These sugar cookie dough macarons are for all the sugar cookie junkies out there. The center of these macarons is all edible sugar cookie dough. Not even a little buttercream, and these have just moved up to the number one spot for favorite flavor.
Tools You’ll Need
To make the shells you’ll need a mixer with a whisk attachment, sifter, kitchen scale, baking pans with mats or parchment paper, oven thermometer, wilton tip number 12. For the edible cookie dough you could really get away with making it in a bowl, or in your mixer with a paddle attachment.
To make the shells
If this is your first time making macaron shells I definitely would recommend reading through my macaron shell post here. That will be your guide to make shells if you’ve never made them before. Here we will focus on making the edible cookie dough and assembly. The recipe card is inserted at the bottom for ease.
To make the cookie dough
I chose to do this in my mixer because it was out but you can also just mix it together in a bowl. You will make this safe to eat by heat treating your flour. The easiest way to do this is by microwaving it for 1 minute. You will need to let it cool so make sure you do this a little ahead of time.
You will cream the butter and sugar then mix in your extract and milk. I love using almond extract in my sugar cookies, though vanilla is classic. You’ll then add your flour and salt in and let that combine. This dough is very soft by design. This makes it so it can spread between cake layers easily or help stick macaron shells together! If it’s too dry the shells won’t stick to it.
To assemble
Roll out your cookie dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Set it on a cookie sheet and put it in the fridge or freezer with the parchment on it. This will temporarily firm it up and make it easier to work with. Using a circle cutter slightly smaller than your shells, cut circles and transfer them to one side of your paired up shells. I found it easier to use an offset spatula to transfer the cookie dough to a shell. Add the top cookie and gently push them together. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve.
Sugar Cookie Macarons
Equipment
- mixer with whisk attachment
- macaron mats
- sifter
- #12 piping tip for macarons
- aluminum baking trays
- microwave
Ingredients
Prepared macaron shells
- recipe follows
Edible sugar cookie dough
- 200 g all purpose flour
- 200 g sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp almond extract, or flavor of choice
- 1/4 cup milk
Instructions
To make the Cookie Dough
- Add the flour to a heat safe container and microwave it for one minute. Let it sit to cool.
- In your mixer or bowl, whip up the butter and sugar until well combined.
- Add the extract and milk and combine.
- Add the flour and salt and combine.
- This dough will be extra sticky and a little wet by design so it can be spread between cakes or wet enough to seal a macaron. If it is too wet for you add flour a TBS at a time.
To assemble the Macarons
- Make sure all of your macaron shells are paired.
- Between two pieces of parchment, roll out your cookie dough to the thickness you'll want it in the center of your cookie. Leaving the parchment on it, set it on a tray and put it in the fridge or freezer to firm the dough, this makes it easier to handle
- Once the dough is firm, cut circle with a small circle cutter. Lift the pieces with your fingers or an offset spatula to transfer to one side of each cookie. Alternatively you could roll balls of dough and flatten them.
- Seal the cookies with the top cookie. The closer the dough is to room temp, the easier it will be to seal.
No Rest French Macaron Shells
Equipment
- mixer with whisk attachment
- silicone baking mat or parchment
- aluminum baking trays
- sifter
- spatula
- kitchen scale
- oven thermometer
- piping bag with nozzle
Ingredients
- 120 g egg whites, straight from fridge is ok
- 115 g granulated sugar
- 5 g egg white powder
- 180 g confectioners sugar
- 190 g Almond flour, Blue Diamond or Kirkland brand is best
Instructions
Making the Meringue
- Preheat your oven to 305 degrees, you must use an oven thermometer for this.*
- In a bowl combine your granulated sugar and egg white powder and stir so that it is combined totally, we do this so the egg white powder doesn't clump when added in the liquid egg white.
- Measure out your egg whites and put them into your mixer bowl. I like to use the two bowl method to prevent having to waste other eggs if a yolk breaks, the fat from the yolk will ruin meringue. Crack one in a separate bowl, if there are no issues put it in the mixer bowl to be weighed. Then repeat.**
- Add the sugar mixture to the egg whites and get your mixer ready with the whisk attachment.
- Start your mixer on the lowest setting and give it about 10 seconds, you're going to do about 10 seconds at each setting until you hit 6 or medium high and then you will let it go until it's ready. I timed mine once and it took about 6 minutes but the amount of time it takes can vary for many reasons.
