A deliciously simple macaron recipe with a vanilla buttercream filling, except we are switching up the shape. Heart Macarons are the perfect Valentine’s Day treat!
I’ve been really enjoying baking macarons lately. The last recipe I made was for these holiday-themed, Peppermint Macarons. Now, I’ve perfected a heart-shaped macaron that is perfect for the month of love, or as a gift for your sweetheart any time of the year.
Wondering how you’re going to pipe macarons into the shape of a heart? I’m including a printable template that you can place underneath parchment paper! This way you’ll get perfectly sized macarons that match up to make beautiful cookie sandwiches.
For more Valentine’s Day themed recipes, check out my Roasted Heart Potatoes or make a gorgeous Red Velvet Cake.
Add heart-shaped macarons to a beautiful dessert charcuterie board this holiday too!
Why You’ll Love this Macaron Recipe
- Step by Step Instructions – Like all of my recipes, I’ll give you simple instructions that you can follow to get the perfect macarons every time. This cookie only seems complicated! Once you get it down, you’ll realize that making macarons is much easier than it seems.
- A Printable Macarons Template – It’s important to be sure that all of your macaron shells are the same size and shape, so I’m giving you a simple printable template that you can use to make heart-shaped macaron sandwiches that are perfectly matched.
- Beautiful Presentation – Heart macaron shells that are tinted to a perfect shade of pink are one thing, but we’ll go a step further by embellishing these macarons with white chocolate and festive sprinkles too!
Key Ingredients
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Almond Flour: For making the perfect macarons, it is important that you use FINE almond flour, and that you sift it very well after measuring. Measure your flour and sugars by weight rather than volume for the best results.
- Powdered Sugar: This finely milled sugar is sifted in with the almond flour and keeps our macarons nice and light.
- Egg Whites: You’ll need only the whites from 3 large eggs. You can choose to age your egg whites or not; see my note down below. Allow your egg whites to come to room temperature before mixing.
- Cream of Tartar: This helps to stabilize the egg mixture. Fresh cream of tartar is important.
- White Sugar: Yes, there are two types of sugar in this macarons recipe. Both are used differently, and both are important.
- Food Coloring: To make pink hearts, I used a small amount of red gel food coloring. Pink can be used as well. It’s important to use gel coloring rather than liquid when making macarons.
- Vanilla Buttercream: Instructions are in the recipe to make a simple buttercream filling using powdered sugar, unsalted butter, whipping cream, and vanilla extract.
- To Decorate: If desired, white chocolate melts and sprinkles can be used to decorate the macarons.
Macaron Preparation Tips
You’ll want to review these tips before you start making this macaron recipe.
- Check Your Oven Temperature. Most ovens are not completely accurate. An Oven thermometer will help you to ensure that you are baking accurately.
- Measure by Weight: This is the best way to ensure that you are using the right amount of each ingredient for macarons. This cookie recipe is less forgiving than others may be, so knowing how to measure ingredients this way is key. A simple digital kitchen scale is all that’s needed.
- Age the Egg Whites. This isn’t required, but most find that aging the egg whites used in macarons helps to ensure overall better final results. Your eggs will whip to stiff peaks faster too! This is because aging reduces the amount of water in the eggs. Separate your egg whites 2 – 3 days before making your macarons, pour them in a small container, cover in plastic wrap with a few holes poked through, and place in your refrigerator. The morning you plan to make your macarons pull the egg whites out early to let them reach room temperature.
- Avoid Oil and Humidity. These two things are the enemy of a perfect macaron. When making macarons, be sure that your bowls and tools are very clean with no oil residue. You’ll also want to check the weather. The humidity of a rainy day will make it very difficult to get good macarons. I usually allow my macarons to rest under the hood fan of the stove so that any moisture is moved away from them.
- Use Room Temperature Ingredients. Allow the egg whites to come to room temperature. If you store your almond flour in the fridge or freezer, let that come up to room temperature as well.
How to Make Heart Macarons
Before you start, print out 4 copies of the Heart Template for macarons.
