These Matcha Macarons are filled with a delicious buttercream flavored with matcha powder. If you love matcha green tea, you’ll love these sweets!
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Matcha Macaron Recipe
- Powdered sugar – You only need to sift once, together with the almond flour.
- Almond flour – Sift the almond flower with the powdered sugar so it sifts more easily.
- Egg Whites – I find that eggs whip up a little bit easier if they’re at room temperature.
- Granulated sugar
- Powdered egg whites – Powdered egg whites can help if you have trouble making a strong meringue.
- Vanilla extract – You can use either pure vanilla extract or imitation vanilla extract.
- Gel food coloring – Don’t use liquid because it will add extra moisture to the batter and can affect the texture of the shells
Macaron Tips
- Whisk the meringue until you have stiff peaks – If the peaks fall to the side, you’re meringue isn’t ready.
- Use a template – If you’re using a plain silicone mat or parchment paper, use a circle template so that all of your shells are the same size.
- Rest the macarons before baking – Make sure the macarons shells are dry to the touch before baking, otherwise they may crack in the oven.
- Let macaron shells cool after baking – Don’t try to remove the shells from the tray immediately after baking. Let them cool at least 10 to 15 minutes before removing.
How to Make Different Color Macarons in One Batch
It’s very easy to make different color macarons with just one batch. The only difference is that you’ll be adding the color after splitting the batter. You also have to be extra careful that you don’t over fold the batter since you’ll be folding the entire batch first, then separating the batter, adding color, and then folding again until you get to the ribbon stage.
How to Swirl Macaron Shells
These macaron shells have a very defined swirl. The best way to achieve this is to divide the batter, add the color, transfer the batter to separate piping bags, and place those bags inside a larger piping bag with a piping tip, like in the picture above. This way the different colored batters don’t mix inside the bag.
When piping the shells, hold the bag at a 90 degree angle, and start piping slowly and moving the bag in a circular motion to make the swirls.
How to Make Matcha Buttercream
- Salted butter – Should be at room temperature
- Powdered sugar – No need to sift unless it’s very clumpy
- Heavy whipping cream – Helps to soften the buttercream a bit if it’s too stiff
- Matcha powder – The color of this buttercream comes solely from the matcha powder. I like a stronger matcha flavor but you can adjust to your liking
- Vanilla extract – The combination of vanilla and matcha is great. If you do adjust the amount of matcha powder you should also adjust the amount of vanilla so it doesn’t drown out the matcha flavor
Macaron Troubleshooting
Hollow Macarons
Your oven temperature may not be high enough for the shells to fully develop. Try increasing the temperature by 10 to 15 degrees.
Cracked Macarons
Try resting the macarons longer before baking. The macarons were probably not dry enough. Make sure the shells have formed a skin and are dry to the touch before baking.
Lopsided Macarons
This may be caused by improper piping. Holding the bag at an angle instead of straight can lead to the shells not rising evenly.
Flat Macarons
Over mixing the batter can lead to flat macarons because the batter will spread out to much. If you over mix the batter, you risk removing all of the air which is needed to make the batter fluffy and helps in forming a proper macaron shell.
More tea flavored macarons
More swirled macarons
- Cotton Candy Macarons
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Macarons
- Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Macarons
Macaron resources
Matcha Macarons
These Matcha Macarons are filled with a delicious buttercream flavored with matcha powder. If you love matcha green tea, you'll love these sweets!
Servings: 18 macarons
Calories: 130kcal
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Sifter
- Whisk
- Stand mixer
- Two spatulas
- Small bowl (for separating the batter)
- One 16 inch pastry bag
- Three 8 inch pastry bags
- Round piping tip (Ateco 10)
- Two silicone baking mats
- Two half sheet pans
- Oven thermometer
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 green gel food coloring
Matcha buttercream
- ¼ cup salted butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp heavy whipping cream
- ½ tbsp matcha powder
- ½ tbsp vanilla extract
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.
- 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 and the egg whites start looking opaque (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 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, fold just until all the ingredients are combined and then stop mixing.
- Transfer half of the batter to the small bowl and add the green gel food coloring. Fold just until the color is fully mixed in.
- 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.
- Transfer the green batter to an 8 inch pasty bag and set aside. Don't cut the opening at the tip yet.
- Now repeat the process above of folding and deflating with the white batter left in the mixing bowl, being very careful not to over mix the batter.
- Once the batter is ready, transfer to an 8 inch pastry bag.
- Cut a ½ inch opening at the tip of both bags and place them inside the 16 inch bag with the piping tip.
Pipe the shells
- Holding the pastry bag at a 90° angle, pipe the macarons into ¾ inch circles about 1 inch apart, swirling the batter slightly in a circle to get the swirls.
- Tap the tray against the counter about 4 times to release any air bubbles.
- Let the macarons rest until they form a skin and are no longer sticky.
- While the macarons are resting, preheat the oven to 310°F.
- Bake the macarons for 14-16 minutes.
- Macarons are ready when they no longer shift if you touch the tops.
Matcha buttercream
- Using the stand mixer, whisk the butter until creamy.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and whisk until fully mixed in. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and continue whisking.
- Add the matcha powder and vanilla extract and continue whisking until the buttercream is creamy and smooth. Depending on how much matcha flavor you want, you can adjust how much powder you add.
Assemble the macarons
- Fill an 8 inch pastry bag with the buttercream and cut a ½ inch opening at the tip of the bag.
- Pipe the buttercream in the center of half of the macaron shells and top with the other half.
- Refrigerate the filled macarons for at least 24 hours before eating.
- When ready to eat, remove from the refrigerator at least 20-30 minutes before and allow macarons to come to room temperature.
Notes
*Calories reflected are for macaron shells only
*All ovens are different so temperature and baking time should only be used as a guide
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
Mix the egg white powder and the granulated sugar before adding to the egg whites to fully dissolve the egg white powder
Whisk the meringue until you have stiff peaks
Let macarons dry before baking so they don’t crack
Nutrition
Serving: 1macaron | Calories: 130kcal