Macaron Tools
Hello friends! Today we will talk about my favorite macaron tools and products I use to make my macarons!
Introduction
I get these questions on a daily basis, either in comments on instagram, YouTube, on the blog, via dm, etc:
- What’s the best almond flour for macarons?
- What kind of macaron mat do you use?
- What is egg white powder? What brand should I buy?
- What size tip do you use to pipe macarons?
- What kind of piping bags do you use?
- What is the best baking pan for macarons?
Between many others.
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Do you want to achieve the best results and make the most gorgeous macarons?
Understandably, having great tools does help with achieving better results.
And, although the technique and recipe you are using matter the most, the equipment can really impact how your macarons come out. For example, if using a dark baking tray, your macarons can often come out cracked, because dark baking trays retain a lot of heat, and will impact the final results regardless of how great your technique was.
So let’s get right into it. Here are the best macaron tools in my opinion.
Macaron Mats
I’ve tried dozens of different mats and baking surfaces for baking macarons. When I first started making macarons I used parchment paper.
However, parchment paper makes the bottoms of the shells wrinkly, as you can see below.
It doesn’t matter what brand of parchment paper that I’ve tried, my macarons always came out with wrinkly bottoms, and slightly misshapen.
That’s when I first started baking with silicone mats. The mats below were my first ones I ever used, and some of my favorites. Unfortunately, they have both been discontinued.
The good news is that I have found great macaron mats I love and have been using, and they work great!
Silpats
work great. They are thick and durable. And a little more expensive than most mats you’ll find around.
And the next mat I recommend is Aprince
. Aprince is a nice durable mat, less sturdy than Silpat, but most people prefer it this way, because Silpats can be too thick in some bakers’ opinions. And Aprince is half of the price of Silpats. Totally worth it checking it out on Amazon.
For the smaller quarter sheet trays that I use with my countertop oven, I use the following silicone mats.
I have also experimented with Teflon Sheets. And while they aren’t my favorite, it’s probably because I haven’t found my groove with them. They require lower baking temperature, but are known to produce full shells, and beautiful feet once you figure out the proper temperature.
I have the following Teflon Sheets
, they are food grade and FDA approved. If you are an avid macaron baker, do try them out, you might love them like many bakers do.
Almond Flour
Probably the second question I get the most. What is the best almond flour brand for macarons?
I have two answers: Blue Diamond
and Bob’s Red Mill
. Both are finely ground.
What I look for in the almond flour when using it to make macarons?
- It needs to be dry. Oily or wet almond flour will yield wrinkly or cracked macarons.
- The almond flour needs to be finely sifted. If the almond flour is too coarse, the macarons will be bumpy, or you won’t be able to use all the flour, because when you sift it, a lot will be left behind in the sifter.
- It also needs to be fresh. Old almond flour will begin to release oils.
More tips about almond flour: store it in a cool dry place, preferably in an air tight container, in the cupboard. Don’t store the almond flour in the fridge, because it will become moist.
Egg White Powder
Recently I started to use Egg White Powder
in my recipes. Egg white powder is totally optional, and not mandatory in order to make beautiful macarons.
However, it does help with making a stable and strong meringue, which is the foundation for successful macarons.
Egg white powder is simply egg whites that have been dehydrated and ground into a powder. So they are basically just protein. Egg white powder will strengthen the meringue because it’s like adding a boost of protein to it, making it more stable due to the stronger protein structure.
I add 4 grams of egg white powder to 100 grams of egg whites in the recipe for plain macaron shells. As far as my chocolate and matcha shells, I add a bit less. For the chocolate shells I add 2 grams for each 100 grams, and for the matcha I add 3 grams.
Experiment with your recipe and play around with the ratios to find out which works best.
Another important thing to notice is that egg white powder is not the same as meringue powder. Though I’ve seen people say they successfully use meringue powder in their recipes, please have in mind that meringue powder has other ingredients added to it such as additives, cornstarch, and sugar, and may affect the shells even further, so be mindful and experiment with it if you wish to do so.
