Making Macarons From Scratch
22nd November 2025 - New Experience Number 27.
Making macarons from scratch is a challenge. These decadent little fancies take time, care and precision; it’s no wonder they have a reputation for being notoriously difficult to make.
Deciding to try them as a new cooking experience as part of my challenge to try 52 new things in a year, this post is all about how I got on, along with tips and recommendations if you want to try it too.
What Are Macarons?
Macarons are a circular meringue-based sweet confectionery.
Their shape is a bit like a miniature burger, with a top and a bottom made of meringue, and the middle filling is usually jam or ganache.
They’re often vibrant, colourful and uniform in their appearance with each macaron being exactly the same size and shape as the rest in the batch.
They are sweet to taste, often with a hint of fruit or chocolate. The exterior is sometimes referred to as a cookie. It should have a satisfying crispness when you bite into it with a light and fluffy texture, perfectly complemented by the rich filling.
Deciding To Try Making Macarons From Scratch
Since trying 52 new things a year, I’ve followed quite a few recipes to make things from scratch.
It’s so easy and convenient to buy things in a shop, that sometimes I have no idea how things I consume are actually made.
I like the challenge of making something from start to finish and discovering what goes into making everyday foods. It gives me a new-found appreciation for the time and effort happening behind the scenes.
It also often makes me wonder how on earth people decided to mix certain ingredients together which sound like they shouldn’t work, but actually produce some delicious results.
I knew that making macarons would be a challenge. They are notorious for being hard to make, but I decided I’d roll up my sleeves, take a deep breath, and commit to giving them a go.
The Recipe
Firstly I had a look at a couple of recipes.
When I’m making something for the first time I like to read through the method before I begin, to make sure it all makes sense to me and that I’ll be able to follow it even when I’m part way through and elbow deep in my mixing bowl.
Finding a fairly straightforward recipe, although it did rate it as taking ‘More Effort’, I went with trusty BBC Good Food who shared how to make macarons from a Great British Bake Off winner.
The Ingredients
The ingredients for making macarons are not unusual or hard to find.
In fact, I was quite surprised at how few ingredients are actually needed to make them. For something that is known for being a challenge, the list of 9 familiar ingredients gave me a new feeling of confidence.
- Icing sugar
- Ground almonds
- Egg whites
- Sugar
- Food colouring
- Double cream
- Dark chocolate
- Butter
- Jam
The Make
If you’re the sort of person who likes to be a bit slapdash with your cooking, who doesn’t meticulously weigh out ingredients to the exact amount, and who doesn’t time things to the minute but relies on visual appearance, then this is definitely going to be a challenge for you!
I’m hugely oversimplifying things here, but to me it felt like there were 7 parts of the process.
- Making almond paste
- Making the meringue
- Combining the almond paste and meringue to make a batter
- Piping out the batter into circles and then letting them rest
- Baking the macarons for a precise amount of time
- Making the filling
- Assembling the macarons
Making meringue from scratch is a good thing to try if you’ve never done that before. I gave it a go a few years ago and let me tell you, it takes a lot of time and muscle to make meringues from scratch if you don’t have an electric whisk! Thankfully I had invested in one since then which I was very grateful for as there is quite a bit of whisking involved in making macarons.
Don’t Miss This Step Like I Did - Making Macarons From Scratch
Once the almond paste and meringue were combined into a smooth, thick batter, the next step was to pipe the mixture onto lined baking sheets. This is where I missed a step that would have made a big difference to the finished look of the macarons.
The instructions didn’t explicitly say to draw circles onto the baking paper as a template, but there was a photo that showed this had been done. Deciding to go freehand, I soon learnt that it would have been wise to have invested the time for that detail.
Piping isn’t my strongest skill, despite having put it to the test earlier in the year at a cake decorating workshop. However, in theory, piping neat rounds sounds straightforward, but without a template my results were far from consistent. The aim was circles around 2.5cm in diameter, which I attempted, though there was a lot of variation.
By the time I’d used up all the batter – and completed an emergency dig through the cupboards for another baking tray – every available surface in my kitchen was covered in trays of pink circles. Leaving them to rest for the required half an hour, I took the opportunity to tackle the inevitable washing up.
