Strawberry Macarons
These adorable little heart-shaped strawberry macarons are infused with strawberry flavor in every layer (no artificial flavoring)! So good, you wouldn’t want to share!
Have you ever had freeze-fried fruits?
They’re melt-in-your-mouth light and unbelievably intense in flavor! Unlike air dried fruits, they don’t really shrink in size, and they become ultra-light and crisp. I was first came to know them while traveling through Korea. I got a box of whole freeze-dried strawberries dipped in white chocolate at the Incheon airport. Yes, white chocolate! It was heavenly! I’ve savored each and every one of them like there’s no tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything similar in the U.S., and living in a small town didn’t help at all.
One day I was shopping at our local health store, and imagine how excited I was to see a shelf full of freeze-dried fruits. Not the chocolate covered ones, but it didn’t matter. There were strawberries, raspberries, banana, kiwi, mango, you name it! I got them all!! Ok, I’m lying, I didn’t get freeze-dried kiwi. Don’t care for them much.
After inhaling my first round of purchase, I went back to the store and got more freeze-dried strawberries and made these beautiful macarons!! And guess what? You can find these freeze-dried strawberries on amazon.com! Duh, is there anything that you can’t find on amazon? Probably not!
Anyway, these macarons, my friend, are infused with strawberry flavor through and through. In the shell, in the buttercream and there is even strawberry jam hidden inside!!
Have you watched my video tutorial on how to make macarons? If not, watch it now and let’s bake these pretty heart-shaped strawberry macarons.
First, we’ll crush the freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder. I used a rolling pin here, but pestle and mortar, or even coffee grinder will work too. Then sift the powdered strawberries (sounds so weird), almond flour and powdered sugar together couple times.
And the rest is the same as any other macaron recipe. Since I’ve written a comprehensive Macaron 101 for you already, I won’t go into details again here. Go ahead and read this post before you start making the macarons.
To make the heart shapes, I used smaller round piping tip than my regular A1 tip that I usually use for my macarons. It gave me more precision.
I also made this template to create the uniform size macarons. To make the heart shape, pipe the batter as if you’re drawing two hooks facing each other, tracing the template. I promise, it’s not as hard as it might seem. Trust me, I was a bit intimidated too. The macarons were little bit closer than I like it, but it worked just fine. Without the template, I wasn’t able to achieve the perfect heart shapes, so it’s definitely helpful. If you’re using this template, please be careful not to overbeat the macaron batter. Otherwise, it will get too runny and all the macarons will run into each other. Not what you’d want!
To assemble the macarons, we’ll pipe some strawberry buttercream with a drop of strawberry jam in the middle. A little sweet surprise, you know!
These beauties freeze really well. In fact, I’m enjoying one right now as I type this! So very good and cute!
Strawberry Macarons
These adorable little heart-shaped strawberry macarons are infused with strawberry flavor in every layer (no artificial flavoring)! So good, you wouldn’t want to share!
Yield: About 25 filled macarons
Ingredients:
For macaron shells:
- ½ cup (10gr) freeze-dried sliced strawberries (Yields about 3 tablespoons of powdered strawberries)
- 1 cup (100gr) almond flour
- 3/4 cup (100gr) powdered sugar
- 2 large egg whites (about 70gr)
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ cup (50gr) sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Red gel food coloring
For filling:
- 3 tablespoons (40gr) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (100gr) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons heavy (whipping) cream
- 1 tablespoon strawberry jam, plus additional 2-3 tablespoons for the filling
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Place the freeze-dried strawberries between two sheets of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, crush the strawberries into a fine powder. (Alternatively, you can use pestle and mortar, or coffee grinder.)
- In a medium bowl, sift together almond flour, powdered sugar and powdered strawberries twice. Set aside.
- 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 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 are dissolved within about 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 used this Wilton #12 plain round tip.)
- Place the template with hearts under the parchment paper on a baking sheet. Pipe the batter as if you’re drawing two hooks facing each other, tracing the template. You’ll get about 58 single shells on 2 baking sheets.
- 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.
- 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, remove one macaron. If the bottom does not stick, they are done.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, and then carefully remove from the baking sheets.
- While macarons are drying, prepare the strawberry buttercream. In a mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, heavy cream, strawberry jam, vanilla extract and salt and beat until well combined.
- Transfer the buttercream into a pastry bag and fill the macarons, leaving a small hole in the middle. Using a small spoon, drop a small amount of strawberry jam in the hole. Cover with the other shell and done!