Piping Bag
Next up on our Macaron Tools Guide is: what is the best piping bag for macarons?
Recently I began using silicone reusable piping bags. I don’t always use them for the buttercream fillings, but I always use them for the macaron batter.
If you buy reusable silicone bags it’s very important that you DO NOT use the same bags for macaron batter and for buttercream and other greasy batters and frostings. This is extremely important. Because frostings and such will leave traces of grease in the equipment, which can affect your macaron batter. Grease and macaron batter are not friends, do not go along together.
Make sure to keep the bags separate if you choose to use reusable bags for all your baking needs.
Here is the brand of reusable bags I use: Weetiee D Silicone Pastry Bags
And I also keep some disposable bags at hand, but try to use them as little as possible. Actually now that I have a big collection of silicone pastry bags, I hardly ever use the disposable ones. I use the disposable bags from the same brand, I’ve been using them for a long time, and they never broke or tore.
Piping Tip
I go between two different piping tips to pipe my macarons for the most part.
For regular round macarons, with 1.5 to 2″ size, I use a 0.25″ or 0.5″ piping tips.
I use Wilton number 12
for the 0.25″ tip.
And for the 0.5″ tip, I use the Wilton 2A piping tip
.
I don’t really see difference in the final batter between the two different tips. When I am assembling my materials to bake macarons I just grab the first one I see in my drawer, often times I just use a coupler, which has the same diameter as the 0.5″ tip. So I recommend you experiment with both and choose which one you like more.
For intricate designs and shapes such as Heart Macarons, Pumpkin Macarons, Apple Macarons, I recommend using smaller tips such as
The smaller tips will be used for small details such as the stems and leaves, and the others for the apples, the pumpkin sections, and such.
I recommend having an array of round tips to choose from depending on the design you are trying to make.
And Ateco has some great couplers to attach your smaller tips.
Baking Pan
The baking sheets you choose to bake your macarons are one of the most important macaron tools you can pick.
What is the best baking pan for macarons?
- Aluminum pans. Aluminum is a great heat conductor that also cools relatively fast.
- Light colored pans. Dark pans retain a lot of heat and may crack your macarons, or cause the feet to spread out. I prefer the silver pans.
- Pans that aren’t warped. It’s good to change your baking sheets every so often, as you notice they aren’t straight anymore. Warped pans can cause misshapen macarons, uneven baking.
- Also pans that don’t have tall rims, I like the pans that have a 1″ rim. Anything taller than that will cause uneven heat distribution, lopsided or cracked macarons.
One of my favorite brands is Nordic Ware
.
I also really like this pan, which is rimless.
And lately I’ve also been using this airbake tray, recommendation from Teyanna from Whisk ATX.
With the airbake trays you don’t have to rest the macarons, you can pop them in the oven and bake them right after piping.
And for the countertop oven (small) I use a quarter baking sheet turned upside down, so this way the rims won’t affect the heat distribution.
Mixer
Do you need a KitchenAid to make macarons?
Absolutely not. But does it make your life easier? Yes, absolutely!
Whipping the meringue can take a while. Specially when making vegan macarons. Aquafaba whips slower than egg whites.
So having a KitchenAid will for sure make your life easier and your macaron making experience better. But it’s not necessary, which is why in many of my videos I use a hand mixer instead of the KitchenAid, to show that you don’t need it to make macarons.
Plus, the hand mixer can be convenient when making a smaller batch of macarons. If you use a stand mixer when making a smaller batch, or halving a recipe, the whisk might not reach the egg whites and whip the meringue properly, which will cause issues with your macarons.
This is a picture from my Chocolate Macarons video on YouTube, where I use a hand mixer.
This is a Oster Hand Mixer
.
And the KitchenAid
I use is a 4.5 qt one. On the right you can see my Vegan Meringue whipped to stiff peaks.
I’ve had people ask me if they can use a blender to make macarons, or make it by hand. The answers are: no, don’t use a blender to make macarons, I honestly don’t see how that is going to work. And making the macaron by hand, I can’t even imagine trying to whip the meringue stiff enough by hand, if sometimes it takes up to 20 minutes to whip the meringue on medium speed, it would take a long time to do it by hand, and you probably would get too tired before reaching stiff peaks, or it would take so long that the meringue would deflate.
