Red Velvet Macarons
Stunning red velvet macarons are made to impress! Follow my step by step visuals for these crisp and pleasantly chewy macarons filled with sweet and tangy cream cheese filling.
[I get a lot of questions about this white serving dish. I bought this particular one at a local thrift store, but I found similar one on amazon.com.]
I’m so beyond excited, you guys!! Because I’m sharing yet another macaron recipe.
You know me, I’m obsessed with french macarons. Since you can’t find any macaron shops within 100-mile radius, I make them myself! At home. From scratch. And it’s totally doable!!
I’ve already shared handful of flavors here on my blog, including my reader-favorite lemon macarons and my personal favorite (also runner-up reader fave) pistachio macarons.
And now I’m completely head over heels with these stunning red velvet macarons! Not just for its gorgeous color (let’s admit it, it’s a stunner!), but the flavor is so, so good! The sweet n’ tangy cream cheese filling, crisp and pleasantly chewy shells with slight hint of cocoa and vanilla. I couldn’t ask for anything better!
Tips for perfect macarons
To make these red velvet version, I started with my base french macaron recipe, which uses much less sugar compared to many recipes out in the wild wide web.
I didn’t need to change much though. A little bit of cocoa powder and some red food coloring will get you there. I say some, not a little, food coloring, because it does require quite a bit of it to achieve that rich red color. I figured it’s a special treat and a little food coloring won’t kill us. What’s important is that you have to use gel food coloring though. I love this Wilton one. Liquid food coloring might throw the wet to dry ingredients ratio off. And we all know french macarons are finicky, so better not to change things up, unless, of course, you’re feeling adventurous! Also, don’t even thinking about cutting the sugar, you won’t get the same result.
And lastly, here’re step by step photos for you, but all the detailed tips and tricks are laid out in this post, along with visual troubleshooting guide. It’s worth the read, especially if it’s your first time making macarons.
You can also watch this video on how I make my macarons from start to finish. See how obsessed I’m with macarons? I’ve prepared these series of posts on all things macarons, so you can create these beauties yourself too.
By the way, did I mention you can freeze these macarons? I have a stash of these in my freezer and I actually just pulled couple out to snack while I write this post.
Mmm, you see that crisp shell and full chewy interior?? That’s exactly what you want!
Have you tried making macarons before? I’d love to hear your experience and what challenges you’ve encountered.
Red Velvet Macarons
Yield: About 25 filled macarons
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (100gr) almond flour
- 3/4 cup (100gr) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 large egg whites (about 70gr)
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ cup (50gr) sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½-3/4 teaspoons red gel food coloring (I use this Wilton one)
- ¼ cup (55gr) cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (120gr) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons heavy (whipping) cream
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- In medium bowl, sift together almond flour, powdered sugar and cocoa powder twice.
- In a large mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue to beat. Slowly add sugar one tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until hard peaks form. Add vanilla extract and red food coloring. Beat on medium speed for one more minute.
- Sift the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture over the whipped egg whites.
- Gently fold the mixture running the spatula clockwise from the bottom, up around the sides and cut the batter in half. The batter will look very thick at first, but it will get thinner as you fold. Be careful not to over mix it though. Every so often test the batter to see if it reached the right consistency.
- To test the batter, drop a small amount of the batter and count to ten. If the edges of the ribbon dissolve within ten seconds, then the batter is ready. I repeat, do NOT mix again. If you still see edges, fold the batter couple more times and test again. This step is so crucial, so please make sure to test often to ensure not to over mix the batter.
- Transfer the batter into a pastry bag with a round tip. (I use this Wilton A1 large plain round tip.)
- Pipe out 1.5-inch rounds about an inch apart on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Tap the baking sheets firmly on the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles. If you don’t release the air bubbles, they will expand during baking and crack the beautiful macarons shells. And who wants cracked macarons, right?
- Let the macarons rest and dry for 15-30 minutes. On a humid day, it might take an hour or so. To see if it’s ready to be baked, lightly touch it. If the batter doesn’t stick to your finger, then it’s ready.
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Bake the macarons for 18-20 minutes. To check the doneness, gently remove one macaron. If the bottom does not stick, they are done.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from the baking sheets.
- While macarons are drying, prepare the cream cheese filling. In a mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract and salt and beat until well combined.
- Transfer the filling into a pastry bag and fill the macarons. It’s best to serve macarons the next day.
- Store the filled macarons in airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also freeze the filled macarons in airtight container for up to 5 months.
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8 Tools You Need to Make Perfect Macarons
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I have used your recipe before and it turned out wonderfully! However, the past few times I’ve made it again it hasn’t been turning out. During macaronage, it doesn’t thin out…. just thickens. Any tips on why this could be happening?
Hey, Valerie. This is the problem a few people have, but I just can’t recreate it for some reason. And I have no idea what causes it. To help me troubleshoot, can you let me know if you had changed almond flour brand. And do you weigh the ingredients, or measure them by cups?