- 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.
For additional tips and notes, read the post above.
For more tips and visual troubleshooting guide, check out this post.
You can now watch a full macaron tutorial video here.
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I followed the recipe exactly (except I just tried to make circular ones instead of hearts) and mine didn’t turn out very well. The batter seemed too thick for some reason. They looked more like meringues than macarons, and they got overcooked being baked 18 minutes (they were done at 12). They taste ok but I’m not sure about the strawberry flavor from the freeze-dried berries.
Thanks for your feedback, Nellie. It sounds like your oven runs a bit hotter. Do you have an oven thermometer to double check? Each oven heats differently and the temperature could vary up to 50°F either way. Since your macarons overcooked in just 12 minutes, I highly recommend to double check the oven temp. Also you may try reducing the oven temp by 25°F and see how it works for you.
Your recipe’s are so delicious!!! We’ve made your macaron’s with yummy success! We struggled on this one however. The batter stayed thick. It wasn’t the best batch but they were still yummy and we had a total of 25 cookies. I’m going to try this again and hope to get it right, they are SOOOO good! I weighed out every ingredient so not sure where I went wrong. Thank you so much for sharing your talents. We love making your macarons!
Hi, Susan. Thank you so much for your comment. Bummer that this one didn’t quite turn out. How did you prepare your strawberry powder? I have another reader commented that when she processed the freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor, it was a bit sticky and batter was thick. But when she tried again but crushed the strawberries with a rolling pin, the macarons turned out good.
I crushed them up in a new Ziploc bag and crushed them with a rolling pin. They didn’t seem sticky at all. I sifted out any of the chunks that stayed behind. They are so yummy and we want to perfect it! Thank you for your response and your amazing recipes and tutorials! My daughter did a project on French Macaron’s for her French class and she used your red velvet macarons, they were the class favorite! Thank you!
No amount of folding caused the batter to thin but remained remained thick. It felt like the ratios were wrong somewhere in the recipe. I have made macarons before and this came out the worst.
Hi, Brian. Sorry to hear your macarons didn’t turn out.
Hi!I managed to make them and it was delicious! It was just that the aesthetics of mine was somewhat lacking. Since it was my first time making macarons, I wasn’t sure what I did wrong. My macarons when I squeezed them out onto the parchment paper spread quite a lot, but it did settle properly when I left it out for about half an hour; it also did rise and have feet. However, after I cooled it down and tried to peel them off, the bottom part came off? And the macaron was slightly sticky. Can you please give me some tips and advice as to how to make them better next time or where I went wrong? Thank you so much! (:
Hi, Ada. It sounds like you’ve got couple of issues. 1 . It sounds like your batter was slightly over-mixed, which makes the mixture too runny and causes spreading. 2. Sticking to the parchment paper and separating bottoms indicate that the macarons were under-baked. Next time, try baking them 1-2 minutes longer. Hope this helps.
I’ve had great luck with several of your other recipies but this one the batter just kept getting thicker as others described when I was folding it. I wonder if it had something to do with the freeze dried strawberries. The powder they created seemed stickier to me. I measured it out and made sure I had 3 tablespoons but maybe that was too much?
I just made a batch and same as you, my bather became really thick. I think it must be the freeze dried strawberries because I have followed Shinee’s suggestions before and was successful. I haven’t put mine in the oven just yet, but I am pessimistic on this batch!!! 🙁
After pipping, the macarons didn’t settle, they all have a tip formed on top of the pipped macarons!!!
Would love to be able to fix it as I love the recipe!
Kristin and Nazy, bummer you’re having this problem. No idea why the batter is getting thicker as you mix. Is the strawberry powder dry when you add it to dry ingredients?
I grind my dried strawberries in a small grinder. They don’t look 100% dry to me.
Ok, can you try crush the berries with a rolling pin and see if it comes out dry. I think my strawberry powder was slightly “sticky” when I processed it in my coffee grinder for another recipe. For macarons, I only did with rolling pin, because it’s such a small amount.
Ok, I will try them. Thank you!
Ok I made these again and just smashed the freeze dried strawberries with a rolling pin and no more super thick batter. Last time I put them through the food processor so I guess that’s the difference. Smash them enough but not too much.
Oh that’s great to know, Kristin! So glad you gave it another try and thanks for sharing this update. Very helpful!!
