Festive Gold macaron

This Gold macaron can be perfect for any special occasions or celebrations, like birthdays, weddings, Christmas or New Year´s Eve. Festive French macarons that also tastes amazing; they are filled with caramelized white chocolate that has the perfect deep caramel note without being overly sweet and hazelnut paste with the most delicious natural nutty flavor. The Gold macarons are decorated with a very simple technique using gold glitter that is painted on them.

I prepared this Festive Gold macaron recipe with Caramelized white chocolate and Hazelnut filling as part of celebrating my blog´s first anniversary. Learn how to make beautiful celebrational Gold macarons step by step with the help of this tutorial!

In my macaron tutorial – I shared earlier – I cover all the necessary details regarding the ingredients & technique of making French macarons, the tools you need in order to succeed, I even put together a Macaron Troubleshooting Guide for typical beginner mistakes! Make sure you check my Ultimate macaron tutorial in here before jumping into making these Gold macarons.

Are macarons hard to make?

Macarons are famous for being difficult, impossible, problematic, pain to make - depending on who you ask. If you ask me, yes they are not the easiest to make! However... Are macarons impossible to make at home? Absolutely not!

Tons of people baking macarons at home all around the world, you do not need fancy equipment or years of education to make them. Best thing is that once you master the base recipe, you can make macarons in literally endless different colours and flavours and I can guarantee that your macarons will be the star of any dinner party or family celebration!

Make sure you read my Ultimate macaron tutorial in here that covers literally all the necessary information you ever need to know about making macarons at home! Macaron making requires precision, patience and I would also say passion that will keep you going to practise and test the macaron recipe until you succeed. We love to claim that a recipe is foolproof but if I want to be totally honest with you, there is no such thing as foolproof macaron recipe or a recipe that works for all. Exactly the same recipe can turn out widely different just by changing something as little as few more folds than necessary on the macaron batter – it will turn out too runny and that batch of macaron might end up like pancake.

My macaron tutorial will certainly help you learning how to make macarons by focusing on explaining the process so you can walk on your own macaron journey!

My Top 5 Baking Tips for home bakers

1. Read this recipe and my macaron tutorial carefully including my tips and recommendations on how to avoid and fix typical issues during baking. I know it is long, but there is a tip in every sentence, I promise you will need them to make French macarons
2. Avoid using substitutes and changing the recipe unless you are aware of how to fully reformulate the recipe in order to keep the balance in texture as well as flavour. Eg. reducing sugar or using ingredients not on the right temperature etc. will all have an impact on your baking
3. For consistent, happy baking experience always measure your ingredients with the help of a Digital scale. Cup measurement is not provided for this Gold macaron recipe as it is definitely not appropriate for making macarons
4. Did you know that most home ovens can significantly under or oven run? Also, oven temperature hugely drops when opening the oven door therefore it is recommended to always pre-heat the oven above the required baking temperature.
5. Temperature is so important when it comes to baking macarons and accurate oven temperature is key, can make or break any recipe in particularly macarons are very very sensitive! Make sure you invest into an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer to avoid macaron disasters than can be preventable

Important notes regarding the INGREDIENTS of this Gold macaron recipe

For the macaron shells

Almond and Hazelnut Flour: Macaron shells are typically based on a meringue that is made using almond flour. This particular Gold macaron is made using 50% almond and 50% hazelnut flour. You can skip hazelnut flour and use 100% almond flour if hazelnut is problematic to find in your country.

Regarding almond flour (also called almond meal or fine ground almond) worth to buy good quality ground almond so called blanched almond without skin. Blanched almond basically means that the brown skin has been removed. For this Pistachio macaron recipe and in general for any French macaron 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 making 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. You definitely want to avoid any unnecessary oily almond while making this macaron recipe so if it is available in your country, the best if you buy ready made fine ground almond. I have also heard 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 normal almond flour so not the strange fat free version, almond fat content must be 50%+

Regarding hazelnut flour, make sure you use roasted blacnhed hazelnut as roasting brings the nutty flouvours out super strong so that your macaron shells will have wonderful nutty flavour

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

• For the marzipan like almond&hazelnut paste base you will need icing sugar or confectioners’ sugar . 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 beating up I recommend to use fine sugar, that is normal granulated sugar pulse blended into smaller bits (but not going that far that it would turn into powder 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 Gold macaron recipe like any other meringue based recipe requires egg white! Make sure you use room temperature egg white (fresh!) 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 macaron with that batch unfortunately

Food colouring: This particular macaron does not contain food colouring as it is painted with golden glitter after baking. In general, when using food colouring for making macarons, make sure you use either powder or concentrated gel as the cheap liquid one can destroy the meringue very easily.

