It seems like there’s a wave of macaron questions that are sweeping my way. Unlike les brownies or le gâteau weekend (poundcake), successful macarons are more the result of the technique, rather than following a mere recipe. There’s lots of tips and tricks around the web that will help you out with these little devils, including some interesting recipes, too.
You can find my chocolate macaron recipe on the site, but here are a few links and places for further reading that I think are particularly helpful and insightful.
Websites and Blogs
Duncan at Syrup & Tang presents Macaronicité, and goes into detail with side-by-side photos of common errors.
Follow the online tutorial on making macarons by Helen of Tartlette Desserts Magazine.
And at Tartlette, you’ll find Helen’s instructions for Red Berry, Black Pepper, Mint & Strawberry, and my favorite, Snicker’s macarons, which sound particularly good to me.
Béatrice at La Tartine Gourmand has helpful step-by-step photos, accompanied by her untraditional recipe for Cardamom and Wattle Seed Macarons.
Desert Candy tackles colorful Hibiscus Macarons.
Veronica at Kitchen Musings gets it right in her Macaron Chronicles.
My Food Geek presents Almost Foolproof Macarons for the truly-intrepid.
For those with time to kill, there’s a fifteen page thread on eGullet, devoted to Macarons: The delicate French invention.
A Frenchwoman explains macarons in plain English at Mercotte, in Desperately Seeking Macarons, with great precision. And check out her Index of macaron flavors and recipes.
Over at Canelle-Vanille, you’ll find recipes and techniques (and beautiful photos) for a tropical storm ofFrench macarons, with salted peanut butter or milk chocolate-passion fruit filling
Melissa at Traveler’s Lunchbox presents The Mighty Macaron in three guises.
At À la Cuisine, there’s macarons flavored with matcha, caramel, and chestnut.
Sweet Fanny at Foodbeam offers Pierre Herme’s rose-flavored macarons
Serious Eats seriously explores macarons in their post on making macarons
Books on Macarons
Here are a couple of books that are devoted to the subject, in French. A few books in English do have recipes, but none that I know of are devoted exclusively to making macarons.
For availability in the United States, contact Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York or Cook’s Library in Los Angeles. Both are outstanding resources for cookbooks, which may have them in stock or could perhaps order them.
Les Macarons de Christophe by Christophe Felder
Macarons by Philippe Mérel
Macarons by Pierre Hermé
Un Amour de Macaron by Stéphane Glacier
My Macaron Posts
Goddess bless you..
I effin love these things, and I hate spending $2.50 to buy them at the ferry building in sf...
I better get cooking.
BTW, made a melon granita today.. Delicious, thank you for your wonderful cookbooks..
Jonathan
Very helpful links. Thanks!
I just got Pierre's latest book (how come I found myself in the bookstore at the exact same moment his book did?); and although I first didn't intend to buy it (I mean, macarons are great, but a whole book full of them?) I had to after flipping through and discovering the recipes.
Those are the exact same than the ones used at the laboratoire. Can't wait to find some time to fill my house with hundreds of macarons.
xx fanny
oh la la, ces photos ! :)
David,
Thank you for all the links. I don't think I'll have the patience or expertise to make the macaroons, but in my next visit to Paris (November) I plan to go to some of the places you recomend.
Your blog is great!
MJ
Fanny: Rumor has it since the book was just released this week, that Pierre Hermé is going to be at the Librarie Gourmand (92/96 rue Montmarte) this afternoon signing, but that's unconfirmed & there's no mention of that on their website. Can't wait to get a copy myself! x d
Lovely!
After visiting Pierre Herme's shop on my visit in Paris a couple of weeks ago (by your blog's recommendations). I can't wait to try making some myself!
10x a lot for these wonderful links.
Cheers, Yael.
God bless you David! I spent 6 hrs yesterday with only two successful batches of macarons to show for it. Up early this am at it again. I need 100 more by 7pm tonight! Thanks for the tips!
God bless you David! I spent 6 hrs yesterday with only two successful batches of macarons to show for it. Up early this am at it again. I need 100 more by 7pm tonight! Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for the links. A video that people might find useful: recette des macarons (in French)
This is the one with the French meringue base. A lot of people seem to like the Italian meringue base more. I plan to try that after I buy a thermometer.
David, I've got to say, if you put up your own non-chocolate macaron recipe I'm definitely going to try it. By far, the ones I made with your recipe were the most authentic looking. Everything else has ranged from full-on failure to tastes-good-but-looks-weird. Thing is, when it comes to macaron flavors, chocolate macarons are by far my least favorite.