I am wondering – the ingredient weights that are listed is that before or after you sifted them? I found that i had several tablespoons of flour and sugar that were leftover after sifting. I assume that can have a big affect on the recipe either way.
Hi, Kristina. The ingredient weights are for before sifting. And it’s totally normal to have leftovers, but no more than 2 tablespoons. As long as you toss less than 2 tablespoons, the batter should be fine.
Hi Shinee – just wanted to share my experience making these tonight. The macarons turned out pretty well with a few small issues that I was wondering if you could help me improve. First of all, when I took them out at 18 minutes (mine were piped in 1.5″ circles), they were still very sticky on the bottom. The last batch of macarons I tried from your recipe, the macarons pretty much slid off of the Silpat. I gave them about 5 minutes more because they were starting to brown too much. They remained a bit sticky on the bottom, but I tasted them and they have a nice texture and are not hollow. The feet are quite short though. Is it possible that the extra moisture from the freeze dried fruit is what’s causing these problems? I’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks again for your beautiful recipes. PS – my batter piped 44 shells total 🙂
Hi, Elizabeth! Thank you for your comment and feedback. I don’t usually use silpat for baking macarons, because how feed bulge when I do. But since you baked successfully a different batch on silpat, I’m not quite sure. Next time, maybe try to put an empty sheet on the very top shelve to shield some heat from above and bake it longer?
none of the testing techniques worked but they came out with not a single cracked one but they were burnt because they kept sticking to the bottomm
Hi, Nadia. Sorry to hear your macs burnt. Did you use parchment paper or silicone mat?
parchment, which is better?
Nadia, are you asking what brand of parchment paper I recommend? I use whatever I grab at the grocery store, no particular brand.
no, sorry i meant is it better to use parchment or a silicone mat?
Oh I see. I always have a better luck with parchment paper. On silicone mat, my macarons has bulging feet. Check out this post for what I mean.
My macaroni shells are almost flat. What do you think I did wrong?
Hi, ZM. It’s really hard to tell the reason why they turned flat without any details. But this troubleshooting guide may give you some answers. If you still have questions, please give me more details and we can try to find the culprit.
Hmm….I might know why. When I was crushing the frozen strawberries, it wasn’t exactly a powder, it was more of this kinda juicy blob. Do you think that’s why? If it is, what can I do to fix it?
Because otherwise, I followed the recipe perfectly without any other mistakes.
Oh, it sounds like you used frozen strawberries. I was actually calling for freeze-dried strawberries, which a special method of dehydrating that produces crisp and light dried fruits. When you crush it, it turns into a dry powder. Here’s an example of freeze-dried strawberries. Let me know if you have any questions.
Ha! Yep thats it. I thought they would be the same. Are freeze-dried strawberries rare to find in a public store? Like, Walmart maybe? Or Sobeys? If I can find it there, then it would still be in the freezer aisles right?
I think I’ve seen some in Walmart, at dried fruits section.
I had same problems as everyone above. No way that this makes 56 individual cookies. Just looking at the quantities, the batter is basically 330 grams divide that by 56 cookies that’s 5 grams a cookie. That’s a TINT freaking cookie. The batter was so thick it never thinned out. I think with some tweaks it has potential but as it stands this is it a good recipe at all.
*tiny
Hi there! Well, I never weighed the batter, but that’s a great idea. I’ll do that next time. But really, mine does make 56 shells, but you’re right, they’re tiny cookies, no more than 2-inches.
Garbage. Gummy. Wrinkly. Nasty. I knew when I piped them it was way to thick. Get a job. You have no idea what is correct.
This makes me really sad. Not because your macarons didn’t turn out well, but because how insulting and disrespectful you are. I just would like you to know that there’s a real person with real feelings behind this screen, reading this comment. And I’m not a robot.
As for recipe, I can only say that there’re people who have tried this recipe with great success, some even shared photos, which you can find here. I receive e-mails from readers daily with photos and feedback, both positive and constructive. Macarons don’t always turn out great for one reason or another, so I have gotten e-mails from readers with questions and we’ve troubleshooted on multiple occasions. I totally understand your frustration though, because I’ve had my fair share of failures (and still do). But that’s never an excuse to insult someone. I wish the best!