Precision Baking
The ganache was easy to make, and whilst this was cooling I put the pink rounds into the oven. The recipe called for a precise 14 minutes at 150C in a fan oven. I’m always a bit nervous around such exact timings, as I’m sure every oven is different, so, like the recipe suggested, I tested one tray first.
Peering through the glass on the oven door, my lovingly made sweet circles appeared to be firming up and lightly browning, but there wasn’t a nice rise to them like I’d hoped there would be.
My timer went off. Pulling the tray out of the heat the circles looked baked, but disappointingly they were still quite flat. It’s possible I’d over-mixed my batter.
Making Macarons From Scratch - Assembling
The last part of the recipe was putting all of the components together, and this required more piping.
Firstly I tried to find two pieces of macaron that were roughly the same size. Again, this would have been much easier if I’d used a template in the first place as they would all have been similar!
To complete the macarons, I piped the ganache around the edge of one macaron, spooned some jam into the middle, and placed another macaron on top.
This was fairly time consuming, but eventually I’d paired up all of the biscuit parts and sandwiched them together with a generous ganache and jam filling. Leaving them to settle a little bit, I somehow managed to resist the temptation of sampling one straight away.
The Results
Well, you could tell these macarons were made by an amateur. They had what I’d like to consider a home-made charm about them; flat, misshapen, and a rather insipid shade of pink. So visually they left a lot to be desired.
The taste, however, was what mattered most. The meringue may not have had the definitive crisp exterior of a shop-bought macaron, but it had a delicious chewy texture. The ganache was smooth and rich and the jam added a fresh zest to the flavour.
They were delicious. What they lacked in appearance they made up for in taste. The Other Half gave them a thumbs up too which is always a good sign.
Are Macarons As Difficult To Make as People Say? The Verdict
Macarons are definitely not easy to make! Yes, they may be a more expensive confectionery treat when you buy them, but knowing the level of detail and attention that goes into making them now, I can appreciate the price of them.
It took me so much longer than the recipe suggested. With a guide time of 45 minutes, I’m glad I had a morning free for this as it actually took me around 4 hours!!
I’m not entirely sure why it took me so long. I know I had to do some washing up along the way as I needed to reuse the piping tools, and knowing that this make required precision I really did focus and try to follow the recipe to the letter.
I just wish I’d drawn out templates for piping the batter into circles as it would have helped with the final appearance.
I’m not entirely sure why they looked so flat; I think it may have been the consistency of my meringue and almond paste mix and that’s definitely something I could tweak if I was to make them again.
However, I think I’ll leave macarons to the professionals.
New Experiences Can Teach Us A Lot About Ourselves
As I’ve been trying 52 new things a year since 2018, I’ve been discovering the many ways new experiences can positively impact us.
Making macarons from scratch is an experience that can help us to practice focusing and following instructions, and can help us to build resilience when things don’t always work out as we hoped!
Whatever new thing we try, it’s an opportunity to give the thinking mind a break as we get into the flow of the activity, and ideal for practicing reflection as we can look at what we would do differently next time.
Want To Try Making Macarons From Scratch Yourself?
- To follow the same recipe that I used, visit the BBC Good Food website.
- There are lots of recipes online for making macarons. Take a look to find one that you’d like to follow.
- If you know any bakers, why not ask them for their recipes and any top tips?
Cost Of Experience
- If you needed to buy all of the ingredients from scratch, it would cost you around £15, depending on where you shop.
- You would have quite a lot of several ingredients left over too, so you could make other things from scratch too.
Recommendations
- Don’t make these if you don’t have a lot of time. Even if the recipe gives you a time frame, allow a little longer.
- Don’t multi task. Macarons need care and attention, and you’re more likely to make mistakes if you are trying to do something else at the same time.
- Draw out templates. Take the time to draw the circles on the baking paper so you have a guide of how much mix to pipe out.
- Do a test bake. Ovens are not all built equally. There can be slight nuances so it’s worth baking one macaron first to see how you get on before committing them all to the oven.
- Follow the instructions. To give yourself the best chance of success, follow the method exactly as it is written.
- Take some pictures. If you do try making macarons from scratch, take some photos of your finished masterpieces and let me know how you get on.