Scale
Another really important and essential macaron tool is the scale. You should probably use a kitchen scale for most of your baking endeavors. But for macarons, it is absolutely necessary to use a scale to weigh the ingredients.
I don’t even provide the recipe in cups anymore, like I used to. This is because making macarons is already tricky, there are so many variables that come into play, so you have to take advantage of the variables that you actually can control, such as the ingredients measurement, to minimize the chances of things going wrong.
This is the scale I use. I’ve had it for so many years, it’s super reliable, my absolute favorite.
Thermometer
Having an oven thermometer is paramount when making macarons. I go through the reasons why right here on this post: Understanding Your Oven. Regardless if you already have an oven thermometer or not, go read this post, as it’s going to be super informative and enlightening as far as the baking portion of making macarons goes.
I’ve used several different brands of thermometers over the years. Here is the one I am currently using: Rubbermaid
. It’s great quality and durable.
Bag ties
When it comes to macaron tools, here is one that is often overlooked: bag ties. I really recommend getting some Piping Bag Twist Ties
. They are super important to have around, specially when making several colors, they can help you secure the top of the bags closed, so the batter doesn’t dry, or scape through the top.
They are fairly inexpensive and super useful.
Sifter
For the longest time I used those crank sifters like this one:
But they have a large mesh, I prefer the finer ones. The crank sifters usually let larger pieces of almond flour go through, while a finer mesh sieve wouldn’t.
I recently got this amazing sifter I absolutely love.
It is super awesome, its mesh is not to small and not too large, the flour comes out super fine! I recommend it 100%!
Storage Container
I will do a whole post about storing macarons soon. In the meantime, here are the containers I use to store my macarons in the fridge or freezer.
You can freeze the unfilled shells for up to 2 months, or keep them in the fridge for up to 1 week.
And you can keep filled macarons typically for up to 4 or 5 days in the fridge or up to 1 month in the freezer. This will depend a lot of the type of filling you use. Wet fillings such as jam, curd, might not be ideal for freezing and might make the shells soggy. In that case, you can brush a layer of melted chocolate on the bottom of the shells and let the chocolate dry before filling them, or simply bake the shells slightly longer to make them sturdier and crispier, and they will soften up as they sit with the filling.
Other Macaron Tools
Here are some other macaron tools I suggest, such as bowls, spatulas, and whisks.
Bowls
I recommend a nice set of glass bowls for mixing different color batters, sifting the dry ingredients into, etc.
Spatulas
It’s important to have sturdy spatulas to mix the batter. I absolutely love this one by Di Oro.
Whisk
Love my KitchenAid whisk. It’s sturdy and awesome!
Countertop Oven
I recently moved to Florida, and the oven in my new house is less than reliable. Because of that, I have bought a countertop oven, after lurking around the macaron facebook group and seeing what everyone was using.
After extensive research and review reading, I went for the Ninja Foodi 10-in-1.
Here is the link for the product on Amazon if you’d like to check it out. There are going to be two different ovens, a $299 one and a $360 something one (prices may and will vary), I got the cheaper one, just for your reference.
I hope this extensive post about my Macaron Tools was helpful to everyone! Let me know if there are any other tools you’d like to hear about! I also get a lot of questions about food coloring, but I will write a separate post for that, since there is so much to cover when it comes to food coloring!
Thanks for reading!
Have a lovely day!
Camila, você é muito profissional, parabéns!!!!
Obrigada pai!
What sugar and powder sugar do you use?
domino mostly
Merhaba macaronları akşamdan kuruması için bekletsek sabah pişirsek olurmu?
I have never done that before, so I don’t know.
Thank you for all this valuable information, it really makes the difference knowing every little detail. The post is great!
What type of food coloring do you most often use?
gel food coloring, sometimes powder. never liquid.