- We stop it when it is stiff peaks, we do not go past the peaks stage to the shaving cream phase. When you detach your whisk and circle it around in the meringue you will feel slight resistance, when you pull it up from that circle it will pull and make a peak, when you flip that whisk straight up, the peak will curl over.
- While your meringue is working in the mixer, weigh and sift your almond flour and sugar. Do not force ingredients though the sifter.
Macaronage
- When the meringue is ready, remove the bowl from the mixer and add all of the dry ingredients in. Start moving the dry ingredients around to incorporate it some. Don't worry about the meringue, it will be fine. Once it's a little more manageable, (this is where I like to add gel color drops if I'm coloring it) I like to start spreading it on the sides of the bowl, then take my spatula to collect it all back to the bottom center by taking the side of the spatula with pressure around the bowl and down, when my spatula is at the bottom center, I scoop upwards to see how well the batter is flowing. I repeat this process until the batter is ready. In the beginning stages, when the batter is spread on the side of the bowl, you can run your spatula back and forth over the batter to work out some air. Each time I spread my batter on the side of the bowl, I note the amount of (popped) air pockets that seem to be present. It will decrease as you go. The batter is ready when the air pockets are reduced to few (some are ok we don't want it totally deflated) and when the batter is able to flow off the spatula after a circle and scoop mentioned above. This batter is very thick and will not become runny like a traditional rest recipe. It will not flow like lava, so do not over macaranage tying to get it like a traditional macaron.
- Bag the batter into either 1 large piping bag, or 2 medium with a nozzle of your choice***
Piping the Shells
- Place your silicone mat on your upside down aluminum tray. Pipe one tray at a time. I usually start piping my second tray when the first has about 6 minutes left.
- Begin piping by placing your bag straight up and down, a 90 degree angle from the pan. To end piping, keeping your nozzle at about the same angle, you'll want to make a quick swirl. If you notice that you've made a nipple or unsmooth section, after piping a few, set you bag down and work them smooth using a toothpick, don't wait until you've piped the whole tray because the tops do dry out a bit and it is much harder to fix later. My mats have 3 circle outlines, I like to pipe just past the second, almost to the 3rd circle. You can manipulate how tall or flat the shells are to an extent with how you pipe it, you will get a feel for that as you go.
- Once they're all piped you can tap the bottom of the tray or drop it on the counter a few times to work air out and smooth those little holes over with a toothpick. If all the steps above were just right there will be very few that you need to fix.
Baking
- Check your oven temp, if it's ready you can place them in the oven. I plan to bake mine at 305 for 14 min. I check my oven temp throughout. It usually fluctuates between 295-310 throughout and it takes 14-15 min in my oven.*
- Watch them inside the oven, around half way though they start to puff up and get feet, then towards the end the feet will start to shorten. I like to check for doneness a few minutes before my timer so that they don't over bake (every tray can be slightly different). I check with he wiggle test. Carefully open the oven, gently tap the side of the top part of the shell, if it moves easily it needs more time. I consider my tray done perfect if a shell on the outside of the tray does not wiggle at all, but a shell on the inside has a tiny wiggle.
- When they are done remove them and set them on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Then carefully remove the pan leaving them to cool completely on the silicone mat, on the rack.
- Once they are totally cool, you can remove them. They should release very easily. Especially the outside of the mat. If the ones on the inside has a slight stick, I find it best to bend the silicone mat to help it peel away. If they are sticking to the mat, they are undercooked and you should increase your cook time next time.
- Fill them and let them mature in an airtight container in the fridge. I sometimes have a small gap that fills in once they have matured in the fridge by absorbing some liquid from the filling. A small gap is not the same thing as a hollow and is totally acceptable in a macaron.
Hi! I tried your recipe and I have no idea what was wrong. I know it’s hard to tell me what I did wrong. I tried so many recipes and I can’t find a good one what works for me. My problem I can’t bake bottoms. Top is fine but bottoms are soft.
I throw away so many not good macarons 😫 I’m not going to stop until I figure out it
Hi Lesia! It can be a frustrating process but its worth it once you figure it out! I *think* you may have overmacaronaged. When you try again, do less. When I was learning someone told me it was better to undermacaronage than over, and it changed macaron making for me! I truly didn’t think I was over macaronaging but I was. If youre on instagram you can send me pictures in DMs (with explanation).