I’m three batches deep in these vegan macarons and ready to hand over the baton. I’ve made yellow Easter ones, mini ones with sprinkles, and my most recent batch are vanilla with lemon buttercream. I need a break before this goes too far. As promised, below is the recipe I’ve been using, adapted from the magnificent Charis of Floral Frosting.
VEGAN FRENCH MACARONS
Vanilla & lemon buttercream
3/4 cup water from canned chickpeas
1 1/4 cup almond flour (ground almonds)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the buttercream
1 Tbsp vegan butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp coconut milk (or other dairy free milk)
METHOD
- In a saucepan, bring the chickpea water to a boil, then lower the heat and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes (without the lid on the pot), until reduced to 1/3 cup. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
- In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar, almond meal and vanilla powder until fully combined, set aside.
- Once cooled, pour the chickpea water into a stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk. Whip on high for about a minute, then slowly start adding the 1/2 cup of sugar while still stirring on high. Don’t add all the sugar at once, slowly add the half cup, little by little. Then keep whipping the meringue for another 8-10 minutes until stiff enough that you can tip the bowl upside down without anything falling out.
- Add the vanilla extract to the meringue and whip for another couple of seconds until incorporated.
- Sieve half the dry ingredients into the meringue. Use a spatula to mix together using circular motion. Sieve the rest of the dry ingredients in and mix until incorporated. Once fully mixed, give it another couple of stirs with the spatula, then transfer the batter to a piping bag.
- Pipe 1.5-2 inch (4-5 cm) rounds onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Space them about 2 inches apart as they tend to float out a bit.
- Drop the baking tray onto a flat surface once or twice, then leave out in room temperature to dry for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 90 degrees celsius and bake on the middle rack for 20 minutes. Then turn the oven off but leave the macarons in there, with the oven closed, for another 15 minutes. Then open the door to the oven and leave them for an additional 15 minutes before taking the tray out and allowing the macarons to cool completely at room temperature. (Note: do not try to remove the macarons from the baking tray until completely cooled, they’ll come off easily once they’re cooled).
- To make the frosting: cream the butter for a couple of seconds, add half the powdered sugar and mix, then add the lemon juice and the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until you get a thick batter. Add the vanilla extract and one tablespoon of the non dairy milk, mix and add another tablespoon of milk if the batter is too thick.
- To combine: pipe the frosting onto the bottom of one of the macarons, sandwich together with another one. Repeat until all your macarons are frosted.
Enjoy!
13 Comments
Hi Tina – do you know if the Chickpea brine contains any toxins or nutrients that have come from the beans? or were I can find more information. I have been searching online but haven’t really found anything yet. Thanks in advance for your help.
Hi Ra! Thanks for your comment! The only thing I’ve read about this is that some canned beans may contain more sodium than the chickpeas you purchase dry and cook on your own (cooking them yourself of course allows you choose if you want to add salt or not). Some cans may also contain BPA (bisphenol A), regular cans are lined with a substance containing BPA. There are however cans that are BPA free, they’ll be labeled “BPA free”. So, if possible, always go for the BPA free cans or brands. This article explains a little bit about the advantages (and disadvantages) of canned beans: http://www.livestrong.com/article/546054-disadvantages-of-canned-chickpeas Hope that helps!
You say to bake at 90 degrees.. is this Celsius? 90 degrees fahrenheit seems awfully cool to bake anything. :/ did I miss something when I read the directions? Can’t wait to make these!! They are beautiful!
Hi Kirsten! Yes, exactly, that’s celsius, thanks for pointing out that I hadn’t specified that. I’ve updated the post. I hope you have fun making the macarons!
xx Tina
Hi,
I tried your recipe for my first attempt at macarons. I failed. They were crispy in the outside, hollow and flat inside. I’ve never had a real macaron because I am severely allergic to egg so I had resigned to never enjoy baked goods. Recently, since the vegan trend became so popular, I decided to try different recipes. Do you have any suggestions for my second attempt? I set my oven at 300 F, because 90 C seemed too low, but again I’m not very experienced in baking. Is that the reason?
Hi,
Sorry to hear your macarons didn’t turn out right! They should be crispy on the outside and a little bit chewy on the inside. I understand the heat may sound very low but that’s necessary for these delicate little things as they need to slowly and gently be dried out rather than baked. So I suspect you had the heat too high and that’s why they didn’t come out right, if you try it again make sure you’ve got the oven at the lower heat setting as outlined in the recipe and hopefully they’ll turn out perfect. Good luck!
xx
Tina
I have tried macaroons five times but failed.what to do.should I bake in lower rack or middle rack.and at what temperature.
Hi Bhawana,
So sorry to hear your macaroons haven’t worked out. What exactly is it that has failed? Are you whipping the chickpea brine enough? It should be really fluffy and white and then slowly add the sugar while whipping until you get a big fluffy cloud. The “dough” should be thick enough that you can form rounds on the baking sheet without them floating out. And they should keep their shape and only rise slightly in height when baked in the oven, not spread out/melt over the baking sheet. You should bake them at 90C or 194F on the middle rack of the oven.
Hope these pointers help!
xx Tina
Hi.. I had very bad experience first time with macaroons.. I have used ur recipe .. all came out well but for that lower baking temperature.. I baked for more than 30 min to get the feet.. but I didn’t get any.. then I thought it’s 190C and increased the temp n got burnt macaroons..
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it. Is there anything/any other flavor you might recommend to substitute for the lemon juice? I don’t typically love lemon and was curious if there was an extract, etc that may work? Thank you!!!!
Hi Ellen,
Sure, any extract you’d like would likely work – just use about the same amount as the lemon to avoid it getting too liquid-y. I’ve used vanilla and mint extract before. :)
xx Tina
Hi, I had the same experience as Deepika. I couldn’t get mine to have feet, they were hard on the outside but there was still dough on the inside. Ik you posted this recipe a long time ago, but do you know if there’s anything I could do to get them to cook all the way through?
Hi Hannah!
Sorry to hear that they didn’t work out for you. :(
Here’s a couple of things you could try:
Since all ovens are different (some will be slightly hotter and others slightly cooler than others), you might have to experiment with it a little bit to find the right temperature in your oven. So, if yours came out under baked then I’d try either increasing the temperature ever so slightly, alternatively let them bake for a little bit longer, keeping an eye on them so they don’t start to brown or burn. Note that the temperature listed here is 90C (celsius). I see in Deepika’s comment that she increased the temperature to 190C which made them burn, I wouldn’t recommend increasing the temperature that much, as it will indeed burn the macarons.
Another thing that may have caused them to come out under baked is if they were bigger than the ones I made. These macarons are actually quite tiny, the white ones in the photo are super tiny. So maybe try piping smaller rounds onto the baking tray.
And a final thing you could try is letting them sit for longer than 1 hour before baking them in the oven, to let them dry out a little bit more.
I really hope one of these little tweaks work for you! Macarons are super delicate and sensitive to make, so it can take a couple of tries to get temperatures and baking times just right. Good luck, and have fun baking!
Cheers,
Tina