This is such a wonderful guide – thank you very much! The silicone mats that are underneath your apple shaped macarons above – are those the ones that were discontinued? I like the round template they have – or is that a template you have for underneath the silicone mat? If so, where is that template located on the site?
Thanks!
those mats are discontinued, but the apple template I made myself. It’s available to be downloaded, and then you can print it and place under your mat.You can find it here: https://www.piesandtacos.comcaramel-apple-macarons/
Excelentes todas las recomendaciones estoy súper contenta de ver tus publiccaiones
gracias!!
Doesn’t almond flour get stale if you leave it in the pantry for a while?
Nuts do which is why I leave them in the fridge. I always wondered why macarons fail when I leave the flour in the fridge for over 8 months… Thanks for the moisture warning 😔
So I really recommend getting a small bag if you are going to leave it for that long, specially 8 months, the flour is not fresh and not proper for macarons. It’s best to use fresh almond flour. That’s way too long.
But if you ever need to dry the almond flour spread it on a baking sheet and bake at really low temp like 200F for 30 min, stirring in between. And then let it cool down completely before using. But this is not guaranteed to fix all moisture and oil releasing issues.
Bom dia Camila eu tentei fazer macarons umas 5 vezes mas ainda não consegui fazer perfeitos ,minha maior dificuldade está sendo o forno já tentei 3 temperaturas recomendadas porém eles ou ficam meio cru ou ficam dourados demais
tem que continuar tentando outras temperaturas e alturas no forno. tambem tem que ter um termometro la dentro pra poder saber direito qual temperatura que esta.
Hola, gracias por tus tips… lo volvere a intentar… cuanto seria realmente un aproximado del tiempo de batir.. hasta llegar a la textura de cinta?
It depends a lot on the mixer, on the freshness of the eggs. dont go by the time, go by the consistency, the peaks should be stiff, shooting straight up without bending down to the side.
Where do u hang or place your thermometer for exact temperatures while baking your macaron?
I have three of them, one on the front right, front left, and in the middle center.
Are they all. hung by the front like the photo u attached or placed at the macaron tray?
the left and right one are in the front, the middle one is in the center where the macaron tray is
Camila, did you write the post about food coloring? I was looking for it but couldn’t find it…
I published it today: https://www.piesandtacos.commacaron-food-coloring/
🙂
Camila querida, acabei de ver você respondendo em português e meu coração pulou de alegria. Sei quase nada de inglês e tenho usado o google tradutor. Quero parabenizá-la por tanta informação disponível de forma gratuita. Aproveito então para tirar algumas dúvidas. Qual a porcentagem de umidade ideal e qual a temperatura ideal da cozinha para o processo de macarronagem? Aqui na minha cidade Amambai-MS, vivo os extremos às vezes na mesma semana. Muito seco e quente e muita chuva, frio e umidade lá nas alturas. Quando tenho uma encomenda grande e vou fazendo durante a semana, não consigo entregar todos com a mesma qualidade. Perco tempo e fornadas até descobrir a quantidade ideal de clara. Eu faço com o merengue suíço e açúcar demerara no merengue e açúcar pulverizado na macarronagem.
Desde já grata.
Ola Camilla! Obrigada por sua mensagem!!!
Eu faco macaron em qualquer umidade, desde bem seco ate bem umido. Quando esta bem umido eu uso claras em pó junto com os macarons. e tambem ligo o ar condicionado.
Quando a temperatura esta seca eu nao adiciono as claras em pó, e deixo eles secando menos tempo.
Pra climas umidos vale a pena checar receitas de no-rest. porque se esta muito umido e voce deixa o macaron secando ele vai absorver a umidade do ambiente.
Espero que tenha conseguido te ajudar.
Qual método e receita que usa que não precisa de secagem, quero testar em dias úmidos por aqui
Hi Camila,
I enjoy your website a lot and already have some success with your tips. I was anyway considering buying myself a new baking sheet, as I adore baking not only macarons, but other goodies as well. So I was thinking about one of the perforated ones, like this one: https://www.amazon.de/Erreke-Backblech-Aluminium-Professionelle-Hergestellt/dp/B08P53KCGF/ref=sr_1_10?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=EC0BKDXGOLBY&dchild=1&keywords=aluminium+backblech&qid=1616946540&sprefix=aluminum+back%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-10
Do you have any experience with such pans and what is your opinion on baking macarons on one of these?
