Crème brûlée macarons

Crème brûlée macaron is a dream for Crème brûlée and macarons lovers! This macaron recipe delivers on all the key Crème brûlée attributes without compromise: lovely bite-sized macaron shells are sandwiched together with creamy custard filling while a crunchy caramelized sugar is added on top as decoration. This Crème brûlée macaron is smooth, silky yet crunchy and chewy, full Crème brûlée experience in a lovely French macaron format.

Jump to:

• What is Crème brûlée?
• How hard it is to make French macarons
• Ingredient notes
• 7 Expert tips about the technique
• Equipment notes
• More macaron flavors
• RECIPE CARD
• Crème brûlée macarons

What is Crème brûlée?

Crème brûlée also known as burnt cream and similar to crema catalana, is a super popular dessert that consists of a rich custard base cream topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar. It is popular on the restaurants´ dessert menu all around the world and normally served chilled in individual Ramekin. The custard base is traditionally flavored with vanilla but can have other flavorings too eg. coffee, cinnamon, elderflower, lemon, etc.

Please make sure you check out my Ultimate Crème brûlée recipe, it is made of a few ingredients only really quickly and utterly delicious! Or, for donut lovers, I recommend checking out these Creme brulee donuts from Corrie.

How hard it is to make French macarons

In summary, yes they are not the easiest to make! Are they impossible to make at home? Absolutely not! You definitely have to try this macaron recipe paying attention to the hundreds of tips I am giving away!

Macaron making requires precision, patience and I would also say passion that will keep you going to practice and test the macaron recipe until you succeed. We, food bloggers, love to claim that a recipe is foolproof but if I want to be honest with you, there is no such thing as a foolproof macaron recipe or a recipe that works for all. The exact same recipe can turn out widely different just by changing something as little as a few more folds than necessary on the macaron batter - it will turn out too runny and that batch of macaron might end up like a pancake.

I have an in-depth professional French macaron recipe with a Troubleshooting Guide adapted for home bakers, make sure to check that before jumping into this Creme brulee macaron recipe.

Ingredient notes

For the macaron shells

Fine almond flour: Almond is the base of this macaron recipe. Look for fine almond flour or almond meal or finely ground almond. Worth buying good quality ground almond so-called blanched almond without skin. Blanched almond basically means that the brown skin has been removed. For this French macarons recipe, you always want to use blanched almond flour. Technically you can also make fine ground almond yourself in a food processor, however, you have to be extra careful to process the almond until it is fine BUT make sure that you do not over-process it until a point that the almond starts releasing oil. While processing any nut after a while it starts to get sticky then oily then eventually you end up with an oily cream eg. almond paste that is super for making ganache or ice cream but not for making macaron. It is best if you buy ready-made fine ground almonds. I have also heard from some of my Readers that sometimes almond powder is sold in a sort of fat-free version, I am not sure what it means exactly but make sure you buy fine almond flour so not the strange fat-free version

Sugar: For the best result I recommend using 3 types of sugar at 3 different stages of this macaron recipe

• For the marzipan like almond paste base you will need icing sugar mixed with fine almond flour. Icing sugar is effectively granulated sugar grounded into powder that typically also contains corn starch. If in your country icing sugar is not available, you can either use regular powder sugar or make your own icing sugar by mixing powder sugar with corn starch. Normally icing sugar contains 2% starch so you can mix 98g powder sugar with 2g starch to get 100g icing sugar
• For supporting the egg white while beatingit up I recommend using fine sugar, that is normal granulated sugar pulse blended into smaller bits (but not going that far that it would turn into powdered sugar). Fine sugar is a common type to make meringue, however, if you are experienced in making meringue you might be ok using normal granulated sugar
• For the sugar syrup normal granulated sugar is totally fine

If you want to learn about the different kinds of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article in here.

Egg white: Making this macaron recipe like any other meringue-based recipe requires egg white! Make sure you use room temperature egg whites that are absolutely free from any sort of fat (e.g. egg yolk). If you get some egg yolk into the egg white, start again. Believe me, you can’t make a successful meringue and macaron with that batch, unfortunately. No aged egg whites are necessary, read more about ages egg whites here

Exact ingredient quantities can be found in the RECIPE CARD, at the bottom of this page