Can I replace almond flour with other nut flour in macaron recipe? 

Yes, you can! In fact hazelnut, pistachio as well as walnut flour can make wonderful macarons by replacing some part of the almond flour! This particular Gold macaron recipe is made of using half almond flour, half hazelnut flour

Can I use regular flour for making macarons? 

Short answer is no! Don`t even try it, it won´t work!

What Are Aged Egg Whites? 

Aged egg white is separated at least a day ahead of time to help relax the proteins inside the whites. It helps creating a strong meringue with stiff peaks. There is a huge debate about whether to use aged egg white to make macarons and if so how many days should we age the egg white. You will be pleased to know that this recipe works without aged egg white. Having said that, I don´t think that aging egg white can hurt, so it is something you can experiment with

For the caramelized white chocolate ganache macaron filling

Caramelized white chocolate: I am using Callebaut Gold chocolate ganache in this this Gold macaron recipe- that has high cocoa butter %, tastes amazing with toffee and caramel notes and works wonderfully silky while making ganache. If can´t access caramelized white chocolate, try to make your own by roasting white chocolate in the oven for 30 minutes however make sure that you use high quality white chocolate as supermarket chocolate with low cocoa butter content will only burn and get greasy instead of caramelizing and staying silky.  Callebaut WhiteChocolate (callets) is a good one to caramelize if want to make your own

Heavy cream: Also known as whipping cream, has a fat content between 36% and 40% , the one I use is usually 36%. Avoid substitutes like vegetable based “whipping cream”. Cream is often used to make chocolate ganache and makes it wonderfully silky and creamy

What is caramelized white chocolate and how does it taste?

Caramelize white chocolate is a dream on its own and brings a flavour that makes your desserts super special!

White chocolate can be sweet for some (very much depends on the quality), but if you caramelize it in the oven for about 30 minutes (only try with high quality chocolate with high content of cocoa butter), it becomes a golden in color with a complex and nutty flavor. The taste of caramelized white chocolate reminds of butterscotch, dulce de leche or caramel, but with all the creaminess of white chocolate.

You can either make caramelized white chocolate at home (only try it if using high quality white chocolate) or purchase it eg. Callebaut Gold chocolate what I am using. Callebaut Gold is made of caramelised sugar and caramelised milk and the chocolate has rich notes of toffee, butter, cream and an exciting dash of salt. It is brilliant, really takes your chocolate experience and desserts to the next level!

Hazelnut paste: Beside caramelized white chocolate ganache this Gold macaron is also filled with a delicious 100% hazelnut paste. You can either make hazelnut paste at home by gently roasting and processing hazelnuts until it becomes a paste or you can purchase hazelnut paste (sometimes called hazelnut butter) from store. If you purchase it, make sure you buy 100% paste that does not contain added sugar or oils etc. It has the texture like peanut butter, slightly oily and has a super deep nutty flavour without being sweet (no added sugar)

My top 8 tips regarding the TECHNIQUE of making this Gold macaron recipe

As mentioned above make sure you carefully read my Ultimate macaron tutorial in here before jumping into making this Gold macaron. In that tutorial I share much more tips about how to succeed with macarons in general! Making macarons totally doable and absolutely worth making them at home but you will definitely need some tips regarding the ingredients & technique, the tools you need in order to succeed, I even put together a Macaron Troubleshooting Guide for typical beginner mistakes!

1. How to make macarons – Italian meringue technique

This Gold macaron recipe is based on the Italian meringue method. Once you are in the process of making macaronsyou will realize that although the whole process looks like 20+ steps here, in reality it is literally less than 15 minutes.

I can safely say that making this macaron recipe takes really not much time, certainly no time compared to making cakes etc. The technique part is where you need a good foundation so it is worth to spend a bit of time learning sort of the “theory part” before you make your first batch in practice.

