Easy DIY Macarons

While an impromptu trip to Paris might sound magical, you don’t have to leave your kitchen to take a bite of the city’s most sought after treat: French macarons. Follow this video guide to whip up these photo-worthy sandwich cookies right in your own home.

What You’ll Need:

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• Cookie flavors
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon strawberry preserves
• Filling flavors
  • 1/4 cup Marzetti® Chocolate Fruit Dip
  • 1/4 cup Marzetti® Salted Caramel Dip
  • 1/4 cup Marzetti® Strawberry Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
  • 1/4 cup Marzetti® Light French Vanilla Yogurt Fruit Dip
• Baking sheet(s)
• Parchment or silicone baking mat(s)
• Fine-mesh sieve
• Pastry bag(s) with 1/4” round tip
• Handheld mixer

Tip: Use a new pastry bag (with tip) for each filling flavor.

How to Bake the Cookies:

1. Combine confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl.
2. Sieve the mixture into a larger bowl to remove any clumps.
3. Mix the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt with a hand mixer.
4. Beat the egg white mixture until it turns an opaque white, then add the superfine sugar gradually while mixing.
5. Blend until the egg white mixture forms stiff peaks (when you stop the mixer and pull out the beaters it should look like the top of a meringue pie).
6. Fold the egg white mixture and almond flour mixture together in a large bowl with a rubber spatula.
7. Divide the batter evenly among three small bowls (if you’re using three flavors — if it’s one flavor that you’re making, you don’t need to divide the batter).
8. Add the vanilla into one bowl, the cocoa into another bowl, and the strawberry preserves into the last bowl.
9. Stir each to combine.
10. Add each batter flavor into separate pastry bags.
11. Pipe quarter-sized dollops onto a parchment-lined (or silicone) baking sheet, about one inch apart.
12. Heat oven to 300° while letting the piped cookie batter rest at room temperature for 15-30 minutes.
13. Bake cookies for 20 minutes.
14. Cool cookies until set and move them to a cooling rack. Continue baking batches with the remaining batter until gone.

How to Assemble the Macarons:

1. Fill separate pastry bags with each Marzetti® Fruit Dip flavor you choose for filling.
2. Pipe a layer of Marzetti® Fruit Dip onto the flat side of one cookie.
3. Finish each macaron by placing another cookie, flat side down, on top of the cookie that’s covered with Marzetti® Fruit Dip, so it makes a “sandwich.”
4. Repeat with the remaining cookies and fruit dip.
5. Serve and enjoy!

While there’s a certain science to baking, there’s still plenty of room for creativity. Try sprinkling finely crushed nuts or a dusting of hot chocolate mix onto the Marzetti® Fruit Dip before closing the macaron with both cookies, or adding food coloring to the cookie batter for brightly colored macarons.