Vegan Pistachio Macarons (plus video)

Hello friends! Today we are making Vegan Pistachio Macarons! Made using the French Method. Filled with Vegan Pistachio Buttercream. What’s not to love? Watch the video on Youtube by clicking here.

There are some important things to talk about here. Number one is: if you have been following my blog, you are witnessing the evolution of my Vegan Macaron recipes. I started using the Italian method, and my first published recipe were these Vegan Avocado Macarons macarons back a few months ago. They were a bit lopsided, but mostly fine.

Then, my second vegan macaron recipe was for these Vegan Salted Caramel Macarons, still using the Italian method. The macarons had tiny feet, not fully developed, like they are “supposed” to do.

Next on, I made these Vegan Lavender Lemon Macarons, and Raspberry Macarons, with the same tiny feet from the Salted Caramel ones.

And then, something happened, I was trying to find a different method so I could achieve better results. That’s when I succeeded in using the French method for the first time with my Vegan Biscoff Macarons. They were my best vegan macarons to date!

But for the following weeks, I kept trying the same recipe, exactly like I made in my Biscoff Macarons, but my results were not great. All of my macarons were coming out lopsided!

I couldn’t understand what was happening, since I had had success with that recipe before. But if you are a macaron baker, you know by now that it’s not exact science, and there are so many variables that impact your results.

First, I had heard that the reason why the macarons were coming out lopsided was because they were over-resting. And I experimented with less resting time, still obtaining lopsided macarons. But then, on a facebook group, I came across a possible solution: oven temperature. Meggan from Cooking on Caffeine suggested to increase the temperature.

I was baking my vegan macarons at 215 Fahrenheit before, so I increased the temperature by almost 100 degrees. Increasing it just a few degrees won’t do the trick. So I experimented with baking my Vegan macarons with a temperature of 310 Fahrenheit. Major success, batch after batch they started to come out perfect!

And then when I had to switch ovens, I had to start baking my macarons at 285 Fahrenheit, and that’s the current temperature I bake my vegan macarons at.

You can check out everything you need to know about figuring out your oven when vegan macarons on this post of my Vegan Matcha Macarons. I also talk about why it’s mandatory to have an oven thermometer when making macarons! Make sure to give it a read.

So here is the lesson that stays with us today: if your macarons are coming out lopsided, it could be two issues: resting them for too long, or baking at a really low temperature.

And if the feet are spreading out to the sides, it means the temperature needs to be turned down, or the batter needs to be mixed less.

For more Vegan Macaron Troubleshooting, visit this page where you can find a very helpful guide on how to troubleshoot your macaron issues.

Lopsided Macarons Troubleshooting

• Issue: Resting macarons for too long.

Solution: rest them just until the shells feel dry to the touch.

• Issue: Oven temperature too low.

Solution: experiment with raising the temperature of the oven.

Make sure you check out the video on this page where I show you how to make these Pistachio Vegan Macarons.

Tips on how to make the Pistachio Vegan Macarons

• Gather all of your ingredients, measure them out before starting. Organization is key when making macarons.
• Add the granulated sugar slowly, in parts, to the whipping aquafaba, so it has a chance to incorporate very well.
• Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles that might be in the surface of your macarons.
• Let them rest for 24-48 hours before serving.
• You can freeze them for up to 2 months in an air-tight container. This is the container I use.

How to make the pistachio flour

• When making the pistachio flour, use dry roasted pistachios, and never oil roasted ones.
• Place pistachios in a food processor (I use a small cup blender for this), and pulse a few times, until it starts forming a flour.
• Remove pistachios, and sift out the large parts. Reserve the flour.
• Place the large parts back in the food processor, process again.
• By now, you should obtain enough fine flour for the shells (30 grams). The rest, can be a bit coarser, since you will be using it for the buttercream, and to decorate the top of the macarons.
• But do make sure that the pistachio flour used for the shells is very fine, with the same consistency as the almond flour you’re using.

