Strawberry Macarons (with Video)
Valentine’s Day is around the corner and even if you’re not a huge fan of the holiday you’re going to love sharing a batch of these Strawberry Macarons with your loved ones!
After making Raspberry Macarons, we didn’t have much issue adapting the recipe for these naturally flavored Strawberry Macarons.
Strawberry Macarons
I love the sweet strawberry buttercream filling and the soft crunchy exterior of these beautiful strawberry cookies! Call me biased, but I think Strawberry Macarons are the perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day with their pretty color, delicate taste and French roots.
Macarons have developed an intimidating reputation, but there is no reason to avoid trying to make a batch. I think the main reason why people run into issues with macaron recipes is that they fail to precisely follow the directions. While you can wing it when it comes to more simple recipes, I really encourage you to take the time and follow this recipe step-by-step. I even provided a free printable that you can take into the kitchen with you (you can find it at the bottom of this post) and a video showing step-by-step how the batter should look at every stage of this recipe.
Things like tapping the baking sheet to get the air out of the cookie batter and using room temperature ingredients (including the eggs) will make or break this recipe. Take your time with these little beauties and you will be well rewarded!
(Also, please do not “hack” the eggs by adding cream of tartar so that they froth up faster – this chemical reaction alters the integrity of the macaron dough and is the main reason why macaron recipes fail.)
Now, using strawberry emulsion in these cookies is tricky and I don’t recommend it if you are new to baking macarons. Instead, use it (or jam) in the filling and skip using it in the cookies. Strawberry powder is a much easier way to add a strong (and natural) strawberry flavor to these cookies – and I actually think the flavor is much better. (The jam is more readily accessible, but if you don’t want to wait for natural strawberry powder to be delivered to your house, feel free to use something like Strawberry Nesquick powder – just remove the equivalent amount of sugar from the recipe).
I am preparing a macaron trouble-shooting guide for macarons, but for now this blog post is a great resource.
Check out our quick video for how to make these strawberry heart macarons and then don’t forget to scroll down to grab your free printable recipe to make these yourself!
Ingredients to Make Strawberry Macarons
- Powdered icing sugar
- Almond flour or almond meal
- Sea Salt
- Large egg whites, room temperature
- Cream of tartar, optional if very humid
- Granulated sugar
- Strawberry powder
- Powdered pink food coloring, optional
Filling Ingredients:
- Unsalted butter, softened
- Powdered icing sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Strawberry puree/compote (jam in a pinch)
Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.
Tip: you will get a more vibrant color if you use powdered or gel food coloring – avoid liquids. You can use strawberry powder if you prefer for a more pronounced flavor.
Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful:
- Silicone Baking Mat
- Cookie trays
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Stand mixer
- Silicone spatula <– I prefer this kind where the head is not removable
- Round piping tip and piping bag
Strawberry Macaron Recipe
Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Put powdered sugar, almond flour, and salt in a food processor and pulse several times until all of the ingredients are fine and well combined. You can’t over mix this mixture because there is no flour! Place in a large bowl and set aside.
Place the whisk attachment on your mixer, and beat the eggs on medium speed until opaque and foamy. You’ll want to see a double in volume for your eggs. Add a pinch of cream of tartar (if using – again, I don’t advise this), increase the speed to medium high, continue to beat until the egg whites are white in color and hold the line of the whisk. You should be able to see soft peaks in your whites.
With the mixer running, slowly add the granulated sugar, until stiff peaks form, and the whites are shiny, about 2 minutes.
Remove 1 cup of the mixture and stir in the strawberry powder (or emulsion), then carefully fold back into the egg-sugar mixture.
Using a silicone spatula, gently fold the dry mixture with the egg whites in 1 cup increments until the dry ingredients are just combined.
Spoon half of batter into pastry bag fitted with 1/2-inch plain round tip. (Or a large ziplock bag which you can cut the corner off of.) Pipe batter onto each prepared sheet in 12 walnut-size mounds, spaced 3″ apart because cookies will spread slightly.