The first batch I did change the brand of almond flour (which I thought was the problem). The second and third batch, I went back to my usual brand which is Bob’s Red Mill but the results were still the same. I weigh my ingredients. I do everything the exact same as I have always done.
That’s interesting and it makes it so hard to understand what causes this issue. But thank you for providing more details, Valerie. I just don’t know what to advise.
You froze them???? Ohhhhhh that is exactly what I need, did you freeze them filled or unfilled? How did you prepare them for freezing? Thanks 🙂
Yes, macarons freeze beautifully. I freeze them filled, but either way is fine. You don’t need to prepare them any special way, but I like to freeze them on a plate first, then stack them against each other in a ziploc bags. If you’re freezing for a long time, say more than a week, I would double bag them to prevent freezer burn. Make sure to squeeze out all the air. Hope this helps.
Awesome!! I wanted to make them for a cookie exchange party and I need to make AT least 12 doz and making that many right before the party (which I am a co-host) with all the other stuff I have to make was looking impossible. THANK YOU!!!!!
Thanks for the lovely recipe! I’ve been trying to try different mac recipes out and find my best fit. Do you weigh your ingredients before or after the sifting stage?
Hi, Anna. I weigh the ingredients before sifting. If you get some dry ingredients in the sifter, it’s fine to toss it as long as it’s no more than 2 tablespoons.
Could you try making one of your macaron recipes using the Italian meringue method? All the recipes I have found using the Italian method are packed with sugar, and your recipe has the least amount of sugar, of any macaron recipe I have found. However, you use the French method, which I find to yield less stable results than the Italian meringue method. Thanks!
Hi, Eunice! Yes, I’m working on perfecting Italian method, but last couple of trials have been discouraging. But I haven’t given up. I’ll share as soon as I get the perfect Italian meringue macarons. Hopefully soon. 😉
My color is an ugly brown red it was pink and first so I added for color jell and now it’s gross looking any suggestions??!
Hi, Megan. Hmm, what kind of food coloring did you use? I use this Wilton gel coloring, and never have a problem with getting bright red color. Also I hope you didn’t accidentally added too cocoa powder as it’ll add more brown color to the batter. Another thing to keep in mind, the batter won’t be beautiful red color, but macarons come out bright and red. I’m not sure if you referred to the batter color, or the baked macaron color. Hope this helps.
This may be the dumbest question of all time but… I made these and they were delicious. The only problem is, I would love to make them a more traditional macaron color but the cocoa just makes everything look muddy. Do you think a chocolate extract that doesn’t distort the color could work in this recipe?
Thank you so much!
Hi, Lauren! Not dumb question at all! You’ll need to be careful with adding liquids to macaron batter, because then you can get into troubles! Macarons don’t like extra moisture, but that being said I’ve successfully used extracts and additional liquid flavors in the past. My advice is to add no more than 1/2 teaspoon of additional liquids, since this recipe already has vanilla extract. Hope it works out. Let me know.
I would love to make these macaroons for my boyfriend but he is allergic to nuts. Is almond flour a must or can i use a different kind of flour?
Hi, Janae. The idea of french macarons is based on nut flour, so I’d say there’s no substitution, unfortunately. 🙁
I’ve seen them made with corn starch and with just cocoa powder for nut free people. The most important part of the macaron is the lightly defaulted meringue. Though I would say you should practice with almond flour a few times before moving up to more complicated techniques.
Oh that sounds interesting, Adam. Cornstarch?? I don’t understand how it’ll work though. Is it corn meal by chance?
To be honest I didn’t realize that comment posted. I tried to edit it and then there was an error and I totally forgot. so YES I do mean cornmeal 🙂
Wow my comment was a train wreck indeed. In any case I can email you the link directly so you can take a look. As a macaron baker it was eye opening to see all the substitutions that actually work knowing how finicky these can be.
Thanks, Adam, for sharing that link! It sure sounds interesting and I can’t wait to try it!
Thanks for sharing this recipe, my red velvet macarons were perfect because of it. How I wish I could share the pictures of my macarons here.
Merry Christmas! ????
Aww, so happy for you, Neliza!! I’d love to see the photo. You can submit it on this page. (There’s a red submit button and you can attach the photo). Merry Christmas!
Hi, does it matter if you use unsalted or salted butter?
Not really, but I like unsalted butter over salted for its clean taste. If you’re using salted butter, don’t add salt.
What exactly is “red velvet” about these? Just the color? Is the main taste of these is cream cheese??
Hi, Kristin. To me, red velvet is a combination of cocoa and vanilla flavors, without domination of neither one. And, of course, red velvet isn’t complete without some cream cheese frosting/filling. In a cake, the velvety texture is quite important too, but not in these macarons. So that’s the only “red velvet” thing that’s missing in these macarons. Hope this helps to clarify my logic behind the flavor. 😉
Oh right I forgot about the cocoa! Thanks!
Hi! These look so perfect but I just made them and they came out with no feet and cracked all on the top!! I’m so bummed. Was going to bring them to a pampered chef party and now I feel embarrassed to bring them looking like they do! I’ve made French macaroons before and never had a problem!
