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These raspberry macarons are tangy, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth amazing! Since my trip to Portland when I tried raspberry Macarons at one of their famous bakeries, I became obsessed with recreating the ones I tried. They were in-sanely good. So I’ve made hundreds of macarons over the past month.
I also knew that we needed to make a video to share the recipe with you because it’s crazy important for you to see what “flowing like lava” really means. I adopted the macaron base and stirring method from Martha Stewart’s March 2014 Living Magazine because it seems to be the most fail proof.
I admit there were several moments of near pulling my hair out over the past few weeks as I tested and retested batch after batch after batch, but I was stubborn as tree sap on my favorite blouse, and let me tell you, it was worth it! Mastering these cookies made me feel like a baking ninja. I’m sharing ALL my secrets to success so hopefully you’ll get it right off the bat! Before you get excited and start, READ THIS:
Watch How to Make Macarons:
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How to Make Great Macarons (Tips for Success):
- Read through the recipe first, watch the video, and measure out all of your ingredients before starting.
- Weigh your almond meal and confectioners sugar. When I use store-bought large AA eggs, I don’t weigh the whites or the granulated sugar since it’s an exact 1/4 cup granulated sugar.
- Do not use wax paper. Use parchment or silpat (but let the cookies cool before removing them or they will stick).
- If you store almond meal in the fridge, bring it to room temp. Egg whites must be room temp also.
- Do not overbeat egg whites – they should not be dry and breaking.
- Sift your dry ingredients; very important or your macarons might be hollow.
- When mixing your flour and meringue batter, Do not overmix or undermix: When you pipe the cookies, the peaks should settle down into themselves within 10 seconds.
- Let your cookies rest before baking – this is important to form the feet. Rest anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour
- When I bake in 2 batches, my first set always bakes in 15 min and the second one takes 13 min (maybe my oven gets hotter the second go-around?). Keep an eye on it. Cookies should not turn golden in the oven, except ever so slightly underneath.
- Cookies taste best the next day – refrigerate overnight and bring to room temp to serve.
- If you can’t find freeze dried raspberries, they are pretty inexpensive online.
- Deep Breath. YOU CAN DO IT! 🙂
- Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly
What You’ll Need to Make Raspberry Macarons:
- A digital kitchen scale
- A good food processor
- A spatula
- Parchment paper or silpat to line baking sheets
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer (I prefer the hand mixer for more control)
- A sieve to sift flour and strain raspberries
- A pastry piping bag with a large round tip (a disposable bag will do and if you’re brave, you can make due with cutting the tip off to make a round 3/8″ tip – I’ve seen it done)
- This little dusting wand from OXO is really fun to use
Here is the Print friendly recipe for how to make macarons:
Raspberry Macarons Recipe (Video Tutorial)
Ingredients
Ingredients for Macarons:
- 70 grams about 2/3 cup almond meal/flour
- 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
- 1/4 cup freeze dried raspberries
Ingredients for Raspberry Buttercream:
- 3/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
Instructions
How to Make Raspberry Macarons: Prep: Line 1 XL or 2 regular baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat.
- In the bowl of a good food processor, combine almond meal and powdered sugar and pulse twice to combine then process for 1 1/2 min. Sift through a sieve into a large bowl, pressing down on clumps with the back of a spoon. You should have about 1/2 to 1 Tbsp of solids left over in the sieve - discard those (If you have alot more, pulse them a few more times in the food processor).
- Place 2 egg whites in a large bowl and beat until foamy. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar then increase to high speed and beat 2 1/2 min or until stiff glossy peaks form.
- Add sifted almond mixture and fold with spatula from the bottom of the bowl upward then press the flat side of your spatula firmly through the middle. Repeat until batter flows like lava and thick ribbons form as it flows off the spatula. (35-40 complete strokes).
- Fit a pastry bag with a large (3/8" wide) round tip and transfer batter inside. Pipe 3/4" round cookies onto the lined baking sheet, keeping them 1" apart. Drop the sheets 6" over the counter to release air bubbles about 15-20 times.
- Place freeze dried raspberries in a ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin until they are a powder. Use a small sifter or tea ball to dust the tops of the cookies with raspberry powder. Let cookies sit at room temp at least 30 min or until they form a thin film over the top and don't stick to your finger when poked. Meanwhile, complete steps 1 & 2 of the frosting (see below).
- While cookies are resting, Preheat Oven to 300˚F with rack in the center. Bake 15 min. If they didn't all fit on one sheet, bake in two separate batches. Slide parchment paper and cookies onto the counter right away and cool to room temp (15 min). Now you can finish off step 3 of the frosting and pipe frosting generously onto half of your macaroons and sandwich gently with the second cookie shell.
How to Make the Raspberry Buttercream Frosting:
- In a small sauce pan over medium heat, combine 3/4 cup raspberries, 3 Tbsp granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Heat until bubbling.
- Mash up the raspberries with a spoon then push the mixture through a sieve, pressing on the raspberry seeds to get the most juice out. I got 1/3 cup syrup. Keep the syrup/juice and discard seeds. Let cool to room temp.