I know that this collection of links is your way of *not* including your own recipe, but I'm thinking... come on! take the plunge!
I can vouch for Fannys post on Foodbeam i tried it a couple of weeks ago and they were the best i had ever made. I would love the new Pierre Herme book but my French isnt up to much anymore
thank you, thank you, thank you
for this post
merci pour tous ces liens sur les macarons et pour le clin d'oeil !
j'ai reçu hier le livre de PH après avoir dégusté ses nouveautés cet été pour le lancement, superbe !!
Wow... excellent list David! And of course, thanks for mentioning my La Macaronicité series.
Can't wait to see the new PH book!
I've just sent this link to my chef daughter with a note that she now has a chance of beating out her big sis as favourite daughter -- I pointed out that I was just helping even out the field: big sis is soon to deliver first grandchild, and that's pretty special, but a macaron outside of Paris is truly an accomplishment. (I concede that this is not parenting at its best, but all's fair in love and macarons, no?)
Gorgeous...what great looking macarons. You've got some of my favourite blogs listed there. Each one of them is stunning!
Check out Veronica's Kitchen's macaron chronicles at:
http://kitchenmusings.typepad.com/my_weblog/macaron_chronicles/page/3/
to read about her in depth exploration re: how to make them.
Katie: Thanks for that info. I added the link to the post, above! Merci... - dl
Thank you for this, David! I'm trained as a pastry chef and have made some really difficult recipes but the coupla times I've made (no, tried to make) macaroons, they've been horrible! I will try again with your help!
I've never had one of these cookies, so I'll have to buy and try one before I go through all this to make them. You're expanding my horizon, David. I'm getting nervous,
I think I just had information overload (in a good way)....Thank you for the links. I shall have to toy w/ these recipes at some point (considering I have a stack of recipes to go through already!)
: )
Macarons are everywhere these days! I haven't tried my hand at making them yet myself, but with this roster of tips I may be heading to the kitchen soon.
Merci mille fois for this post...
I must sort all this out and get to baking immediately...
Hi David
Okay....now I will attempt to make macaroons. The weather here in Northern California is cooling so the time is right. Ummm, will you be at the Hardly Strickly Bluegrass Festival (check ou the website for the festival, tres magnifique!) while you are in SF? Well if not I will still catch you on Gene Burns on the October 4.
Ta ta
Roberta
Dear David;
Thank you for saving me. I have been making passable macaroons, but they are never consistent and often look wrinkly on the top (darn convection oven!)
Just when I had given up and decided that perhaps I could be further be known as "pastry student who refuses to make macaroons" we were assigned to make some at school for marking next week.
Great.
Perhaps now I have some hints my Chef will stop sighing and rolling his eyes at me!
the first time i tried macarons i used your recipe. they were good, but not great (tops cracked) but all this talk makes me want to try them again! thanks for the links.
** Embarrassing confession alert** I've never attempted macarons, despite being totally in love with Pierre Herme's (since his were the first I tried, I think he has spoiled me for all other macarons...). Armed with all this info, maybe that shoudl be my goal before the end of the year: make macarons!! Thanks for collating all these sources :)
I'm requesting blessings for you with all the rest of 'em. Was tempted to give macarons a go after your last post on the subject, but hadn't yet summoned my nerve. What is it about them that makes me so darn trepidatious? Oh, yeah, must be the hoard of encouraging help out there that practically screams "Intimidating experience in the kitchen awaits!" But I must try!
Wonderful post David!
Loving Duncan's site...
You are still keeping under your hat that one big secret you mentioned at some point...
Hmmmm...wondering
I love French macarons! So much that I've requested that my bridal shower feature a tree of those (like Laduree), instead of a cake. The only problem is that I don't live in Paris and can't shop at Laduree. I do plan on doing my own research, but when you posted this, well, I figured I had might as well ask someone who knows what they're talking about--know of any places in Los Angeles that make those awesome macaron trees? Thanks!
I did not know about these until I discovered Laduree in Paris last year!! I love them now! Maybe you would consider a Central Market Cooking lesson in San Antonio?
I did not know about these until I discovered Laduree in Paris last year!! I love them now! Maybe you would consider a Central Market Cooking lesson in San Antonio?
Your chocolate macaron is out of this world. I can't wait to try the other recipes on this list, now that I have a digital scale to convert to grams. A thousand thanks for your diligent research. Last night, I made two batches, the first one didn't have feet and were cracked. Second batch had the signature feet with smooth top and a little peak. Any suggestions? You rock!