Tap the cookie sheets flat against the counter – you want to get any possible air bubbles out of the cookie batter before baking. This is an important step! Don’t run through getting as many of the bubbles out as you can.
Let the cookies dry for 20 minutes before preheating the oven to 350F
Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until firm to touch in center, about 14 minutes. You may want to rotate your cookie sheets midway through baking to ensure even cooking (imperative with macarons).
Immediately slide the parchment paper off of the baking sheet to cool to prevent burning. Leaving the cookies on the hot baking sheet will continue to cook them past taking them out of the oven.
Strawberry Filling Recipe
Using a mixer, cream butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla and strawberry puree. Beat until combined. Place in a piping bag with a small round tip, like a #5.
Assemble your cookies by matching cookies with similar sizes (diameters). Pipe a small amount of strawberry buttercream into the center of one cookie, and sandwich with it’s other half.
There will always be a couple Strawberry Macarons that just don’t turn out – and that’s okay. I think they’re the perfect excuse for a taste test!
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Strawberry Macarons
Don't miss out on these delicious Stawberry Macarons with their airy, chewy texture inside with a soft crunch exterior. Perfect to make for the love in our life or share them with your kids! Study At Home Mama has special tips to make these yummy macarons turn out just perfect. The perfect Valentine's Day cookie recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 cups powdered icing sugar
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 3 large egg whites, room temperature
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1-2 Tablespoons strawberry powder*
- Powdered pink food coloring, optional
Filling Ingredients:
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cup powdered icing sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-1 1/2 Tablespoon strawberry puree/syrup (jam in a pinch)
Instructions
- Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Put powdered sugar, almond flour, and salt in a food processor and pulse several times until all of the ingredients are fine and well combined. You can't over mix this mixture because there is no flour! Place in a large bowl and set aside.
- Place the whisk attachment on your mixer, and beat the eggs on medium speed until the egg whites are white in color and hold the line of the whisk. You should be able to see soft peaks in your whites and when you take the whisk out the eggs stick to it like marshmallows and don't drip down.
- With the mixer running, slowly add the granulated sugar, until stiff peaks form, and the whites are shiny, about 2 minutes.
- Remove 1 cup of the mixture and stir in the strawberry powder or jam, then carefully fold back into the egg-sugar mixture.
- Using a silicone spatula, gently fold the dry mixture with the egg whites in 1 cup increments until the dry ingredients are just combined.
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Spoon half of batter into pastry bag fitted with 1/2-inch plain round tip. (Or a large ziplock bag which you can cut the corner off of.) Pipe batter onto each prepared sheet in 12 walnut-size mounds, spaced 3" apart because cookies will spread slightly.
- Tap the cookie sheets flat against the counter - you want to get any possible air bubbles out of the cookie batter before baking. This is an important step! Don't run through getting as many of the bubbles out as you can.
- Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until firm to touch in center, about 14 minutes. You may want to rotate your cookie sheets midway through baking to ensure even cooking (imperative with macarons).
- Immediately slide the parchment paper off of the baking sheet to cool to prevent burning. Leaving the cookies on the hot baking sheet will continue to cook them past taking them out of the oven.
Strawberry Filling Recipe
- Using a mixer, cream butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and strawberry puree. Beat until combined. Place in a piping bag with a small round tip, like a #5.
- Assemble your cookies by matching cookies with similar sizes (diameters). Pipe a small amount of strawberry buttercream into the center of one cookie, and sandwich with it's other half.
- There will always be a couple Strawberry Macarons that just don't turn out - and that's okay. I think they're the perfect excuse for a taste test!