Hi, Chanel! So sad to hear yours didn’t turn out well. A few things could have went wrong. Have you seen my Macaron Troubleshooting Guide? If not, take a look, it might help you to figure out the problem. But I think the batter might have been over-mixed, which causes no feet issue with cracked top.
Yes I use an oven thermometer all of the time since I bake cakes and cookies throughout the month. I am a cottage baker so I always go by the oven thermometer and have figured out the hot and cold spots in my oven. It could also just be that your recipe doesn’t work well in my environment. I live in Houston, TX so it’s humid every day of the year. But it’s just weird that I can successfully create other macaron recipes but no yours.
It could be very possible that my recipe is for dry climate. (I’m in ND.) Well, I decided to make these now and will see how it turns out. I’m going to document this on snapchat. If you happen to have snapchat, check it out. 🙂 (My snapchat username is shineshka.)
No Shinee I didn’t have a crisp shell. I had a soft shell instead. Like I said my other comment, they looked perfect so I expected them to have a crisp shell but they didn’t. And I’ll also add that they stuck to the parchment paper so I had a difficult time removing them. I baked them at 300F for 20 minutes and thoroughly let them cool.
I weighed the almond flour and powdered sugar and used cup measurements for everything else. What do you do? Would it really make that much of a difference?
I will try the recipe again in a few weeks because I admit that I did use my larger (6qt) stand mixer to make the batter. The whisk barely touched the eggs and I had to beat on high for a longer time to get the egg whites to the correct consistency. That may be the issue. I’ll use my 4 qt mixer next time.
Interesting! Thanks for more details. I asked if you weighed the dry ingredients to see if those were measured precisely. Measuring by cup doesn’t always turn out accurate, so I always weigh all of my ingredients. In my 4th image, you can see how my macarons had that signature crisp crust.
I’m so puzzled because you said that your macarons had feet and shiny top and everything, so it seems like the batter was right, but the only problem is the texture was off. Other potential culprits could be humidity and oven temperature. Let me know if you give this a try and how they turn out.
I tried the recipe again and did everything by weight this time just in case. I baked about 10-15 minutes longer until they had the crisp shell which I could clearly feel. They looked perfect and didn’t stick to the parchment paper but I was once again disappointed when I saw that they were rock hard on the bottom. I’m not sure what the problem is since I have tried a few other recipes and they work perfectly. Those recipes are also baked at 300F but their ingredient ratios are different. I’m stumped.
Hey, Amanda. Thanks for reporting back. So you baked the macarons 30-35 minutes total? That seems to be way too long. And this time they turned out too hard, not cake-like? Do you have an oven thermometer by chance? I’d recommend to make sure your oven tempt is accurate, most ovens vary up to 50° either way. I have some egg whites in the fridge, I now want to make these again and bake at low oven temp to see if I can recreate the issue. But it’s raining cats and dogs and humidity is too high, so it’s not a great day to test it.
Can the dry ingredients be sifted the day before? Trying to see if I can save some time.
Yes, you can the first 2 sifts the day before and then sift the last time right into the whipped egg whites. Have fun baking these, Amanda. I’d love to see how they turn out. 😉
I made them last night. They looked perfect. Smooth and somewhat shiny shell and good foot formation. But they were too chewy. I’ve made Macarons before and they have a crisp shell and somewhat chewy on the inside. They tasted good but these were almost cake-like and I felt like I was eating a mini red velvet whoopie pie, not a macaron. Not sure if they are supposed to be that chewy but I followed your recipe exactly. I did notice that your recipe only calls for 2 egg whites. That seemed a little low to me since every other recipe I made called for 3-4 egg whites.
Hmm, that’s interesting, Amanda. So yours didn’t have that crisp shell? I’ve never had that cake-like texture, so completely stumped. As for the amount of egg whites, it’s all depends on the ratio. If the recipe calls for 3-4 egg whites, my guess is it probably calls for more almond flour and sugar. Anyway, did you weight the dry ingredients, or did you use cups to measure?
Do you need blanched or unblanched almond flour for this recipe?? So excited to try but cannot find almond flour so I will have to make my own.
Hi, Isabel. I’d suggest blanching it for smoother texture. Let me know how they turn out. Have fun! 🙂
I have to make something around red velvet cake/cookies for a friend’s birthday in August. Saving it.
Awesome. Let me know how they turn out if you try this. Thanks, Aish!
your macarons look amazingly perfect. I bet they wont last long
Thanks, Dahn! They’re addicting for sure. 🙂
Macarons on are my bucket list of things I must bake – you make it look so easy, and they came out perfect for you!
Thanks so much, Kylee!
Wow these macaroons look so perfect! I’ve tried baking them once and failed, but might try again following your recipe to see how do they turn out!
Diana, practice makes these perfect. I have a detailed Macaron 101 post. Check it out before trying again.
You’ve taken two of the most popular desserts of the moment and combined them into one. Genius! I bet these are a hit wherever you bring them!
Sarah, they’re so good! I have some in the freezer and like to snack on daily!!