Food
4th of July Homemade Macarons Recipe
May
Scroll straight to the bottom of this post for the printable recipe card. Read on for tips and tricks.
Are you ready to celebrate? Because these 4th of July Homemade Macarons are going to make you sparkle! They are the perfect party treat for any Independence Day celebration because the red, white, and blue colors are so much fun.
These homemade macarons are a traditional vanilla macaron with buttercream frosting in the center. And they are impossible to resist!
So let’s make them!
Ingredients to Make 4th of July Macarons:
For the macarons:
– Almond Flour
– Powdered Sugar
– Egg Whites
– White Sugar
– Blue Food Coloring
– Red Food Coloring
– Salt
For the buttercream:
– Butter
– Powdered Sugar
– Whipping Cream
Start by Making the Macarons
Start mixing half of the almond flour and half of the powdered sugar. Set the other half aside for later.
Once the ingredients are mixed, use a fine mesh sieve. Sift and pour the almond flour and powdered sugar mixture through the sieve 3-4 times. A fine mixture will bake more evenly and look pristine. The finer your mixture, the better your final homemade macarons.
Although it isn’t hard, it is time consuming. But sifting the flour and sugar, will create a perfect light textured macaron. Once you are done, set the mixture aside.
Next, in a large bowl or Kitchen-Aid Mixer, beat half of the egg whites with 1 tsp salt. The salt will make whipping the process easier. Start on low speed. But as you blend, you will increase the speed.
When foamy bubbles start to appear, add the white sugar and continue to beat. Increase the speed to medium. Next, add the red food coloring! There is no set amount of food coloring. Some colors are gels others are dye and the amount needed can vary. Just be sure to continue to add color until your egg whites are deep red and not pink. Continue to whip until the color is perfectly blended.
Your whipped egg whites are ready when it’s stiff and sticks to your whisk.
Mix Together the Wet and Dry Ingredients
Blend the almond flour mixture and whipped egg white slowly, gently, and carefully. Don’t overmix, but be sure that your ingredients are thoroughly and completely blended.
Once the macaron batter is blended, fill in a pastry bag or a squeeze bottle with the batter. Pipe them on to a macaron sheet. If you don’t have a macaron baking sheet, replace it with a regular cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
If you want to make perfect macarons, draw 1.5 inch circles on your parchment paper and use that as you guide to fill the cookie sheet with batter.
Let the Shells Dry Before Baking
Do not bake your macarons until you dry the outside the cookie batter. If you bake them before, the cookies will crack and break during baking!
Leave the macarons unbaked on your cookie sheet until the outside of the cookie looks matte, and not shiny. This can take as little as 30 minutes if you are in a sunny warm environment. But if it’s cold and wet in can take an impossibly long time! If you run into this issue, check out the baking hack below.
Alternative: How to Dry the Shells in the Oven
Heat your oven 85°F, or as low as it will go, and heat the macarons for up to 30 minutes. Look for a matte, dry outer shell. Or touch the shells and if they no longer stick to your fingers, it is time to bake.
Bake the Macarons
Without removing them from the oven (if you used that drying method) heat the oven to 300°F and bake the cookies for around 13 minutes. Begin to look at the cookies at 11 minutes to check for the cookies to be dry, matte, and slightly golden brown. Temperatures may vary so times can vary too!
Let the macarons cool completely before removing them from the cookie sheet. They will have the perfect taste if you let them rest for 24 hours before serving, but who can wait that long?!?
Repeat the Steps Above with the Blue Coloring
Remember how we used only HALF of all of our ingredients? Now it’s time to repeat the process using the blue food coloring instead of the red. Again, there is not set amount of food dye. Just add enough blue to get a deep, rich hue and a blue that’s not too light.
The reason that I recommend mixing and blending the 2 colors separately is that creating and drying the shell and then baking them is a multi step process. What you don’t want is macaron batter to just sit around before baking.
However, if you can work quickly, and have multiple cookie sheets, you can absolutely mix all the macaron ingredients at once, then split the batter into 2 halves to dye them separately. Then bake them together or in succession.
Now it’s time to make the buttercream frosting, which is so easy in comparison to the cookies!
How to Make the Buttercream Frosting
In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter until smooth and creamy.