Regarding the quantity of this macaron recipe: it makes about two trays of macaron shells depending on the size and how closely you pipe them next to each other. Two trays means about 22 macarons once the shells are sandwiched together . In theory you can half the recipe but it is not easy to whip up half size meringue also difficult to measure the temp of the sugar syrup if you half it as the quantity would be too small. To cut the long story short, I do not recommend to half this 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 and whatever other funny measurements. It might work for cookies (not really), but definitely not for macarons
2. Make sure you arrange every tool you will need at hand, there is nothing more stressful than not finding the piping bag when you need. You will need the following items: Rubber spatula, Stand mixer with whisk attachment to beat egg white, Infrared thermometer gun or any other cheaper thermometer to measure the sugar syrup, Piping bag with a round nozzle tip eg. Wilton 2A Round nozzle tip, 2 Silicone baking mat or 2 trays with parchment paper, Digital oven thermometer to check your REAL oven temperature
3. Wipe down the mixing bowl and whisk attachment with vinegar to remove any potential residue
4. Pulse blend almond flour, hazelnut flour with icing sugar for 5-10 seconds (not longer as nuts can get sticky / oily ), then sift them together and measure with a Digital scale
5. Make sure egg white is on room temp, you will need 2 x 55g. No need to age the egg white
6. Move one of the 55g egg white into the mixing bowl of your Stand mixer
7. Prepare and measure the superfine sugar (pulse blend normal granulated sugar for 3-5 seconds) and have it close by the Stand mixer
8. Start making the sugar syrup by boiling granulated sugar with water in a small enough saucepan. Please note that you will need a very small saucepan for the syrup otherwise it is very difficult to correctly measure its temperature as it can "get lost" in a large saucepan
9. Start whisking egg white on low/medium, once foamy start adding the superfine sugar slowly, a small amount at at time
10. Boil sugar & water together for a few minutes until reaches 118C-120C / 244-248F. On my stove this takes about 3 minutes but I have a very powerful induction stove, it can take up to 5-6 minutes on a normal stove. You absolutely have to measure the correct temperature either with a Infrared thermometer gun or any cheap sugar thermometer can work. 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. Please note that even a small temp difference can make a huge difference eg. longer or shorter resting time of the macarons before baking. People often fail making macarons because of incorrect syrup temp so this is one critical step
11. By the time syrup reaches 118C-120C / 244-248F, the egg white & fine sugar mixture should be already reaching a consistency of somewhere between foamy and soft peak. If the egg whites are at soft peaks before the syrup reaches the desired temp, turn the mixer down to low speed to keep the egg whites moving but do not whip it up to stiff peaks
12. Once 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 in 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. Please note that a small amount of sugar syrup might stay in your saucepan but it is fine, do not worry about it
14. Increase the mixer speed to medium/high and continue beating the egg white until it develops shiny, sticky, sort of stiff peaks 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 a with the almond&hazelnut and icing sugar mixture. Use a flexible Rubber spatula. First it might look crumbly but it should come together in a minute or two into a thick paste. This step can be done ahead if you wish however you have to cover it with a plastic warp 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 but paste, let´s move onto the macaronage stage of this macaron recipe
18. Gently fold in meringue into the almond&hazelnut 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 paste, 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 to write the number 8, it is very likely that your macaron batter is ready
21. 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, leaves 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 3 crucial steps you need to get right during making macarons: 1. sugar syrup on the correct temp (118C-120C / 244-248F) 2. strong meringue and 3. appropriate macaronage = folding technique that will make the batter into a so called ribbon consistency.

Again, it might a sound difficult and a long process but in practice this whole process I explain in 22 steps 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.

You will need a Piping bag with a round nozzle tip eg. Wilton 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 practise, 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 diatemer should be around 3-4 cm (1,5inch) 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 2 Silicone baking mat or 2 trays with parchment paper. Again, lot of debate which is one is better (or a third option that many people recommend: teflon sheet). My macarons turned out almost identical on 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 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 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 these 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, 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). If that does not help, it means you need a few more folds on the macaron batter next time
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. Make sure that you do not destroy the macarons while doing the tapping process or they might end up lopsided while baking
6. Now onto waiting. You need to rest the macarons until a proper skin has formed on the outside of the shell. There are some other macaron recipes out there with different ratios and sugar syrup temp that require longer or no resting time at all. This particular macaron recipe requires a resting time of 25-40 minutes depending on temperature and humidy. 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 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) neither as that can cause a whole lot of other issues. Please note that for the best results you should make macarons on a low humidity day when your kitchen is around 20C / 68F. Making macarons in extreme hot and humid conditions like in a tropical country on a hot day is a totally different ballgame.

