip it, nothing needs to be changed in the recipe.
  • Whisk the sugar and egg white powder so it doesn’t clump up.
  • Add the egg whites to the bowl and whisk until the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
  • Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
  • Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, you are just looking to melt the sugar, no need to bring it to a certain temperature.
  • Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer. Before transferring the syrup, you might consider whipping the bottom of the bowl with a towel so the water doesn’t fall into the mixer bowl.
  • With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low (speed 2 of the KitchenAid) for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium (speed 4) for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to medium or medium-high and whip for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. I like to finish whipping the meringue on speed 6 of the KitchenAid.
  • It takes me about 13 to 15 minutes to whip the meringue, but you shouldn’t go by time, go by what the meringue is supposed to look like because a lot of things can affect whipping time, such as the quality of the eggs, the weather, how powerful your mixer is, and more.
  • Once the meringue gets glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, and the meringue raising in the center of the whisk, it might be time to stop.
  • You don’t want to over whip the meringue at this point because that can cause several issues, mainly hollow macarons.
  • Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull the whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending to the side.
  • Also when you swirl the whisk around in the bowl to collect the meringue, you should feel some resistance from the meringue. And when you look on the bottom of the whisk the meringue collected should be forming soft but defined waves.
Macaronage
  • Pour the sifted dry ingredients into the stiff meringue.
  • Add the food coloring at this point, if using. If you were using powder food coloring, you could add it during the final stages of whipping the meringue. I've added a bit of dijon food coloring by Americolor, and I also added some brown.
  • Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
  • Once the dry ingredients have incorporated with the meringue, you can start squeezing the air out of the batter by pressing it down along the sides of the bowl as you fold.
  • How to know when to stop folding the batter: 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.
  • First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
  • The batter that’s falling back into the bowl should take 10 to 15 seconds to incorporate with the batter that’s already in the bowl.
  • There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test. Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
  • If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.
  • Test again.
  • Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper or silicone mat, it’s ready.
  • You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to over mix. It’s always best to under mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
  • When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
Piping the shells
  • Transfer the batter to the piping bag. I also like to seal the top with a bag tie, so the batter doesn’t dry out and it gives you more control while piping because there’s no risk of the batter escaping through the top of the piping bag.
  • Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 to 5 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly at the top.
  • Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter or against the palm of your hand a few times each.
  • Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.
Resting or not resting the shells
  • Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out before baking, if you are resting the macarons. 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.
  • The no-rest method will depend on your oven and baking sheets you are using. Read the post above for more information.
  • To do the no-rest method, you can bake the trays immediately.
  • I can do the no-rest method on my small counter top oven, but not on my large oven, because the temperature is too uneven on the large oven.
Baking
  • On my large oven I bake the macarons at 310ºF, and on the small countertop oven I bake them at 290ºF. I pre-heat both ovens for quite a bit of time. I pre-heat the large oven for 60 to 90 minutes, and the small oven for 30 minutes or so.
  • Bake one tray at a time.
  • Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray. This step is not necessary, I don’t rotate the trays on the small oven, but I have to do so on my large oven, otherwise the macarons will be lopsided. Not all bakers have to rotate the tray.
  • I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
  • When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking. Also try to touch the top of a macaron and it shouldn’t feel soft, if it’s still soft, keep baking.
  • Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
  • I store the unbaked shells in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for 1 to 2 months.
Gingerbread Buttercream
  • Cream butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 1 minute. With the mixer off, add all of the powdered sugar in.
  • On low speed, mix the sugar and butter together. Once they are incorporated, turn speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy.
  • Add vanilla extract, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  • If the buttercream seems dry and stiff, add the milk. Mix for another 30-45 seconds. If the buttercream seems too runny, add more sifted powdered sugar until you obtain a firm, but smooth and creamy consistency.
  • STORAGE: Store the buttercream in the fridge for up to 1 week.
To assemble
  • Place Gingerbread Buttercream in a piping bag, and then pipe some buttercream on half of the shells. I also drizzled some white chocolate on top of the shells to help stick some cute Christmas sprinkles on top of the shells to decorate.
Storage
  • These Macarons will freeze well for up to 2 months in an air-tight container, or up to 1 week in the fridge.