- In a medium bowl, beat 6 Tbsp butter until whipped and white (2 min on high), Add in room temp raspberry syrup and beat until whipped and fluffy (2 1/2 to 3 min on high). You can add powdered sugar to taste if a sweeter cream is preferred.
Notes
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
I love that these raspberry macarons are sweet and sour – I find them irresistible. Do you have a favorite macaron flavor?
I wish the recipes I had seen before mentioned the tid bit warning about using wax paper. I had four sheet pans of macarons that baked beautifully, and then went to peel a cookie away from the wax paper… only to find of course that they had adhered to the paper itself. I haven’t tried your recipe yet, but I think that I will tomorrow.
Yes, wax paper is not a good idea but silicone does work pretty well – it comes off just as easily as parchment 🙂
Natasha do you weigh your dry ingridients before sifting or after?
Great question! I weigh before sifting 🙂
Natasha,
Not sure where I can get freeze dried raspberries (don’t like buying online). Any alternatives, or can I make them myself? Galia
I have found them at Fred Meyer and Rosauers. I’m not sure who else carries them. I would suggest calling your local grocery stores and asking to save you from having to drive around looking for them. You could just omit them and the macarons would still work out if you can’t find them in stores. I
They sell them at trader joe’s- just got some today! They also have strawberry and blueberry
they loook awesome and I can’t wait to try out the recipe. One question though, should I let the egg whites sit for 2-3 days before I start baking? Another blogger said to do this so the macaron shells won’t crack.
I’ve never noticed a difference between aging the egg whites that way and not aging them. Following all of the other tips and instructions in this recipe, I haven’t had an issue with cracking. It won’t hurt if you want to but I haven’t found it to be necessary.
I had tried today this recipe. It easy to make it but for some reason some of them cracked. Do you know why? I used food coloring gel to make them orange and because I din’t use enough gel, the color was more like peach. So I did a peach cream too. I used a stick of butter and added 3 tbsp of peach jam. The cream is delicious and its not too sweet. I’ll try one to make it again until they will be perfect. Thanks for recipe.
Usually cracking is due to either not letting the macaroons rest long enough before baking or baking at too high of a temperature. Or not knocking out the air bubbles. Some ovens run hotter than others so I would recommend maybe lowering your temperature next time.
Natasha – thank you so much for this recipe. It’s THE BEST macaroon recipe and a very easy to make.
Thank you!
I am so happy you loved the recipe! Thank you Elena! 🙂
this is the best and easy ,recipe and video so informative , i followed everything to the t and they came out so exited.;) thank natasha you are the sweetest.
Alina, thank you for sharing such a nice review and you are welcome 😀
One more question: last time i made these macaroons they were really runny when i piped them on to the pan and so the cookies were in all different shapes and sizes what cause it to be so runny?
Runny batter is usually due to over mixing.
And i have watched youtube videos that made macaroons and they didn’t use a food scale and there macaroons turned out great so do I have to use one because I don’t have one!?
Svetlana, I can’t vouch for the other recipes but with this one for the best results you really should use a food scale. Macarons are finicky and everything i’ve read and experienced said to use a food scale.
do you subtract the amount the container weighs to get an accurate amount of grams for the flour and sugar? it looked like in the video you didn’t subtract the weight of the container..
Galina, yes, I always zero out the container weight for the most accurate measurement. Great question!
Does the food processor have to be 11 cups or can it be 8s?
Svetlana, you can do it in a small food processor but it might require two batches.
Where can I buy dusting wand?
Svitlana, I use this one from Amazon.
I tried to make these and it did not come out as yours. I don’t have an oven with a fan and my macaroons we’re hollow and when I tried to take them off the silicone mat they were stuck and a complete fail:(
What kind of oven do you have? If they were stuck to the silicone, it sounds like they could have used a couple more minutes in the oven.
I have an oven without a fan in the back. So just a normal plan oven.
It really does sound like your oven got to hot. I don’t use my convection setting with the fan, but just the regular bake mode.
Oh okaay so on a regular oven what temperature should I put the macaroons at? Thank you so much for helping me!
It’s difficult to say, especially since it sounds like your oven isn’t heating accurately. You might try decreasing the oven temperature by 15 degrees to start.
Hey Natasha I followed ur recipe I used frozen raspberries and crushed them as you said but it didn’t turn to powder went soggy and the raspberry filling was very buttery don’t know where I went wrong apart from that they tasted nice thanks and please help me about the rasberries x
Did you use frozen raspberries or freeze dried raspberries for the crushed topping? It will only work with freeze dried raspberries, also if you did in fact use freeze dried raspberries, it’s very important to store them in a cool dry place. If humidity gets to them, they become soft rater than dry (I’ve had that happen before).
Hey iv used frozen raspberries il try with dried raspberries and freeze them thanks x
Hi Natasha,
I really want to make the macaroons, but only found freeze dried strawberries. If I use those and frozen strawberries for the sauce to add to the cream, that will still work I assume right?