3. How to bake macarons?

Once you nail making meringue, the macaronage process and the piping technique, the next thing in this macaron recipe is baking these amazing, delicate French dessert!

First and foremost, make sure you invest into an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer. Most oven under or oven heat and with macarons, that can make or break the outcome!

Bad news is that there is no such thing as one oven temp that fits all! 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 fan, unless it is a professional oven that you have. In home ovens the air can circulates all over the place that can cause a lot of issues on the meringue.

So how to bake macarons?

• Bake only after appropriate resting time, there should be a proper skin formed on the surface of the macaron
• It is a good idea to properly pre-heat your oven while resting your macarons so for min 25 minutes
• I recommend to bake the macarons 155C / 311F but I pre-heat my oven +20C / 68F more as when I open the oven door, the temp drops
• I suggest to bake only one tray at once then after 15 minutes bake the other tray. Now that means that the second tray is resting 15 minutes longer… that should be fine however if you have more than 2 trays of macaron I suggest to place the macaron batter into a piping bag and pipe it later otherwise they might dry out too much
• 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, experiment
• I bake the macarons for 14-15 minutes but you have to test it in your own oven. They should not get browned in this temp but there should be a feet development already at around 5 minutes
• Once macarons are done, remove them from the oven and cool them on a cooling rack but leaving them on the parchment or silicone mat for 30 minutes. Please remember, they will stick to the mat while they are hot, they are not supposed to come off until they cool!

Should I bake macarons on parchment paper or silicone or teflon sheet?

It is down to personal preference, either way your macarons should turn out well with this recipe

How do I know that the macarons are done in the oven?

When you touch the top of the macaron, it should not move around on its feet. If it does, then they are not yet done baking. However, do not test whether they easily come off the baking sheet because they are not supposed to! They will only come off the baking sheet (whether it is parchment or silicone) when they are cooled!

Do I need to rotate the baking sheet while baking macarons?

I suggest do not open the oven door unless your oven bakes very uneven. How do you know that your oven bakes uneven? Well, you will see it on the macarons! If some part would be browning or it would be an uneven feet development on the macaron shells, it might be a good idea to quickly rotate the baking sheet.

What happens if 155C / 311F baking temp is too low in my oven?

You might see no feet development or that they need significantly more time in the oven to be done. Increase the oven temp by 5C next time

What happens if 155C / 311F baking temp is too high in my oven?

Too high baking temp can cause the macarons to sort of explore or bake in a “mushroom” shape or even crack on the top (a lot of other things can cause cracks too). Or perhaps they will be browning…Decrease the oven temp by 5C next time. If macarons are baking fine but too much browning, lower the position of the tray. If still browning, try to place a tray or parchment paper on the top part of your oven to somewhat “block” the heat that is browning your macarons.

4. How to make caramelized white chocolate ganache filling to fill the Gold macarons

Making the ganache filling for this Gold macaron is extremely easy and quick! It also tastes amazing…and you will need only 2 ingredients!

Chocolate ganache is literally chocolate and cream mixture with endless uses; cakes, cupcakes, tarts etc. As usual, the quality of the ingredients will highly impact the end result. While taste is obviously very important, in case of chocolate the quality goes way beyond taste, good vs poor quality chocolate that can make or break any recipe. I recommend to chose a high quality brand with high cocoa content chocolate to avoid disappointment, I am using Callebaut Gold chocolate that has high cocoa butter %, tastes amazing with toffee and caramel notes and works wonderfully silky while making ganache.

Regarding the cream, I am using heavy cream that has 36% fat content. Do not make ganache using low fat creams or vegetable creams.