Add the powdered sugar 1/3 cup at a time until all the powdered sugar is added. Continue to beat as you mix in the powdered sugar.
Next, add the whipping cream and continue to beat until creamy, smooth and blended.
Pipe the Buttercream Between 2 Macaron Shells
The last step to finished 4th of July Homemade Macarons is to pipe the buttercream frosting between the macaron cookies.
Before you do this, be sure that the macarons have cooled completely and are removed from the parchment or macaron baking sheet.
I prefer to use a piping bag because the macaron shells are so delicate. Because you won’t see the buttercream much, you can use any piping nozzle you prefer!
Pipe about a quarter sized amount between the cookie layers and press a red and blue cookie to each. I made my colors mix and match between red, white, and blue. But you could also make fully red macarons and fully blue macarons too!
And viola! 4th of July Homemade Macarons that are irresistible for any 4th of July party! Because these macarons can rest before serving, you can make them up to several days in advance of any party.
How to Store 4th of July Homemade Macarons
Store your macarons in an air-tight container and storing in the fridge is an absolute must! They will keep for several days, and longer than most cookies.
Because the buttercream frosting will harden, allow your cookies to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes or longer before serving from the fridge.
4th of July Homemade Macarons Recipe
Ingredients
For the Macarons:
- 1 cup and 2 tbsp almond flour
- 1 cup and 3 tbsp powdered sugar
- 4 oz egg white
- 2 tbsp and 1 tsp of white sugar
- blue food coloring
- red food coloring
- 1 tsp salt
For the Buttercream:
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp whipping cream
Instructions
For the macarons:
- Start by mixing half of the almond flour and half of the powdered sugar. Use the 2nd half of the almond flour and powdered for a 2nd batch with a 2nd color later.
- Sift the ingredients together through a fine mesh sieve at least 3 to 4 times. Although you can sift the mixture just 1 or 2 times, it may be hard to remove all the largest pieces of almond. And, the finer your mixture, the better your 4th of July macarons will be! This step will help them be more uniform, lighter, and bake evenly. Although this step isn't is the hardest step it will take the most time.
- Once the ingredients are sifted, set the mixture aside.
- In a large bowl, beat half of the egg whites (2 ounces) with 1/2 tsp salt on low.
- As foamy bubbles appear, add the white sugar and continue beating. Now raise the speed to medium.
- Next add red food coloring. Continue to whip until the color is even and perfectly blended. Continue to whip the egg whites until it is stiff and sticks to your whisk.
- Add the almond flour mixture slowly to the whipped egg whites. Gently fold in the almond flour mixture in a slow circular motion. Be gentle and don't overmix.
- Once the batter is thoroughly mixed, fill in a pastry bag or squeeze tube and pipe them onto a macaron sheet. If you don't have a macaron sheet, cover a regular cookie sheet with parchment. For an extra touch, draw 1.5 inch circles on the parchment sheet and fill the circles perfectly with macaron batter.
- Do not bake the macarons until the outside of the cookie dries forming a shell coating. Otherwise, the top of the cookie will break while baking. This process can take 30 minutes on a sunny day, or even up to 2 to 3 days with wet, dark and cold weather.
- Alternative: If you are in a cold and wet environment, you can dry your cookies and get them ready to bake. Place them in an oven approximately 85°F for 30 minutes. Touch the shells. If they don't stick to your fingers, they're ready to bake.
- Without removing them, heat your oven to 300°F and bake for around 13 minutes. It could take between 11-15 minutes, so carefully watch the cookies to crisp and for the tops to lightly brown.
- Take them out of the oven and let them cool completely before removing them from the parchment.
- Repeat these steps with the 2nd half of the ingredients. But this time replace the red food coloring with blue. Everything else will be the same.
- Let the cookies rest for 24 hours.
For the buttercream:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter until smooth.
- Beat in the powdered sugar 1/3 cup at a time. Continue to beat until smooth.
- Add the whipping cream and beat until evenly blended.
- Add the buttercream frosting to a pastry bag with any piping nozzle you prefer. If you prefer, you can spoon the buttercream onto the macarons - just be gentle and very careful. Press a red cookie and blue cookie together, sandwiching the buttercream in the center.
- Store in the fridge in an air tight container for up to a few days.
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