I hope you have fun baking these macarons. And here is a message, even if you feel like you are failing at making the macarons, just try to reframe that mindset, because I’ve never learned so much about making macarons than the times I thought I was failing the most. Because I’ve had so many failures, now I am able to help others who are going through issues on their macaron baking journey.

Check out some more of my Vegan Desserts, and here are my other Vegan Macarons.

Have a beautiful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Vegan Pistachio Macarons

Camila Hurst

These are my Vegan Pistachio Macarons, made using the French method, filled with Vegan Pistachio Buttercream.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Resting time 30 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine French, vegan

Servings 30 macarons

Calories 100 kcal

Ingredients

  

Vegan Pistachio Macarons

• 90  grams  almond flour
• 90  grams  powdered sugar
• 30  grams  pistachio flour *instructions to make pistachio flour below
• 75 grams aquafaba
• 1/2  teaspoon  cream of tartar
• 66  grams  granulated sugar

Vegan Pistachio Buttercream

• 4 tablespoons vegan butter 2 ounces, 56.5 grams
• 1/4 cup pistachio flour 1.06 oz, 30 grams
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar sifted (6.6 oz, 187.5 grams)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pistachio flour

• 1 cup pistachios dry roasted and shelled

Instructions

 

Instructions

• Gather all of your materials before starting to make macarons. Measure out all ingredients. Line two baking sheets with silicon mats. And fit a large piping bag with a round tip. You want everything ready to go when you need it.
• Sift almond flour, pistachio flour, and powdered sugar. Set aside.
• Place the aquafaba in the bowl of a mixer.
• Start whipping on low speed for about 1 minute, once it starts to foam up, add cream of tartar.
• Whip for another minute, until it starts getting white and thick like soup.
• At this point, raise speed to high, start to add granulated sugar, slowly, a bit at a time.
• Continue to whip until the aquafaba achieves stiff peaks.
• The whole whipping, from beginning to end, should last about 10 minutes.
• Add sifted dry ingredients to whipped aquafaba. Start folding with a spatula slowly. Add food coloring at the beginning of the macaronage, if using any.
• Fold forming a letter J with the spatula.
• You will fold until the batter is flowing slowly but effortlessly off the spatula. To test it out, you can grab a teaspoon of batter and place it on a baking sheet, watch how it behaves for 1 minute. If the batter smooths out the top, it means you are ready to go. If batter forms a pointy tip, you have more folding to do. But be very careful. You also don’t want to overfold. Just fold a couple more times, and test again.
• I’ll reinforce that you really don’t want to over fold the batter, so always stop before that happens, and then keep folding and testing as you go.
• This is a very important part of making macarons, and telling if the batter is ready is a skill that comes with a lot of practice. Vegan macaron batter will very easily become over mixed!
• My favorite way of testing is to grab a spatula full of batter and hold it over the bowl. And then, watch how the batter falls off the spatula. If it keeps falling non stop, but still slowly, I know the batter is ready. If the batter stops falling off the spatula while there is still quite a bit of batter in the spatula, I know it needs to be folded longer.
• Transfer batter to the piping bag.
• Pipe 1 1/2” circles on a baking sheet lined with silicon mat. I usually use 2 sheets. This will depend on how big you pipe your macarons.
• Slam the trays against the counter to release air bubbles.
• Use a toothpick to pop any remaining bubbles.
• Let trays rest for 30-45 minutes until the shells are dry. Test this by touching a macaron gently with your finger.
• Pre-heat oven to 285 Fahrenheit.
• Bake each tray separately.
• Remember to rotate the tray every 5 minutes, to ensure even baking.
• Bake for a total of 20 minutes, or until the macarons are easily coming off the silicon mat.
• Baking time might vary depending on your oven.
• Let macarons cool down before filling.

Vegan Pistachio Buttercream

• Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Cream for 1 minute until fluffy.
• Add pistachio flour and powdered sugar. Cream for another minute until smooth.
• Add vanilla.
• If mixture seems too stiff, add a tiny amount of the milk of your choice, about 1/2 teaspoon. If mixture seems too runny, add a bit more sifted powdered sugar. Adjust accordingly until you obtain the desired consistency.