Notes

Spices: The spices in the shell are optional, you can even sub them out, omit them, swap them, according to your personal preference.
Vinegar: Before starting make sure to wipe down the bowls, whisks, silicone mats and everything you are going to use with vinegar, to avoid any grease particles of coming into contact with the meringue and batter.
Egg white powder: Egg white powder is not the same as meringue powder, but some people use meringue powder in the place of egg white powder. Egg white powder is made of only egg whites. They help with getting fuller shells, and specially when adding a lot of food coloring to the batter, because they make the shells dry faster and add a layer of protein to the meringue. I recommend experimenting with it if you can find it. I use 4 grams for each 100 grams of egg whites. You can read more about Egg White Powder here.
Food coloring: Make sure to use gel or powder food coloring, not liquid. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage. Read more about food coloring here.
Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.
Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.
Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.
Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray. Read more about oven here.
Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven after 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.
Macaron School: Check out Macaron School for many articles such as macaron troubleshooting, the science behind macarons, the tools I use, tips, frequently asked questions, and much more!
Storage: This is the Storage Container I use to store my macarons.
Keyword gingerbread, macarons

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31 Comments

    1. I have never tried it myself, but I have seen someone try it on a macaron group I’m a part of on Facebook and the macarons looked fine. So might be something worth trying! 🙂

  1. Approximately how many eggs do you need for 100g? I know it’ll vary based on the eggs, but I just want to ballpark how many I might need.

    1. you can just remove it. someone else asked if they could use brown sugar and I see that being a good substitute, but if leaving the molasses out youll need to reduce the amount of powdered sugar in the buttercream.

    2. Brown sugar is granulated sugar with molasses in it. If you don’t want to use molasses at all you can just add 1/2-1 tsp of vanilla and the seasonings and it turns out good, just not as strong of a gingerbread flavor.

  2. if using a convection oven, is the rotating necessary? would opening the oven every 5 mins not make it lose all the heat? very excited to try these.

    1. It’s not needed for all ovens, I have to rotate mine but I only rotate once after the first 6 min baking. Not all bakers have to rotate macarons in their ovens, but I have to otherwise they come out lopsided due to uneven heat distribution in the oven.

  3. I noticed that these are baked at 310 degrees and most of your other recipes are baked at 325. Can you explain when and why you use the differing temperatures?

    Also, if you don’t have to rotate the trays, should you use a lower temp? I’m assuming you lose temp when you have to open the oven door to rotate.

    1. Because I moved to a different house and the oven requires a lower temperature.
      And you shouldn’t have to lower the temperature based on if you have to rotate the tray or not, but only based on your oven and what temperature bakes the macarons best for overall best results.

  4. 5 stars
    After my third attempt I finally got them…sort of haha! They had slightly sticky bottoms, but no hollow shells. I struggle with the macaronage portion a bit. But they were so yummy! Flavor was AMAZING!! My friends loved them!

  5. Hi I have a question. What if I can’t get hold of egg white powder? Meringue powder substitute maybe? And how much by weight to use for recipe please? I’m new here so I’m studying the recipe that suits me and this one seems perfect. Thank you and by the way they look absolutely delicious can’t wait to try 😊

  6. Why do think my macarons always come out with an air pocket. They look great but with a space and fragile shell.

  7. 5 stars
    Hi! I Love all your recipes! But I have a question, can I omit or change the molasses in the buttercream? It’s hard to find it in my country

  8. 5 stars
    These are to die for!!!! This was my fourth time ever making macarons and your tips were so helpful. The flavors are amazing! I want to put that gingerbread buttercream on everything!!! Lol

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