8 Macaron Recipes That Will Turn Your Kitchen Into a French Pâtisserie

These magical treats offer endless possibilities with colors, flavors, and fillings—and they're also gluten-free.

Macarons are beautiful, light-as-a-feather French sandwich cookies that have a chewy texture and a crisp exterior. Typically made with almond flour, egg whites, cream of tartar, and sugar, they're a classic example of how just a few ingredients can be brilliantly combined to create something magical. But macaron shells alone do not a macaron make: It's the filling that you sandwich between two cookies that's the real pièce de résistance (think vanilla buttercream, lemon buttercream, salted caramel, and chocolate ganache). The possibilities and combinations are endless, and here, you'll find some fantastic ideas, including rose and raspberry, toasted almond and white chocolate, and chocolate and espresso.

colorful macarons stacked
Johnny Miller

Macarons aren't difficult to make, but they do require precision and practice. If you're making them for an event, it's a good idea to do a test run a few weeks in advance, so you can refine your technique and troubleshoot any issues you may have. Once you've got it down, you're set. For a charming dessert that will steal any show, you can't go wrong with a homemade macaron.

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Basic French Macarons

Basic French Macarons
Linda Pugliese

Our foolproof recipe takes the guesswork out of making macarons. It walks you through making your own almond flour (which is much easier than it may seem), combining it with the other ingredients, and piping and baking.

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Mix and Match French Macarons

Mix-and-Match French Macarons

Here's another great resource: a recipe that lets you choose your own adventure, combining the fillings and bases that suit your tastes. You'll find variations for vanilla bean, chocolate, peanut butter, coconut, raspberry, and pistachio macarons.

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Rose Raspberry Macarons

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Linda Pugliese

Two shades of pink combine to wonderful effect in these macarons. The cookie has a delicate, floral taste thanks to a small spoonful of rose water in the batter, which pairs well with light and tangy raspberry jam.

04 of 08

Toasted-Almond Macarons with White Chocolate

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Toasting the almonds before grinding them into flour yields a much more deeply-flavored cookie that stands up nicely to a melted white chocolate filling.

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Vanilla Bean Macarons

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Linda Pugliese

A subtly sophisticated macaron, this version relies on the seeds from a vanilla bean for deeper flavor. A drop of copper-colored gel food coloring gives them a gentle bronze color, and the Swiss meringue buttercream filling offers a simple, but eye-catching contrast.

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Mocha Macarons

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With instant espresso powder in both the cookie and the filling, these macarons have a delightful zip. The cookie also includes unsweetened cocoa powder, which imparts a chocolate-y taste and a pretty brown color.

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Chocolate Macarons with Toasted Hazelnuts

chocolate hazelnut macaroon
Linda Pugliese

If you like Nutella, these chocolate-hazelnut beauties are a must. This macaron recipe uses hazelnuts rather than the usual almonds—and has you toast them to bring out their nutty flavor. The combination of melted bittersweet chocolate and Nutella (or a similar spread) makes a decadent filling.

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Chocolate Mint Macarons

chocolate mint macaron
Johnny Miller

Peppermint extract gives these cookies that signature minty taste, and a dab of leaf green gel paste food coloring gives a visual clue to what's coming.

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