For the Crème brûlée macaron filling

1. Sugar: Simple, white granulated sugar is perfectly fine
2. Milk: Use high-fat content milk, the highest you can get! It makes a huge difference when it comes to the deepness of the taste
3. Egg: Some pastry cream recipes call for whole egg however I strongly advise using egg yolk only for the best texture and flavor. You will anyway need the egg white for the macarons, or perhaps try my pavlova recipe. Another, maybe not so obvious note is that the color of your egg yolk will dictate the color of your pastry cream. Farm eggs make super yellow pastry cream, on the other hand, supermarket eggs are usually way paler
4. Flour: Flour is one of the thickening agents in this pastry cream recipe, use All-purpose flour. No, it won’t taste like flour!
5. Starch: Corn starch is the other thickening agent in the recipe, theoretically you could only use flour OR only starch however I prefer 50%-50%.
6. Vanilla: Vanilla is THE heart of making pastry cream! Avoid using artificial vanilla. There are several great brands for fine, pure vanilla, I use Nielsen massey which I love and really recommend. I use vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract for my pastry cream for the deepest, most delicious vanilla cream
7. Butter: Use unsalted as per above. Room temperature is key here. If too cold, it won’t incorporate properly. If too hot/liquid, it will make the pastry cream runny. We will use butter twice, first when making the pastry cream then when making mousseline cream out of the pastry cream

Exact ingredient quantities can be found in the RECIPE CARD, at the bottom of this page

7 Expert tips about the technique

1. Step-by-step process of making the macaron shells - Italian meringue technique

Disclaimer: Macaron is typically a dessert that most people have to try more than once to get it right. Do not expect that they turn out perfect the first time! The ones you see on Instagram or Pastry shops usually have been perfected many many times sometimes over years! I have a Troubleshooting Guide at the end that will make your macaron journey easier so you can fine-tune your technique, ingredients, baking temp until you get it right! Enjoy the ride!

As mentioned above this macaron recipe is based on the Italian meringue method. Once you start making macarons you will realize that although the whole process looks like 20+ steps here, in reality, it is literally less than 15 minutes.

Regarding the quantity of this macaron recipe, it makes about two trays of macaron shells (22 macarons after the shells are sandwiched together) depending on the size and how closely you pipe them next to each other. In theory, you can half the recipe but it is not easy to whip up half size meringue also difficult to measure the temperature of the sugar syrup if it is a too small amount. Overall, I do not recommend half the macaron recipe if you are a beginner.

1. First and foremost before starting this macaron recipe you have to measure all your ingredients with a Digital scale. This is non-negotiable, you absolutely can not make macarons using cups, it is simply inaccurate. It might work for simpler cookies (not really), but definitely not for macarons
2. Arrange every tool you will need at hand, there is nothing more stressful than not finding the piping bag when you need it. You will need the following items: Rubber spatula, Stand mixer with a whisk attachment, Infrared thermometer gun or any other cheaper thermometer to measure the sugar syrup, Piping bag with a round nozzle tip eg. 1A Round nozzle tip, Silicone baking mat, or a tray with parchment paper, Digital oven thermometer to check your REAL oven temperature. Prepare also the food coloring next to the mixer
3. Wipe down the mixing bowl and whisk attachment with vinegar to remove any potential residue
4. Pulse blend your dry ingredients; almond flour with icing sugar for 5-10 seconds (no longer as the almond can get sticky/oily ), then sift them together with a fine mesh sieve and measure with a Digital scale
5. Make sure egg white is at room temperature, you will need 2 x 55g
6. Move one of the 55g egg white into the mixing bowl of your Stand mixer
7. Prepare and measure the superfine sugar and have it close by the Stand mixer
8. Start making the sugar syrup by boiling granulated sugar with water in a saucepan
9. Start whisking egg white on low/medium, once foamy, start adding the superfine sugar slowly, a small amount at a time
10. Boil sugar & water together for a few minutes until reaches 118C-120C / 244-248F. On my powerful stove, this takes about 3 minutes. You absolutely have to measure the correct temperature either with a Infrared thermometer gun or any cheap sugar thermometer. One tricky part is how to measure the syrup temp in a shallow saucepan so make sure you use a small saucepan that actually can give some height to the syrup, that is easier to measure. If you use a large saucepan, the syrup "will get lost" in the saucepan makes it impossible to measure the correct temp
11. By the time syrup reaches 118C-120C / 244-248F, the egg white & fine sugar mixture should be already reaching consistency of somewhere between foamy and soft peak. If the egg whites are at soft peaks before the syrup reaches the desired temperature, turn the mixer down to low speed to keep the egg whites moving but do not whip it up to stiff peaks
12. Once the syrup is on the right temp (118C-120C / 244-248F), remove from heat, wait 5 -10 seconds for the bubbles to calm (be careful!!)
13. Increase mixer speed to medium and begin slowly pouring the sugar syrup down the side of your mixing bowl into the meringue until thoroughly combined. Pour it slowly but constantly. This is one of the tricky parts of the process. What you want to make sure is that you pour the syrup without touching the whisker as that would result in making a whole lot of mess within the mixing bowl including sugar syrup crystallizing into hard sugar shards. Make sure you pour the syrup on the side of your bowl and it will be fine.
14. Increase the mixer speed to medium/high and continue beating the egg white until it develops shiny, sticky, stiff peaks form and as you touch the bowl it is more or less cooled. In my experience, you do not need extra hard meringue as some other recipes state. I only beat the meringue for 3-4 minutes, by that time it is already stable and fluffy but check the consistency rather than the time
15. While beating up the meringue mix the other 55g egg white with the almond flour mixture (almond meal & icing sugar). Use a flexible Rubber spatula. First, it might look crumbly but it should come together in a minute or two into a thick almond paste. This step can be done ahead if you wish, however, you have to cover it with plastic wrap as it can get dry in a few minutes
16. In the meantime keep an eye on the meringue and check its consistency every now and then
17. Once you have your stable meringue ready as well as the marzipan paste, let´s move onto the macaronage stage of this macaron recipe
18. Gently fold in meringue into the marzipan mixture in thirds, making sure that each third is fully incorporated before adding the next
19. In terms of the folding process, it is quite a particular one: I like to think that the first third is about loosening up the marzipan, the second third already working on the macaronage process and somewhat pressing the air out and the last third is fine-tuning the consistency to the stage you need - that is not too runny, not too stiff, the ribbon stage
20. After adding the last third of the meringue make sure you check the consistency of the macaron batter every few seconds. How to check when the macaron batter is ready? When you lift the spatula over the mixture the batter should fall slowly forming a ribbon. Try to write number 8 with the ribbon, once the consistency allows writing the number 8, it is very likely that your macaron batter is ready
21. I would like to highlight that it is extremely important that you do not over mix your macaron mixture. Too much folding would result in too runny macaron batter that makes it impossible to pipe or even if you can pipe, it would spread too much.
22. On the other hand, not enough folding would result in too thick macaron batter that again makes piping difficult, leaving unappealing nipples on the macaron shells. It can also result in unpleasant texture and unappealing look of the final baked product