- Sift Flour: With a large sieve, sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together twice into a large bowl. Set aside.
- Beat Egg Whites: In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, pour in the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat the egg whites on medium-low speed until soft peaks form. Add the granulated sugar slowly, and beat until the mixture almost reaches stiff peaks.
- Fold: Fold a third of the dry ingredients into the egg mixture with a spatula until completely mixed. Fold in the rest of the ingredients until the batter can run off the spatula forming a “figure 8” without breaking. Be careful not to over mix the batter or you will lose the air bubbles from the egg whites.
- Pipe Shells: Scoop the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Place two of the heart templates side by side onto one cookie sheet, and place a piece of parchment paper on top of the heart templates. Fill in the hearts by piping the batter onto the parchment paper. After you’ve piped each column or row, use a toothpick to spread the batter to the edges of the hearts and form a pointed top at the bottom of the hearts.
- Tap and Rest: Tap the pan on the counter at least 5 times to release air bubbles to the tops of the macarons. Use a toothpick to pop any bubbles that are now on the surface. IMPORTANT: Allow the macarons to rest in a dry area for 45 minutes to an hour until the macarons are no longer tacky to the touch.
- Bake: Bake the macarons, one cookie sheet at a time, in a preheated 313°F oven for 13 minutes. The cookies should rise and form delicate “feet” as they bake.
- Cool: Let the tray of macarons cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove the pan, keeping the macarons on the parchment paper, and leave on the cooling rack until completely cool. The cooled macarons should release easily from the parchment paper.
- Make the Filling: Cream butter with an electric mixer on medium speed in a large bowl. Gradually add in the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Mix in the whipping cream and vanilla extract. Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip.
- Sandwich the macarons: Pipe the buttercream onto the bottom of half of the heart macaron cookies. Place the other half of the cookies on top of the buttercream to make macaron sandwiches.
- Refrigerate: for the best texture and flavors, refrigerate the macarons for 1-2 days before serving.
If you’d like to decorate your heart macarons like I did, melt a cup of white chocolate melts in the microwave. Use a spoon to drizzle the white chocolate in a line across each cookie, and add Valentine’s sprinkles before the chocolate hardens.
Tip!
This recipe will make two trays of macarons. You can pipe them at the same time, but you should only bake one tray at a time.
How to Make Flavored Macarons
The best way to make flavored macarons is to add flavor to the filling. The buttercream recipe here uses pure vanilla extract, but if you are looking for something a bit less vanilla, you can use other extracts instead. You can also vary the flavor extract in the macaron shells recipe. Try flavoring your heart macarons with one of these:
- Strawberry Macarons – Use a strawberry flavor extract, or add strawberry powder (finely crushed freeze-dried strawberries) to the filling. Another great idea is to make Chocolate covered strawberry macarons. Flavor the shells with strawberries and fill them with chocolate frosting.
- Raspberry Macarons – Similar to strawberry macarons, these can be made by adding raspberry extract or raspberry powder to the batter and/or filling.
- Rose Flavored Macarons – I love this idea for a romantic valentine’s day macaron! Use rose water essence in place of the vanilla extract in the shells and the filing.
- Almond Macarons – This is a simple but delicious macaron flavor option. Simply swap out the vanilla extract for half the amount of almond extract.
Tip!
Macarons can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Helpful Macaron Making Tools
Use this free macaron template to get the perfect size and shape for your heart macarons.
It’s easiest to use a stand mixer to beat the egg whites for macarons, but you can also do it with a handheld mixer if you need to.
A digital food scale is a must for accurately measuring ingredients.
Try More Macaron Flavors
FAQs
Wheat flour cannot be used to make macarons. This recipe works because of the almond flour. Traditionally, finely milled, blanched almond flour is the flour of choice for perfect macarons.
There are quite a few steps involved in this macaron recipe (or any macaron recipe), which can make the process seem hard, but it’s really very simple once you get the hang of it.
It’s easy to pipe heart macarons if you use my heart template. Start by outlining the heart, then go around the inside of the shape until it is entirely filled in. The macaron template will keep you from making any of the cookies the wrong size. Be sure to use a toothpick to create the pointed bottom of each heart too.