I don’t have any experience with those, but I think you’ll have to turn the oven temp down if using those.
Hola Camila!
Porq si usas un airbake tray no se necesita reposar los macarones y se pueden llevar directo al horno?
Ame toda tu pagina btw!
Si puede llevar directo al horno pero si los macarons tienen mucha color yo siempre tengo que reposar.
You don’t have to let the macarons rest with the Airbake pan?! What is this witchcraft? So curious to try that out. I have troubles finding the right amount of “dry to the touch” when resting the macarons. Sometimes they come out super cracked and sometimes lopsided 😐
The airbake pan has a pocket of air on the bottom, and it doesnt allow for the surface where the macarons are resting to get extremely hot, and it also heats up slowly because of it. So the first few minutes in the oven act like a drying period, since the pan is slowly heating.
hi。nice to read this post。
if uneven oven heat cause lopsided.
How to prevent it?
I was using top and bottom heat with fan at 150C and cover top with baking tray to avoid macaron from browning.
The thermometer I put near to oven door show 80C when baking.
rotate tray in the half way baking.
Thanks
Uneven heat definitely can cause lopsided macarons. I recommend to study your oven and experiment with different temperatures, oven settings, oven rack levels, write down your results and continue to practice to see what’s optimal. I just moved to a new house and took me 3 batches experimenting with several different settings on each batch to arrive at a good result.
Thank you, Camila! It’s very helpful!
I’m so glad!
What airbrush and coloring do you use for decorating your macarons?
the machine I have is a cake boss one which is not for sale any longer. But I did link one above that a lot of people like. I am currently using americolor air brush food coloring.
Hi Camila,
What temp and baking time do you find work best with the Ninja oven that you have for Swiss method Macarons?
Thank you for the informative post!
I used a 285 Fahrenheit today. My oven was set to 290, but the temperature was around 280 and 285
Olá Camila
Tem sido muito clara e explícita nas suas dicas.
Tenho duas questões :
E preciso aquecer quanto tempo o forno antes de por os macarrons? Da últimas vez ficaram dourados.
Posso congelar a farinha de amêndoa ?
Vivo em Angola e as coisas são muitos caras, tenho que mandar vir de Portugal e tenho receio que estrague.
Outra questão é, e sempre necessário fazer o aquecimento de banho maria das claras com o acucar? Tenho visto receitas que batem logo as claras e o açúcar .
Até agora já fiz 2 vezes mas sem sucesso, vou tentando até encontrar a minha sorte .
Obrigada
Carima
eu aqueco meu forno por mais de uma hora, porque meu forno é muito inconsistente, entao aquecendo por um tempo maior ajuda o forno a manter a temperatura sem ficar flutuando pra cima e pra baixo. Aquecer o forno por muito tempo nao vai fazer os macarons ficarem mais assados ou nao, isso acontece porque a temperatura esta muito alta, ou assou por muito tempo. é necessario ter um termometro la dentro pra verificar a temperatura.
Nao recomendo congelar a farinha porque ela vai absorver umidade, o que é terrivel pra farinha de amendoa pra fazer macarons. mas se congelar pode secar ela no forno bem baixo (110 celsius) por 30 minutos. nao assa a farinha, se certifique de ter um termometro la dentro pra verificar que a temperatura esta baixa. Esse procedimento só serve pra secar a farinha, nao pra assar.
E o banho maria é como faz o merengue suiço, pra fazer sem o banho maria precisa de outro tipo de receita, com medidas diferentes das minhas, seria o metodo frances no caso.
Hi, Camila – Thank you for such great information! I have a question about the addition of dried egg whites in the wet egg whites. I use dried egg whites regularly for Royal Icing (not meringue powder) but never with heated ingredients. When do you add them to the egg whites and sugar mix – before or after you heat over water? Many Thanks for your guidance on this!
