These donut macarons are filled with strawberry and chocolate buttercream and decorated with pink and brown icing and colorful sprinkles. They look just like mini versions of the real thing!
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How to Make Donut Macarons
- Powdered sugar – also known as confectioner’s sugar
- Almond flour – blanched and finely sifted
- Egg whites – at room temperature
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract – optional, but gives the shells a nice flavor
- Powdered egg whites – if you have trouble making a strong meringue, powdered egg whites can help
- Gel food coloring – avoid liquid food coloring because it can add extra moisture to the batter and affect the texture of the shells
- Sprinkles
Donut Macaron Template
I highly recommend using a template when piping the donut shells to keep the sizes consistent. Below you can download a PDF template.
Donut Shaped Macarons
The best piping tip to use for this shape is the Ateco 10, because it’s a bit smaller and you can control the amount of batter more easily. Don’t leave too small of a hole in the middle because the batter will spread and the middle will fill in.
Royal Icing for Macarons
Below is my recipe for a small batch of royal icing with meringue powder. It’s easy, quick, and makes just enough for a batch of macarons. If you have some extra icing, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
- Powdered sugar – no need to sift unless it’s very clumpy
- Meringue powder
- Water – at room temperature
Add the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and a few drops of water to a small bowl and mix with a spoon. Keep adding water, a few drops at a time, until you have a 15 second consistency. This means that when you lift the spoon, the icing should sink back into itself within 15 seconds.
Macaron Filling
These donut macarons were filled with chocolate and strawberry buttercream to match the decorations. If you don’t want two different flavors, you can also make a batch of my classic vanilla buttercream, divide it in two, and add pink and brown food coloring.
Tips for Making Donut Macarons
- Be extra careful when folding the batter – you don’t want the macarons to spread too much
- Use a template – this helps to keep the shell sizes consistent
- Use an oven thermometer – this is the only way to make sure you’re baking at the correct temperature
- Lower baking temperature – donut macarons need to bake at a slightly lower temperature because of the shape (no batter in the middle, so they may brown faster)
More decorated macarons to try
Macaron Resources
Donut Macarons
These donut macarons are filled with strawberry and chocolate buttercream and decorated with pink and brown icing and colorful sprinkles. They look just like mini versions of the real thing!
Servings: 24 macarons
Calories: 130kcal
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Strainer
- Whisk
- Stand mixer
- Spatula
- One 16 inch pastry bag
- Four 8 inch pastry bags
- Round piping tip (Ateco 10)
- Three silicone baking mats
- Three sheet pans
- Oven thermometer
- Bowl for buttercream
- Bowl for royal icing
Ingredients
Macaron shells
- 90 grams powdered sugar
- 80 grams almond flour
- 70 grams egg whites
- 70 grams granulated sugar
- 2 grams egg white powder (optional)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 drops ivory gel food coloring
Buttercream
- ¼ cup salted butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp heavy whipping cream
- ¼ tsp strawberry milk powder
- ¼ tsp cocoa powder
Royal icing drizzle and sprinkles
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp meringue powder
- 1 tbsp water (room temperature)
- colorful sprinkles
Instructions
Prepare dry ingredients
- Sift powdered sugar and almond flour using a whisk to break down any clumps. Set aside.
- Line sheet pans with silicone mats and place templates under mats.
- Insert the piping tip into the 16 inch pastry bag.
Make the meringue
- Whisk the egg whites on medium speed (speed 4) until you start to see small bubbles (this can take as little as 15 seconds sometimes).
- Slowly add 3 tbsp of granulated sugar, 1 tbsp at a time.
- Whisk until you start to see tracks in the meringue.
- Increase speed to 6 and continue slowly adding the remainder of the granulated sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until you’ve added all the sugar.
- Once you have soft peaks, stop the mixer, scrape the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla.
- Whisk for about 2 minutes, or until medium peaks, and add 2 drops of ivory food coloring.
- Whisk for another 5 minutes or until stiff peaks.
Combine ingredients
- Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the meringue and fold the batter until you can't see any of the dry ingredients.
- When folding the batter, slide the spatula under the batter, lift it in a U motion, go over the top of the batter, and slide it under again. This way you make sure to get the batter at the bottom of the bowl.
- Once fully combined, add in another 1/3 of the dry ingredients and repeat the process of folding.
- Add in the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients and fold until fully combined.
- Once all of the powdered sugar/almond flour mixture has been added, continue folding a few more times to make sure all the ingredients are combined well.
- Now you need to deflate some of the air in the batter by taking the spatula and smearing the batter on the sides of the bowl two or three times, and then folding once or twice.
- Continue this process of smearing some of the batter on the side of the bowl and folding once or twice until the batter starts to run off the spatula in ribbons.
- You can test the consistency by lifting the spatula and letting the batter run down. If it falls in ribbons and sinks into itself within 30 seconds, it's ready.
Pipe the shells
- Transfer the batter to the 16 inch pastry bag.
- Holding the pastry bag at a 90° angle, pipe the macarons according to the template.
- Let the macarons rest until they form a skin and are no longer sticky.
- While the macarons are resting, preheat the oven to 300°-305°F.
- Remove the templates and bake the macarons for 13-15 minutes.
- Macarons are ready when they no longer shift if you touch the tops.
Buttercream
- In a medium bowl, using the stand mixer, whisk the butter until smooth.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and whisk until fully combined.
- Add remaining powdered sugar and whisk until fully combined.
- Transfer half of the buttercream to a small bowl.
Chocolate buttercream
- Add cocoa powder and half of the heavy cream to bowl and mix until combined. Transfer buttercream to 8 inch piping bag and set aside.
Strawberry buttercream
- Add strawberry milk powder to the remaining heavy cream, stir until combined and add to buttercream. Mix until fully combined. Transfer to 8 inch piping bag.
Royal icing
- In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and a few drops of water and stir.
- Continue stirring until fully mixed, adding a few drops of water at a time if you need to thin the icing.
- The perfect consistency is when the icing sinks back into itself within 15 seconds when you lift the spoon.
- Transfer half of the icing to another bowl and add a drop of pink food coloring and mix until combined. Transfer the icing to an 8 inch pastry bag and set aside.
- Add a drop of brown food coloring to the remaining icing and mix until combined. Transfer the icing to an 8 inch pastry bag.
- Take one of the bags with icing and cut a very small opening at the tip and drizzle icing on ¼ of the macarons and add sprinkles before icing starts to set.
- Repeat with the other bag of icing.
- Let the icing dry at least 10 minutes.
Fill macarons
- Take the piping bags with buttercream, cut a ¼ inch opening at the tips, and fill half of the macarons.
Assemble the macarons
- Top the filled macaron shells with the decorated halves and refrigerate for at least 24 hours so macarons can mature.
- Remove from refrigerator and let macarons come to room temperature, about 20-30 minutes, before enjoying.
Notes
*Calories reflected are for macaron shells only
Mixing bowl should be clean and grease free
Weigh all ingredients in grams for accuracy
Use room temperature egg whites (to bring eggs to room temperature quickly, put them in a bowl filled with hot water for about 5 minutes)
Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together because almond flour is moist and doesn’t sift well alone
Whisk the meringue until you have stiff peaks
Let macarons dry before baking so they don’t crack
Nutrition
Calories: 130kcal