So overall there are two crucial steps you need to get right during making this macaron recipe: a strong meringue and an appropriate macaronage = folding technique that will make the batter into a so-called ribbon consistency. Again, it might sound difficult and a long process but in practice, this is done in less than 15 minutes!

2. How to pipe macarons?

Once you have your macaron batter ready in the right consistency (ribbon stage) the next task is piping, it is actually a rather important part of making macarons.

You will need a Piping bag with a round nozzle tip eg. 2A Round nozzle tip, or alternatively, you can cut the end of the piping bag but make sure you cut it straight otherwise the macarons might turn out to be egg-shaped. Piping equal-sized, round macarons takes a lot of practice, don´t be hard on yourself!

Using a template with circles can be useful, but even with that almost 100% you don´t get it right the first time and it is fine! Ideally, the size of the macaron should be around 3-4 cm (1,5inch) in diameter, but don´t stress about that the first time. However, make sure you pipe more or less equal-sized macarons so you can sandwich them together later when they are baked.

You will also need a Silicone baking mat or a tray with parchment paper. Again, lot of debate about which is one is better (or a third option that many people recommend: teflon sheet). As you can see my macarons turned out almost identical on the parchment vs Silicone baking mat so don´t worry about it too much. If your macarons do not turn out well it is most likely due to inappropriate technique or baking temperature and not because of the baking sheet. My personal preference is Silicone baking mat over parchment because it is more sturdy, less floppy and with parchment paper, there is always the risk of getting slight wrinkles on the paper that is not the best when you want flat macarons.

OK, now onto piping the macarons!

1. First of all, you should move the macaron batter into the piping bag in a careful manner, making sure to minimalize any air bubbles. Fill the piping bag maximum half, then try to remove any air bubbles before piping - by pressing onto the piping bag with your hands
2. Hold the piping bag fully vertical and pipe with even pressure. Leave some space in between the macarons making sure they don´t touch each other if they spread a bit, also the air can circulate in between them while baking
3. As you pipe, the macarons should spread a little but not too much - if the macaron butter is in the right consistency. In case the macarons are spreading too much, or the batter is too runny, try making another batch and fold it less
4. If you are experiencing tiny nipples on top of the macarons after piping, you can get rid of them by tapping the tray onto the kitchen counter a few times (once you piped a whole tray)
5. Whether there are nipples or not, tap the tray onto the kitchen counter about 5-6x to release air bubbles. Pop any air bubbles that might've come to the surface using a toothpick
6. Now onto waiting. You will need to rest the macarons until proper skin has formed on the outside of the shell. There are some other macaron recipes out there with different ratios and sugar syrup temperature that requires longer or no resting time at all. This particular macaron recipe requires a resting time of 25-40 minutes depending on temperature and humidity. Test by gently touching the macarons. I found sometimes they feel "dry" already after 10 minutes but when I baked them they still cracked so make sure they are super dry as you touch them, and there is a real thick skin on the surface. Not resting your macaron long enough is the most common reason for cracks on the surface while baking so I would say it is probably a good idea to wait at least 25 minutes. On the other hand, do not rest them for too long (hours) either as that can cause a whole lot of other issues