I add it with the sugar before adding the egg whites in. gotta whisk with the sugar or it will clump up. I have a whole post about it here https://www.piesandtacos.comegg-white-powder-in-macarons/ And you can also see me using it in any of my videos on youtube! 🙂
Hello,
Thanks for your blog/YouTube channel. Have been following you for a couple years and enjoy everything you share 🤗
I was wondering oven wise, what would be the best option?
I saw you post about the counter top ninja oven. But it seem too small for me. When I make macarons I make a lot of them.
How many macarons can you cook in that oven at once? (2 trays of 3 trays at once?)
If you have any other oven recommendation I would highly appreciate it.
Obrigado
Thank you so much Maelys!! I cook only one tray at once but I’ve seen people do more than one. about the regular size oven I don’t have any specific recommendations because my oven is not very great lol it’s an electric oven but the temperature is very inconsistent. I think it would be good to go with a convection oven, but have in mind that when you use convection oven you also have to reduce the temperatures recommended in most recipes.
What size tip do you use to FILL the macarons?
It varies a lot, depending on what design I am doing. I use a wide range of tips. Ill do a post talking about that, but I have done some reels about it too.
what size tip do you use to pipe the filling?
It varies a lot, depending on what design I am doing. I use a wide range of tips. Ill do a post talking about that, but I have done some reels about it too.
Hi Camila,
Are there any other counter top ovens you’d recommend? I was looking at a bunch of different Ninja Foodi machines, but it’s just me, so the really large capacity for would be a bit much, but would love the option to also use the smaller appliance to make macarons.
Thanks in advance, Looooove all of your content. It’s super helpful.
the ninja is a very small oven, it doesn’t get smaller than that lol.
Hi! I’m really torn on food coloring. The gels you recommend have reviews that they taste bad but the wait of 15 min for color to show on the powder has me wondering too. Buttercream even 15 min is a lot and then if the color isn’t good you add and another 15? Help!
I never had a problem with their taste, and most macaron makers use americolor as well so…
Hi Camila!
Where did you purchase your glass bowls for using above the double boiler? I wasn’t sure if there’s a specific kind.
Thanks!
I have a link for the bowls here https://www.piesandtacos.commacaron-tools/ I got them on amazon.
Hi, thank you for all the great info. I can’t wait till tomorrow to start practicing for a party. I have some questions. I purchased the air bake pans. Do I still use the mats with these? Also since I am testing with two trays the batter will have to sit. I know you said you don’t need to let it rest with these trays. Is it going to greatly affect my macarons or should I cut the recipe in half? If so, is there a smaller recipe? Lastly, since I’m making these in advance do I store just the shells in the fridge or fully assembled macarons in the fridge?
Thank you in advance,
Jennifer
yes you need to use the mats with any tray. And the air bake tray doesnt work for every single oven, for example for my current oven it doesnt work, it makes the shells concave or the feet broken, because the oven is very inconsistent with the temperature. yes you can halve the temperature to experiment with smaller amounts.
and yes you need to store them in the fridge or freezer. in the fridge for up to 4 days or so, in the freezer for about 1 to 2 months.
Do you have a brand of chickpeas for aquafaba? How many cans do you recommend? salted/unsalted
youll just need one for a single recipe. No specific brands, I get whatever is at the store. Using goya lately
Hey Camila,
Thank you for this post.
I also recently bought a Ninja 10-1 and thinking of trying some macaron baking. what do you suggest would be the temp for a start and for how many minutes? Also what is the baked size of your macarons? Thank you again and looking forward to hear from you.
290 to 280, i bake for about 26 minutes. theyre about 1.5 to 1.75 inches
Hello, please tell me what size Sultan Tube (Protruding Cone tip), do you use to fill your macrons when wanting to add anther filling in the middle hole. I have purchased 3 based on what I can tell you use.e 2 or huge and one looks to be too small.
Im not sure the size but it is the huge one indeed