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You can totally make these Heart Shaped Macarons! It’s easier than you think, especially when you use this print-friendly heart template that I created just for you.
These darling heart-shaped macarons are perfect for baby showers, bridal showers, birthday’s, princess parties, and especially as Valentines Macarons! And, macarons are naturally GLUTEN FREE!
They taste irresistibly good with the tangy-sweet lemon buttercream sandwiched between the sweet almond cookies. These look just like French bakery macarons and you’ll definitely impress your family and friends. Watch the video to learn exactly how to make homemade macarons!!
Watch How to Make Heart Macarons:
If you’ve never made macarons before, be sure to read through our tips for making perfect macarons and why it’s important not to skip steps like sifting!!
Here are all of the tools that I used in the video:
Heart Macaron Template (free printable)
Boos Cutting Board
Glass Mixing Bowls
KitchenAid Hand Mixer
Cuisinart Food Processor
Silicone Baking Liner
Citrus Juicer
Mesh Strainer/Sieve
OXO Food Scale
Silicone Spatula
Wilton #2A Round Decorating Tip
Silpat Macaron Kit (with piping bag, round tip & food coloring)
⬇️ Print Friendly for Heart Macarons:
Heart Macarons with Lemon Buttercream (VIDEO Recipe)
Ingredients
For the Heart Macarons:
- 70 grams about 2/3 cup almond meal/flour, room temp
- 120 grams about 1 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
- 2 large egg whites, about 65 grams, room temp
- 50 grams exactly 1/4 cup leveled granulated sugar
- 1 " strip Red or Pink GEL food coloring
- Sprinkles, optional
For the Lemon Buttercream:
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners, powdered sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, from 1 small or 1/2 large lemon
Instructions
How to Make Heart Macarons:
- In the bowl of a food processor, add 70 gm almond flour and 120 gm powdered sugar. Pulse twice then process 1 1/2 min. Sift and discard any solids (should be less than 1 Tbsp solids in sieve).
- Put 2 egg whites in large clean/dry mixing bowl and beat until foamy, then gradually add 1/4 cup granulated sugar and beat on high speed about 2 1/2 minutes or until stiff glossy peaks form. Add 1" strip red gel food coloring and fold with spatula just until incorporated.
- Add all sifted almond flour/sugar mixture and fold with spatula using this method: scrape batter around the bowl, then press the flat side of the spatula firmly through the center. Repeat until batter flows like lava and thick ribbon forms as it flows off spatula (35-40 complete strokes).
- Print 4 copies of heart template and place on 2 baking sheets under silicone liners or parchment paper (AVOID WAX PAPER) - you'll be able to see the hearts through your liner to guide you as you pipe hearts. Transfer batter to large piping bag fitted with 3/8" round tip. For each heart, pipe at the top left and pull down towards the bottom center then pipe at the top right and pull down towards the bottom center and flick the end up if it gets long.
- Add sprinkles to as desired. Firmly tap baking sheets over counter 15-20 times to release air bubbles. Poke any remaining obvious bubbles with toothpick. Let cookies sit at room temp 30 min or until no longer sticky to the touch - they should form a thin film on top. Meanwhile preheat oven to 300˚F.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 12-15 min at 300˚F. I usually do 15 minutes for the first batch and 12 minutes for the second batch - somehow my oven gets hotter the second batch. Let cookies cool to room temp before removing them from baking sheet. Once cool, they should slide off easily. Meanwhile make buttercream (see instructions below).
- To assemble, flip over half your cookies and pipe generous amounts of frosting onto the flat sides, piping in a heart shape. Find a well-matched unfrosted second half and sandwich cookies together.
How to Make Lemon Buttercream:
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream 6 Tbsp softened butter on high speed for 2 mins.
- Add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (1/2 cup at a time and beating to incorporate between additions), along with 1/8 tsp of salt and once sugar is incorporated, increase to high speed and beat 2 mins.
- Add 2 Tbsp lemon juice and beat another 1 minute or until whipped and fluffy. Transfer to the same clean piping bag fitted with the round 3/8" tip.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Love macarons? Make sure you try our well-loved raspberry macarons!
Q: Do you have any fun plans for Valentines Day? Whether you’re spending it with your best girl fran or your special someone, I want to know how you celebrate. I love hearing from you! I’m pretty certain we’ll be dining in with either filet mignon or lobstaaaa!! 🙂
I made these last night, only I used a cream cheese filling and they were divine. Thank you so much for the video. It really made this project easy for a first timer.
You’re so welcome! Thank you for that wonderful review!
Going to try this. But can you recommend a good heavy duty baking pan? Which one do you use?
Hi Oksana, I’ve recently started using the gold tinted line of baking sheets from Williams Sonoma and like them very much but I also like the 2 aluminum ones that I get from Costco which are heavy duty.
Can I just use regular vanilla buttercream??
Hi Isabella, absolutely you can change up the filling to your liking. 🙂
Hi! I was wondering if you can add the food coloring at a different time so that you can make multiple colors with one batch. Is that possible?