Notes
*while I have successfully made these macarons with a strawberry reduction, the easiest method is using strawberry powder. If strawberry powder is unavailable, you can finely grind dehydrated strawberries to substitute.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
36Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 95Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 7mgSodium: 21mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 0gSugar: 13gProtein: 1g
Sugar, Spice and Glitter uses an auto-generate nutrition calculator. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate unless analyzed in a scientific lab, so these should be considered more of a guideline than medical information.
This Strawberry Macaron recipe is incredibly easy to make and makes a beautiful homemade gift!
For more delicious strawberry desserts, check out our Fool-proof Strawberry Tart Recipe or our Strawberry Shortcake recipe.
Check out our other delicious Cookie Recipes:
Awesome job!! I tried making macarons a few times and failed – miserably. I really need to give it another go, because they always looks so awesome and fun!Am used to buying french macarons I will have to give this recipe a try, maybe! 🙂
How many does this make?
How many does this make?
Sorry for the delay – the recipe makes about 40 macarons.
I made this and followed the instructions very carefully but they did not turn out well. The dough was thinner than I expected. Was I supposed to chill it? It baked much more quickly than expected. I set the timer for 7 min so I could turn them around and they looked done, starting to crack, browning a bit. So I took the first batch out. The second tray I set for 4 min then turned and set for 4 min. They looked like the first batch but I thought I would try to bake them longer. I gave them another 4 min but they then looked over cooked. They were very sweet when all iced but they were much more flat than your video.
For the strawberry puree should I cook the strawberries or make it raw?
Yeah, 14 minutes to bake them was waaaayyy to long. After 8 minutes they were burnt. They also expanded triple their original size??? Why??? The only thing that turned out was the filling.
You’re also supposed to let the shells sit for about 30 minutes before you bake. Look up French macaroons for beginners. It is a very temperamental recipe.
The recipe sucks don’t waste your time it took us 3 hours just to make the buttercream and mixer! The cook time was so wrong they was burned in like 4 minutes!! 1 star!! Zero if I could
Hi Bella,
I understand that you are frustrated and spent a lot of time on a recipe that did not turn out, but this was just unkind.
Macarons are a highly technical recipe and often, your first couple of batches will end up being perfect for Eton Messes.
It sounds like you over-mixed your batter. Also, I say very clearly in the recipe to not attempt this on a humid day. Unless you have amazing humidity control and air conditioning in your kitchen, making these on a super humid day (which it was in Warren, Ohio that week), is not going to result in good macarons.
I’m always happy to help people work through issues with my recipes because I want people to walk away happy. I’ve even added videos to show what the textures should look like at each step. I hope you give macarons another try, but pay attention to how much you are mixing it. I do the final mix by hand and many experts will not do more than 40 strokes. You want it to flow off of the spoon like lava.
I tried these twice and failed miserably! Im not sure what I’m doing wrong but I will attempt them again soon.
With your almond flour, do you use bleached or unbleached?
Do you find that using the powdered strawberries rather than jam makes the consistency a little more dry?
Would t be similar to sift the dry ingredients than pulsing them in the food processor? I ask because I found my dry ingredients came out kinda lumpy because they stuck to the bottoms / sides of the food processor.
TIA
Hi Danielle,
I used unbleached almond flour (Bob’s Mill brand, usually). The powdered strawberries are a better option and more consistent with results.
Sifting the ingredients would work just as well, so do whichever is easier.
Did you watch the video? Did your eggs and batter look like mine throughout the preparation process?
Definitely feel free to e-mail me the picture and I can try to figure it out for you. jennifer at sugarspiceandglitter.com
Hi, two questions:
1. If using powder instead of jam, how much should I used for the actual cookie? I have the powder but I know density is quite different and don’t want to over flavor them.
2. Why only half of the mixture in the piping bag? Is that just half for each baking sheet?
THANKS!