These Heart Macarons are going to be the perfect treat for Valentine’s Day this year! Be sure to pin the recipe so that you can find it again later.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Heart Macarons
Ingredients
Macarons:
- 1 cup (100g) almond flour*
- 1½ cups (180g) powdered sugar*
- 3 large egg whites around 90 grams, at room temperature*
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon red gel food coloring*
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vanilla Buttercream
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Print out 4 copies of the Heart Template.
- With a large sieve, sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together twice into a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, pour in the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat the egg whites on medium-low speed until soft peaks form.
- Add the granulated sugar slowly, and beat until almost stiff peaks.
- Add the red gel food coloring and vanilla extract, and beat until stiff peaks form, or you can tip the bowl upside down and nothing falls out.
- Fold in a third of the dry ingredients to the egg white mixture with a spatula until completely mixed. Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients until the batter can run off of the spatula forming a “figure 8” without breaking. Be careful not to over mix the batter, or you will lose the air bubbles from the egg whites. Scoop the batter into a piping bag with a small round tip.
- Place 2 of the heart templates side by side onto one cookie sheet, and place a piece of parchment paper on top of the heart templates. Fill the hearts by piping the batter on to the parchment paper. After you’ve piped each column, use a toothpick to spread the batter to the edges of the hearts and to form a tip at the bottom of the hearts.
- Tap the pan on the counter at least five times to release air bubbles to the tops of the macarons. Use a toothpick to pop any bubbles on the surface of the macarons.
- IMPORTANT: Allow the macarons to rest in a dry area for 45 minutes to an hour, until the tops of the macarons are no longer tacky to the touch.*
- Preheat the oven to 315°F/160°C.
- Bake the macarons, one cookie sheet at a time, for 13 minutes. Cookies should rise and form delicate “feet” as they bake.
- Let the macarons cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove the pan, keeping the macarons on the parchment paper, and leave on the cooling rack until completely cool, another 10 minutes.
- Macarons should peel off of the parchment paper leaving little to no cookie residue on the parchment paper.
Make Vanilla Buttercream:
- Cream the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed in a large bowl. Gradually add in the powdered sugar, and mix until smooth.
- Mix in the whipping cream and vanilla extract.
- Using a spatula, put the buttercream into a piping bag with a large round tip.
- Pipe the buttercream onto the bottom of half of the macaron cookies.
- Place the other half of the cookies on top of the buttercream to make a macaron sandwich.
- Refrigerate for 1-2 days for the best texture and flavors.
Notes:
- Check Your Oven Temperature. Most ovens are not completely accurate. An Oven thermometer will help you to ensure that you are baking accurately.
- Measure by Weight: This is the best way to ensure that you are using the right amount of each ingredient for macarons. This cookie recipe is less forgiving than others may be, so knowing how to measure ingredients this way is key. A simple digital kitchen scale is all that’s needed.
- Age the Egg Whites. This isn’t required, but most find that aging the egg whites used in macarons helps to ensure overall better final results. Your eggs will whip to stiff peaks faster too! This is because aging reduces the amount of water in the eggs. Separate your egg whites 2 – 3 days before making your macarons, pour them in a small container, cover in plastic wrap with a few holes poked through, and place in your refrigerator. The morning you plan to make your macarons pull the egg whites out early to let them reach room temperature.
- Avoid Oil and Humidity. These two things are the enemy of a perfect macaron. When making macarons, be sure that your bowls and tools are very clean with no oil residue. You’ll also want to check the weather. The humidity of a rainy day will make it very difficult to get good macarons. I usually allow my macarons to rest under the hood fan of the stove so that any moisture is moved away from them.
- Use Room Temperature Ingredients. Allow the egg whites to come to room temperature. If you store your almond flour in the fridge or freezer, let that come up to room temperature as well.
- This recipe will make two trays of macarons. You can pipe them at the same time, but you should only bake one tray at a time.
- Storing: Macarons can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
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