Chocolate ganache in general is a 1:1 mixture of chocolate and warm cream however for the this Gold macaron filling you will need a slightly thicker consistency so more chocolate and less cream

1. Place finely chopped high quality caramelized white chocolate into a bowl or use Callebaut Gold chocolate
2. Semi-melt chocolate in the microwave stirring every 30 sec, make sure you do not burn it. No need to fully melt it
3. Heat cream until just simmering. If it’s boiling, the cream is too hot and could burn the chocolate. If the cream is not warm enough, it won´t melt the chocolate properly and won’t emulsify
4. Pour warm cream over the chocolate
5. Let the mixture sit for a minute then stir together or use a blender to emulsify
6. Place ganache into a shallow container, cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate for min 6 hours or overnight. The ganache will set into a pipeable consistency that is appropiate to fill your Gold macarons

5. How to paint macarons Gold

Decoration can really takes macarons to the next level and the sky is the limit! Today I decided to go fancy and festive and paint the all the macaron shells into gold!

Mix a few teaspoons of edible gold poswder with a very very small amount of strong alcohol eg. white rum or gin (few drops) in a mixing bowl. Can you replace alcohol with water? Water very likely would make your macaron shells too wet and alcohol will evaporate much quicker but you can try very carefully with a small amount of water. Even if you use alcohol these macarons are absolutely fine to serve to children as 22 macarons contains maybe 3-4 drops of alcohol that anyway fully evaporate.

Once the mixture reaches a consistency that is runny but not too runny paint each macaron shells with the help of a brush. Using gloves is a very good idea during the process. Please note that this is just one idea of decoration, you can totally skip it or feel free use your creativity and decorate the macarons according to your liking.

The macaron painting will dry on the macarons in 30 minutes then we can move onto filling our macarons!

6. How to fill these Gold macarons

Finally, you nailed this macaron recipe, your caramelized white chocolate ganache is set, your macaron shells are gold, it is time to fill your macarons!

For filling the macarons you will need Piping bag with Wilton 2A Round nozzle tip.

Filling macarons takes again some practise. The general rule is to pipe the filling onto one side of the macaron shell 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.

Pipe caramelized white chocolate ganache around the macaron shells then pipe a small amount of hazelnut paste into the middle then sandwich two shells together.

What happens after filling these Gold macarons? Good news is that you are done with the work! Bad new is that you have to wait. Macarons require about 12h aging time in the fridge, 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.

7. What tools do I need to make this Gold macaron recipe

This Gold macaron recipe is relatively a low key activity in terms of equipment, you really don´t need a lot of fancy tools – instead it is more about precision and practice.

You will need the following items:

Digital scale – For 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 Gold macaron recipe but for every desserts where the recipe states “folding”. While making the almond paste make sure you use a flexible rubber spatula, with the help of that the paste will come together in a few seconds. Then while folding meringue into the marzipan paste, at the macaronage stage, rubber spatula will be again extremely important

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 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 on a certain temperature. You can buy it as cheap as a few euros / dollars or you can purchase a more advanced infrared versions that is a must to use for chocolate tempering. I love mine and can warmly recommend it: Infrared thermometer gun

Piping bag with a round nozzle tip eg. 1A 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 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 piping bag before, perhaps it is a good idea to make any kind of cheap butter cream and practice first

2 Silicone baking mat or 2 trays with parchment paper – You anyway will need silicone baking mat for a lot of other desserts so I can warmly recommend to invest into 2-3 pieces. If it is not accessible for you, use parchment paper, it should still work for this macaron recipe! Oh, very important that your tray is flat!

Digital oven thermometer to check your REAL oven temperature – I would say this is non negotiable. So many of you message me with various baking problems and at least half of these issues can be contributed to inappropriate baking temp. In case of 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

Other useful equipment is a small saucepan (really small one) to make the sugar syrup and a brush to pain the macarons in to gold!

8. How to store these Gold macarons?

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

Once they are filled with the caramelized white chocolate ganache, they need about 12h in the fridge for the shells to soften however with over time they will further soften and can become mushy. My reco is to make these Gold macarons a day ahead so if you want to serve them on a Saturday afternoon tea, assemble them on Friday and they will have the perfect texture for Saturday.

Macarons can be also frozen, I don´t tend to do it but if you are making them in large batch, it might be a good idea.

As mentioned previously please make sure you check my Ultimate macaron tutorial in here that has loads more details including a Troubleshooting Guide in case you run into some issues with your macaron making.

Some more French Macaron recipe ideas for you to try

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 in here

Crème brûlée macaron – 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. Recipe in here

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

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

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