Also, because I forgot to mention it, I do have pictures of what they look like if that’d help?
hi there, I always love trying new recipes. I typically make my fruity macaroons with a few tablespoons of fruit coulis or reductions(strained). I wanted to try this recipe because it uses strawberry powder. I saw a similar results as the reviews above. spread way too much and began burning after 5 to 6 minutes. I had folded ( J- strokes is my technique, measuring pace of flow when lifting spatula up) to not over mix the batter. It felt a little thick but ran off the spatula in a continuous slow motion when lifted . I allowed to sit for 30 minutes, checking for the skin every few minutes after 20 minutes. I think the powder sugar to flour ratio is off, that would explain the spread and quick caramelizing effect. I will try reducing powdered sugar by half….
Please let me know!
I’ve had lots of people on Pinterest and Instagram have great results – and just a couple weeks ago someone used this recipe in a Facebook group I’m in and showed a picture of how great hers turned out.
I have no idea why the results are varying so much! Ideally, I’d have the measurements by weight but most of us simply don’t bake that way.
The macarons did not turn out well at all. I followed the instructions very very carefully, but the batter was super thin and runny, and it didn’t rise at all. I am super disappointed with the 2 hours I spent, and it doesn’t work out. It said 14 min, but they were burnt at 7 min. Overall, they do taste good! And, I appreciate the kindness of this website. I will still be cooking from this website:)
My daughter and I just tried these for the first time and it went about like we expected. We put them in for 4 minutes to start and then switched the trays and set the timer for another 4 minutes. We checked on them 2 minutes later and the outsides were starting to brown so we took them out. They developed the feet so we were excited about that. They were hard to get off the baking mat. I have 2 questions.
1. They were a little burnt on the bottom but not completely done on the inside. Any suggestions?
2. We had trouble getting them off the baking mat. Should we get them off the mat as soon as we transfer the baking mat to the cooling rack or wait until they cool?
hi there been baking macarons for past 8 ish months. I love trying new techniques, etc. These came out too wet..I waited for a day with low humidity as well. I’m thinking extra almond flour may be needed to absorb the Strawberry puree.
Hi Adam,
Yes – that’s a great point. It’s tricky because for this recipe (or any macaron recipe) to work, you really need to know what standard macaron batter should look like before piping, so if the batter is too wet you need to know that by looking at it and adjust accordingly. There is also such a variance in strawberry emulsions/jams, so I now recommend just using a strawberry powder and saving the jam for filling.
I’ve added a recipe video using strawberry powder but will be adding one showing the method using strawberry emulsion in coming year.
tried this and had the same outcome as the others. if everyone else is having such a rough time, I suggest it’s the recipe’s fault. You should try this recipe again yourself and adjust it.
Actually, I get tagged on Instagram and Pinterest all the time by people having had success with the recipe – with the pictures to prove it.
Most of the people who have issues in the comments here are trying the jam method which I’ve amended the post and recipe to not recommend because it is so finnicky… yet, people still try that method instead of the recommended strawberry powder. I’ve made the recipe multiple times – and even provided a how-to video.
I also used a very wet jam but will try it with strawberry powder, maybe if you feel strongly that you shouldn’t put jam in it, put the powder instead in the ingredients list.
Stick with this recipe! Tried this 3 times. On my first try they did not unstick from parchment paper. Second try they had a dent. 3rd time I read the recipe proply and the humidity tip helped. I put a fan in my kitchen and they turnt out perfect
I’m so glad they eventually turned out and thank you so much for encouraging others and sticking it out!
Jam version was undercooked and gross, but strawberry powder version was great. Shouldn’t offer both versions.
Hi Sydney,
I’m sorry you experienced issues with the jam version but appreciate you trying out the strawberry powder version and glad it turned out better!
These strawberry macarons look absolutely delicious! I love the combination of sweet and tart flavors in this recipe. Can’t wait to try it out at home!
Thank you, I hope you love them!
I had gotten a macaron how to book and my macarons came out awful, in the same day, I tried this recipe because I couldn’t find strawberry powder and my macarons came out up beautiful. Thank you!
I’m so glad to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to leave me a comment ♥︎