Pistachio Flour

• To make the pistachio flour, grind about 1 cup of pistachios in the food processor. I use a small food processor, as it works best with this amount of nuts.
• However, you have to be extremely careful not to over process the mixture, otherwise the pistachio starts to turn into a paste, as you grind it out and it releases oils. You want this mixture to be dry.
• Once you’ve processed it, sift this mixture to obtain the dry powdered pistachio flour.
• Place the bigger crumbs back in the food processor and briefly process them to obtain more flour. Sift out the big pieces.
• You will use 1/4 cup of pistachio flour in the recipe for the shells and another 1/4 cup for the Vegan Pistachio Buttercream Filling.
• Remember to process the nuts just enough not to form a paste. The pistachio flour needs to have the same consistency as the almond flour does. You will have some big pieces of ground pistachio left back in your sifter, I used those big crumbs of pistachio to top the white chocolate drizzle after the macarons were assembled, for a cute decoration.
• It will also be fine to have bigger pistachio pieces to make the buttercream, but when it comes to making the macaron shells, you really don’t want any bigger pieces in there.

To assemble

• Place pistachio buttercream in a piping bag.
• Pipe a dollop of buttercream on top of half of the shells. Top with another shell.
• You can drizzle some vegan white chocolate on top of the macarons and sprinkle some chopped pistachios, I also sprinkled some crumbled dried rose petals for an extra touch.
• Let macarons mature in the fridge overnight before serving. Preferably, I like to let my vegan macarons mature for 48 hours, actually. It makes them much softer.

Storage

• Macarons will store really well in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Notes

Aquafaba is the water you obtain from cooking chickpeas (or other legumes). The aquafaba I use is water drained from a chickpea can. I prefer low or no sodium chickpea water, mainly because of the taste, I feel like the salted chickpea water adds a weird taste to meringues and such. Some people like to boil their own chickpeas to obtain the aquafaba, and you can do that, but make sure to study what are the best ratios water:chickpeas so your aquafaba is concentrated enough

Aquafaba: I used to reduce the aquafaba before. But lately, I haven’t been reducing it anymore, and it works just fine. If you do want to reduce the aquafaba, place 150 grams of aquafaba in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, simmer until it reduces to about half. I recommend using the aquafaba straight from the chickpea can.

Macaronage: If you are acquainted with making regular (egg white) macarons, one of the clues about knowing when the batter is ready to be piped, is when you can grab some batter with the spatula and start drawing a figure 8, if the batter doesn’t break up as you draw a few figure 8 shapes, that means the batter should be ready. However, I am learning with vegan macarons that it’s optimal to stop folding the batter right before it reaches this stage. Please watch my videos on youtube, as you can see in the videos what the batter should look like.

Thick batter: If the batter is too thick while mixing, add a teaspoon of aquafaba as you mix, until you obtain the perfect consistency.

Oven thermometer: Please make sure to have an oven thermometer! I receive a lot of troubleshooting questions and the great majority are issues caused due to not having an oven thermometer. Read this post for more detailed information about how important this is.

Oven temperature: Please experiment with your own oven temperature. Temperatures will vary depending on your oven and technique. It’s important to experiment and see what works best for your own oven. In my old oven I used to bake this same recipe at 310ºF. However, with my new oven, I bake it at 285ºF. This comes to show that the temperature will vary greatly depending on your own oven. Please experiment and find out what works best for you.

Troubleshooting: if your macarons are exploding, flattening out, with the feet spreading to the sides, that can mean a few things:

1- hot oven (make sure to have oven thermometer and experiment with the optimal oven temperature for your oven).

2- over mixed batter. It’s really easy to over mix vegan macaron batter. Mix it just until it starts to flow. Watch the videos on my youtube channel for reference.

3- under whipped meringue: make sure the meringue has really stiff peaks. It can take some time. Just be patient.

Keyword macarons, pistachio