3. How to bake the macarons

Once you nailed making meringue, the macaronage process, and the piping technique, the next thing is baking these amazing, delicate French desserts!

1. I strongly recommend investing in an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer. Most oven under or oven heat and with macarons, that can make or break the outcome!
2. The bad news is that there is no such thing as one oven temp that fits all! The good news is that once you make your first 1-2 batches of this macaron recipe, you will see whether you need to increase or decrease the oven temp. I do not recommend using a fan unless it is a professional oven that you have. In home-ovens the air can circulate all over the place that can cause a lot of issues on the meringue.
3. So how to bake macarons?
4. Bake only after appropriate resting time, there should be proper skin formed on the surface of the macaron
5. It is a good idea to properly pre-heat your oven while resting your macarons so for about 25 minutes
6. I recommend baking the macarons 155C / 311F but I pre-heat my oven +20C / 68F more as when I open the oven door, the temperature drops
7. I bake the macarons in the bottom third of my oven so they definitely do not get browned on the top, you know your oven the best, please experiment
8. I bake the macarons for 14-15 minutes, but you have to test them in your own oven. They should not get browned in this temperature but there should be a feet development already at around 5 minutes
9. Once macarons are done, remove them from the oven and cool them on the parchment or silicone mat for 30 minutes. Please note, they will stick to the mat while they are hot, they are not supposed to come off until they cool!

If you come across any issue along the way, please visit my macaron tutorial for Troubleshooting.

4. How to make the custard filling

This Crème brûlée macaron is filled with custard cream (pastry cream) for the maximum Crème brûlée experience however that is not a kind of cream that is common for macarons due to its higher water content vs ganache for example. The taste of the cream fully reminds of Crème brûlée however, the aging process will be different as usual, please see the notes below at "How to store macarons".

• In a large enough bowl with the help of a Hand whisk, mix together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes
• Mix in corn starch, flour, and vanilla until thoroughly incorporated and have a smooth paste
• Bring milk to boil in a saucepan on medium heat then remove it as soon as it starts simmering. Make sure it is simmering but not crazy boiling
• Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a Hand whisk. This stage is effectively tempering the egg yolks and the mixture should already start to slightly thicken
• Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don’t worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy. It’s worth keeping a good quality (so that the milk won’t burn in it) small/medium-sized saucepan for making pastry cream only
• If in doubt, strain the pastry cream for a lump-free, creamy end result
• Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a Rubber spatula until completely incorporated. It is worth adding the butter in 3 stages and mixing well after each addition

Pastry cream needs to be completely cooled to room temperature before using it to make the filling for the macaron. Place the cream into a shallow bowl or container and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top.

5. How to fill macarons

Finally, you nailed this macaron recipe, your custard cream filling is set, it is time to fill your Creme brûlée macarons!

Once you have the macaron shells baked and cooled, you are safe to remove them from the baking sheet. In case they ended up slightly different in their sizes (that happens, don´t worry), make sure you pair the similar sizes of macaron shells next to each other.

For filling the macarons you will need Piping bag with a round nozzle tip (2A Round nozzle tip)

Filling macarons takes again some practice. The general rule is to pipe the filling onto one side of the macaron then press two shells together evenly so the filling will come out to the side but not more. How much filling do you need per macaron? It is impossible to give an exact amount here, you will see after filling one or two macarons whether you need more or less.

What happens after filling the macarons? The good news is that you are done with making macarons! The bad news is that you have to wait. Macarons require about 12h aging time in the fridge (depending on the filling), within this time frame the filling will soften the shells. They can be eaten of course straight away but the texture will be rather hard, nothing like the beloved soft and chewy macaron texture.

6. How to decorate these macarons

Decoration can really take macarons to the next level and the sky is the limit! Crème brûlée macarons call for caramelized sugar, of course!

Either before filling or after filling, very very gently brush one side of the macaron shells with water. Water is needed for the sugar to stick to the macaron shell but use a very small amount and make sure you do not make the macaron shells soggy, definitely do not dip them into the water, only gently brush them.