Macarons are incredibly difficult to make, they are not a task for a novice baker and usually it takes a few tries until you figure out the technique. There are so many intricacies that impact a macaron. I am pretty sure the error was on your part and not the recipe. I cannot believe how rude people are. Firstly how finely ground your almonds are, i usually sift them to get rid of the big pieces, that results in the macaroons no being smooth. Secondly, room temperature eggs whites make a difference, and also carton egg whites don’t get a stiff. Thirdly, you have to ensure that there is no grease in your mixing bowl as it will impact the meringues ability to rise. Also getting stiff meringues with a hand mixer can be tough, and you have to ensure that your meringue is in fact stiff. Fourthly, as the recipe notes, the macaron batter must be exact, like molten lava, as she notes they cannot be over or under mixed. Oven temperature must be correct and they also must be dried out a little before you put them in the oven.
Hi, Nina. Thank you for your comment and your tips!
are macarons supposed to be dry and crunchy and also the recipe only yields about one dozen macarons filled not two.
Macarons have thin crispy shell and are chewy inside. As you can see in my step-by-step photo in the post above, I have more than 2 dozen macarons lined and being filled. And I can assure you I didn’t double the batch (I never double a batch of macarons!).
I also got only about 10 macarons total assembled so about 20 shells piped. Otherwise it worked out perfectly.
How big were your macarons? Did you use my template? It’s very possible you’ve got 10 jumbo macs. My macarons are no bigger than 1.5 inches in diameter, so they’re little ones.
Not sure if this has anything to do with Michelle’s trouble, but the recipe lists the almond flour as 1 cup and the powdered sugar as 3\4 cup, but each say 100 grams? Depending on which measurements were used, cup or grams, it seems like one may be incorrect and maybe yielded less-than-exciting macs? Can you clarify on this?
Hi, Jamye. The measurements are correct. The difference in measurements of those two ingredients is that not all dry ingredients of the same volume weigh the same. Powdered sugar has higher density, so it takes less volume to reach the same weight.
Boo hoo! I had such high hopes. I watched the video several times, thoroughly washed/dried utintils prior, weighed my ingredients and made sure they were at room temp, sifted 3 times, and checked and double checked everything! The batter was thick and grainy. At 50-60 folds it was still very think. But, the more I folded it seemed to actually get thicker. And of course when I baked them they all cracked and had no feet. Also, it only yielded 21 (individual, not assembled). Where did I go wrong?! 🙁
Hi, Michelle. So sorry to hear yours didn’t turn out, but I hope you didn’t give up. It’s interesting that the batter got thicker as you folded. Never heard of that before. I’m curious what kind of almond flour did you use? And when you sifted the dry ingredients, you tossed the chucky almond flour bits, right? And the amount of batter you got completely make no sense to me. You said you weighed your egg whites, right? It seems like you may had less egg whites. So weird. I look forward to hearing back from you.
I had the same issue. Just keep getting thicker. Made 3 times and all 3 thick and grainy. I have better luck with another recipe I use. Pefection ever time.
Hmm, interesting, Jimmy. Have you weighed the egg whites too? But glad you’ve got a trusted macaron recipe. Hang onto it.
Hey just so people know, I live in Ohio, and I found freeze-dried strawberries at CVS for $2 a bag!!! However, the bags are only one oz. But I was happy to know that if I don’t have time o order them, I can find them there!
That’s awesome, Karina! It’s always to good to have things locally. Thanks for sharing the info!
I made macaron last night! However, at 15 mins the macaroons started browning on the sides. Should I lower the temperature?
Thanks
Hi, Sam. Yes, try baking the macarons at a lower temperature next time. Your oven may run a bit hotter.
I have always wanted to try making macarons. These are beautiful. Thank you for linking up to The Creative Exchange. We will be featuring your project this week.
xo,
Laura
Thanks for stopping by, Laura!
Oh my goodness, Shinee! These are gorgeous, and my mouth is watering right now just looking at the pictures. The thought of making macarons intimidates me a little, but you completely nailed this. I really want to try making these. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks so much, Whitney!
So cute!! Come by and link them up at #WelcomeHomeWednesday! Party opens at 7a CST on Wednesday. Hope to see you there!
Shinee, these are PERFECT!!!! love!!
Thanks, Alice!!
They look pretty and yum for sure. I never tried macarons before but love to try it soon 🙂
Indah, you’ll be hooked once you try macarons! They’re so good! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
I haven’t yet tried macarons, but when I do, I am definitely going to do it Shinee-style, watching your videos and tips before I start. These strawberry lovelies are amazing and so are all your other macarons.
Thank you so much, Laura! 🙂