Hi Laurel, I have not tested that but that sounds super creative! If you experiment, please let me know how you like that.
I think I printed the hearts way small so my macarons came out tiny but oh so delicious!! I made it for my daughter, it almost didn’t make it to her. I kept eating it! I definitely will make it again. Thanks for the video. I was always afraid to try it but with your video it made it so much easier.
They are addicting aren’t they, Ami?? I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for that awesome review!
Wow!!! I have tried so many recipes—this is THE BEST. The feet!!!! None of my other recipes gave such tall feet!!! I wish I knew how to post a picture, I am so proud of how they turned out. Thank you for all your hard work and trial and error in perfecting this recipe. I checked my most recent recipe, which was pretty good, but didn’t give me these feet and a lot of the tops were cracked. That recipe was almost identical, except it called for 1/2 cup almond flour instead of 2/3 (and it didn’t stress WEIGHING the flour like you did, which I actually did for the first time ever—thank you!!) The only other difference between my previous recipe and yours is that it called for vanilla extract. Have you ever tried adding that, and if so, was it problematic?
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Sarah :). I’m all smiles! I have not added it to this recipe specifically great idea, however! If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
I made another batch today and added vanilla this time. I added it when I added the food coloring. They came out PERFECTLY. AGAIN. Seriously, this is the Holy Grail of recipes 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing that with us!! 🙂
Hi! the batter was more running than I expected and as you can imagine I was not able to form the heart shape. What did I do wrong? The flavor was excellent
Hi Maya, check out the tips for success that I shared in our original macarons recipe which addresses most frequently asked questions for macarons
Hi Natasha,
I’ve made these 3 times now and I keep getting a hollow shell. They look beautiful otherwise except the hollow shell. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong? I’ve followed your directions to the letter.
Hi Maria, Overbeating the meringue is often the culprit. Also, the oven may be the problem, I would double check the oven temperature is accurate with an oven thermometer.
Hi Natasha ! Thank you for all your recipes . You bake the macarons on regular bake option or convection? Thank you !
Hi Irena, we used the regular bake option.
Thank you !
Hi Natasha! I’m making your macarons and turns out I don’t have unsalted butter for the buttercream frosting. Would I be able to substitute for salted butter and just remove the added salt called for in the recipe? Thanks so much for your creative ideas! (:
Hi Megan, I haven’t tried it that way but I think it should still work to use salted butter and omit the salt in the recipe.
Macarons have always intimidated me. But I actually just took some out of the oven and although they are not perfect I think I can do it better next time. Nothing like conquering your fear!
Exactly!That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review 🙂
This is by far the easiest macaron recipe that I have found, and it’s a success!!! Thanks for making it so simple for a newbie baker like me!
My pleasure Renee! I’m happy you find the recipe so helpful! Thanks for following and sharing your encouraging comments!
Spot on. This is the perfect recipe for macarons. I have made this without the food processor and you end up with more almond flour leftover, but still turned out perfect! I have tried many of your recipes and they have been great so far. Thank you so much for sharing.
My pleasure Samantha! I’m happy to hear how much you love the recipe. Thanks for sharing your excellent review!
Thank you so much for the great recipe. Your fun tutorial gave me the confidence to try making macarons and they turned out great! My oven was a little hotter and I had to adjust the time on my second sheet – but they were delicious and you made them easy to make! Thanks
You’re welcome Krista! I’m glad to hear the recipe was a success. Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
I tried this twice. And my dough seems to runny. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Any suggestions? Also its my first time making these types of cookies.
Hi Stephanie, check out the tips for success that I shared in our original macarons recipe which addresses most frequently asked questions for macarons.
Hey Natasha, I was wondering if we have to use a food processor.
Hi Scarlet, for macarons, it really is necessary to get the mixture to the correct consistency. A high powered blender (Vitamix or Blendtec) might work but you will have the best control of the finished product in a food processor.
What brand of food coloring do you use?
Hi Quentin, in this video, I used the gel food coloring that cake with my silpat macaron kit and the brand is “Spectrum” but I would recommend using any gel food coloring such as this one (Amazon affiliate link)
Hi Do You leave the template on the baking sheet while baking,
Or do You remove once You piped the cookie on the sheet.
Thank you
Hi Jackie, I pull the template out after piping 🙂 I once forgot it under there and it was still ok, but I do remove it.
Hi Natasha, Is there any substitute for almond flour?
Hi Elsa, I have seen others make pistachio macarons but I haven’t tried them myself. It does need to be a nut flour to work properly for macarons. You might google pistachio macarons to get more ideas. Sorry I can’t be more helpful with that!
Hello Natasha,
I love your blog and follow your recipe often. I was wondering if it would work with a chocolate ganache? also any recipe for chocolate ganache?
Hi Ameerah, I think this would work well with ganache. Great idea! Here is our ganache recipe.
I love your lemon buttercream! I also added lemon zest of one whole lemon….. I love lemons. Yum!
I’m happy to hear that Hannah! Thanks for sharing your fantastic review!