Sprinkle the wet side of the macarons with a small amount of sugar then caramelize the top in a few seconds with a Blow torch. Test the process with the first one or two then make the rest accordingly.

Please note that working gently here is very important 1. use only a small amount of water with a brush 2. use a small amount of sugar 3. caramelize it with Blow torch for a short time only

Please note that this is just one idea of decoration, you can totally skip it, or feel free to use your creativity and decorate the macarons according to your liking.

7. How to store the Creme brûlée macarons

Macarons are normally stored in the fridge in an air-tight container and their shelf life is rather a delicate matter.

Normally, when using ganache or curd filling the macarons need about 12h in the fridge for the shells to soften. This Crème brûlée macaron recipe is majorly different from other macaron recipes due to the custard filling. Since we are using pastry cream that has a much higher water content than for example ganache the macaron shells will soften much quicker in literally less than an hour so I suggest filling the macarons shortly before serving. Please note that after about 12 hours the macarons will become mushy. (They become mushy in a few days with normal ganache filling).

I also don´t recommend freezing these Crème brûlée macarons as custard cream does not freeze well. You can of course freeze the macaron shells as normal, before filling them.

Equipment notes

Ideally, you will need the following items for making this macaron recipe:

Digital scale - For a consistent, happy baking experience always measure your ingredients. This is absolutely a MUST

Rubber spatula - Every home baker needs a few good quality rubber spatulas, not just for this macaron recipe but for every dessert where the recipe states "folding"

Stand mixer - Macaron making is a multitasking process and a stand mixer will make your life easier while beating the meringue. I did make macarons a few years ago with an electric hand mixer but it is about 1000 times easier and less risky with a stand mixer. I have a KitchenAid Classic  and that works perfectly fine

Infrared thermometer gun or any other thermometer - Once you progress in your baking journey at some point you will need some thermometer to measure sugar syrup or any other ingredients that need to be at a certain temperature. You can buy it as cheap as a few euros/dollars or you can purchase a more advanced Infrared thermometer gun that is a must to use for chocolate tempering

Piping bag with a round nozzle tip eg. 2A Round nozzle tip - Nozzle tip is not mandatory in case you can cut your piping bag perfectly straight and pipe the macarons directly without nozzle, however, a piping bag is absolutely necessary to make macarons. I must state that no matter what piping bag you chose to purchase, practicing your piping technique is also a must. If you have never used a piping bag before, perhaps it is a good idea to make any kind of cheap buttercream and practice first

Silicone baking mat, or a tray with parchment paper - I warmly recommend investing in 2-3 pieces, I use it all the time in other recipes too. If it is not accessible for you, use parchment paper, it should still work for this macaron recipe!

Digital oven thermometer to check your REAL oven temperature - I would say this is non-negotiable. So many of you messaged me with various baking problems in the past year and at least half of these issues can be contributed to inappropriate baking temp. In the case of making macarons, baking temp is one of the most important factors, and being aware of your real oven temp is as important as measuring your ingredients properly

Regarding the Blow torch, it is really not an expensive piece of baking equipment and you can use it to caramelize Crème brûlée all the time or meringue on lemon meringue pie, to caramelize marshmallow and I even use it for cooking to caramelize cheese. It is really one of those fun baking equipment you might not need all the time but when the need comes, it is so handy!

More macaron flavors

Earl Grey macaron with lemon curd filling – This Earl Grey macaron with lemon curd filling is the most aromatic bite-sized dessert ever, perfect for tea lovers! The French macaron shells are loaded with fragrant Earl Grey loose tea and sandwiched together with creamy, buttery, tangy lemon curd that perfectly balances the tea-inspired shells.

Chocolate & hazelnut macaron – This Chocolate Hazelnut macaron recipe is a dream for chocolate and hazelnut lovers in a lovely. The macarons are filled with silky chocolate ganache and hazelnut paste with the most delicious natural nutty flavor.

Festive Gold macaron – This Gold macaron can be the treat for any special occasions or celebrations like birthdays, weddings, Christmas or New Year´s, etc. Beyond its gorgeous look, this Gold macaron also tastes amazing; it is filled with caramelized white chocolate that has the perfect deep caramel note without being overly sweet.

Pistachio macaron - You just can´t go wrong with pistachio flavor, it is widely popular!  This Pistachio macaron is filled with my pistachio ganache that has the perfect color, deep nutty pistachio flavor without being overly sweet. The macarons are decorated with a super-easy white chocolate & pistachio pattern, they can´t really get any more delicious and pretty!

RECIPE CARD