I’m not sure if freeze dried strawberries turn into powder as readily as raspberries. I don’t think they do. Frozen strawberries would be ok although raspberries provide more flavor. Keep in mind strawberries let off more juice so add the syrup to the butter incrementally.
Ok, so I still decided to try them (I rolled my freeze dried strawberries into powder first to make sure that worked, and there was no problem in them turning to powder, the only things that didn’t was the seeds, but they stayed in the sieve and were no bother).
I also decided to stick with the rest of your recipe and used our frozen raspberries for the cream.
The only drawback using freeze dried strawberries, the beautiful red color, turned deep deep reddish/brown color, almost looked burnt.
The rest of the recipe turned out beautifully! I read through some of the other comments, and afraid of getting hollow insides, slightly propped oven door open for the first 2 minutes. Not a single one turned out hollow.
The next day, my husband ate so many, that he made me take the plate away from him, prohibited anyone else in the house to eat them. Or at least that I make more of them. That is a huge compliment, as when it comes to sweets, my husband is more a cake person. Thumbs up many times to you.
Oh, one more question, I store those in the fridge right? Because of the butter? I did that, and brought them down to room temp when it was time to eat them.
Thank you so much for that awesome review and for sharing your experience with the freeze dried strawberries! that’s great to know it’s an option if you can’t find raspberries. I’ve had even my raspberry powder turn a deep maroon before and it was because my oven got too hot of the second batch of macarons, I mean they still tasted good but they weren’t that pretty pink color. That’s awesome that you had to confiscate them from your husband! lol. Yes you can refrigerate or even freeze them and bring them back to room temp to serve or serve just slightly chilled.
Just made these macarons and they turned out good! I love how easy it is to follow your recipe! They even got pretty good feet 😊 The only disappointment for me was the butter cream filling 😕 It simply tastes like butter. I’ve done cakes and cupcakes with butter cream and I never experienced pure butter taste 😣 I’ll definitely will be looking into other fillings for the next time!
Hi Olga, did you follow the recipe and make the syrup the same way for the buttercream? The raspberry sauce provides enough flavor to offset the butter and you should be tasting raspberries and not really butter.
I did 😕 I didn’t check how much syrup I got from the raspberries, but my cream was as bright in color as yours.
Eating them when they are a bit colder (I stuck mine in the fridge because didn’t want the butter to go bad room temp) and there was less of that buttery taste the next day. Don’t know if that might help. We loved them even better the next day.
Hey I really want to try this recipe but im just confused almond flour is it called almond powder? I’m from Birmingham please help thanks x
I haven’t seen it referred to as almond powder, but I have seen it sold as almond flour or almond meal. It kind of sounds like almond powder is the same thing from a quick google search. Check the ingredient label and if it says 100% almonds then it sounds like it’s the same thing.
Thank you so you I will look again it’s called ground almonds il check the ingredients
Hi, Thanks for the recepie. I already did it for 3 times and they are perfect. I wish you have more different flavors, because i wanted to make chocolate ones and i did try to make one batch from moms dish, but they were awfull. i think wrong proportions up there. So, please make more! I loved how you explaine everything, very helpful tips. Love cooking from you web site!
My husband has been telling me the same thing that I need to make one with chocolate. Thank you for the motivation! 🙂
Hey Natasha,
I’m new to making macarons, although I’m obsessed. I used a different recipe the first 3 times I made macarons and, although my macarons never cracked, they would have good height “feet”, but the shell would be hollow after the feet part. Everyone still loved them like that lol
So I saw your recipe and there were many things different from the recipe I had been using (mixing time, ingredient ratio). I decided to give it a try because of all the positive reviews (and your macarons look fluffy and not hollow!).
I just made them and, what do you know, hollow macarons. Plus, a few cracked this time! I followed your recipe to a tee, so I am really frustrated now with what could be going wrong. Problem is, my oven is 20 years old and I can’t even set the exact temperature: it’s not set on an LCD screen, but by a dial. So I THINK my oven is on 300 degrees… although I can’t say for sure. Oh brother.
My macarons do seem to rise quickly and look all fluffy and cute in the first 2 minutes, then the tops kind of sink over the feet and end up hollow.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi Diana, I just want to make sure, did you sift the flour? Also, if they are rising very quickly and look fluffy and cute after 2 minutes, your oven is probably too hot. I’ve had that happen when my oven was too hot. Macarons are very sensitive to heat. I’ve read that some people recommend even propping the oven door open very slightly so they don’t bake up too quickly.
Personally I think that the filling is a bit to buttery, I add a bit of cream cheese and it adds the perfect sour taste to it.
Personally I think that the filling is a bit to buttery, I add a bit of cream cheese and it adds the perfect sour taste to it. But overall the macros and amazing 🙂
BEST MACARON RECIPE EVER!
Ive tried other recipes before but yours is the best. The way you explain it makes me fell confident trying out the recipe. Some people make it fell intimidating. Making my third batch for the week. Everybody loved them! Thanks for the recipe.
Oh I’m so happy to hear that!! Thanks so much Michelle 🙂