These Black Macarons are filled with a delicious cookies and cream buttercream and are a true black color, which is so difficult to achieve. In this post I’ll show you how to use both powder and gel food coloring to get a rich this color.
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Black Macarons Recipe
- Powdered sugar – Sift the sugar and almond flour together since almond flour has a lot of moisture and doesn’t sift well on its own
- Almond flour – Use finely sifted, blanched flour
- Egg whites – Room temperature egg whites will whip up faster
- Granulated sugar
- Powdered egg whites – If you have trouble getting a strong meringue, egg white powder can help
- Vanilla extract – adds a nice flavor to the shells
- Black gel food coloring – Use gel instead of liquid because liquid can affect the texture of the shells by adding extra moisture
- Black powdered food coloring – Since you don’t want to add too much gel coloring, adding a bit of powder will help deepen the color
How to Make Black Macarons
Black macarons require a lot more food coloring than other macaron colors. Using just a little bit of color will only give you shades of gray. I’ve found a good way to get this rich black color is by mixing both gel and powder food coloring.
While testing out different amounts of food coloring to achieve certain colors, I’ve notice that using too much gel can affect the way the macaron feet look, and using only powder doesn’t give me enough color. So by mixing the two, I can get a deeper color. This works especially well for black since you need so much color.
Macaron Troubleshooting
Hollow macarons
Hollow macarons are one of the most common problems and the one most people focus on. A little bit of a gap between the top shell and the inside is not a major problem, in fact I prefer mine to have a tiny gap because it makes the macaron a little chewier when matured. But if the inside of the shell is very hollow, the oven temperature may be too low which can lead to the shell not being fully baked. Try raising the temperature by 5 or 10 degrees.
Cracked macarons
Macarons may crack because the batter may have had too much air or the shells didn’t rest long enough. Make sure to tap the tray a few times to get rid of any air bubbles, and let the shells rest until they form a skin. This will prevent any cracking in the oven.
Macarons sticking to silicone mat
If the shells look baked and have feet, but are sticking to the mat even after they’ve cooled for a couple of minutes, they may be under baked. Add a minute or two to the baking time and always use an oven thermometer to make sure you’re baking at the correct temperature because oven displays are not always accurate.
More delicious macarons to try
Macaron resources
Black Macarons
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Strainer
- Whisk
- Stand mixer
- Spatula
- One 16 inch pastry bag
- One 8 inch pastry bag
- 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
- 5 drops black gel food coloring
- 2 drops powder food coloring
Cookies and Cream buttercream
- ¼ cup salted butter (½ stick, softened)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp crushed Oreo cookies
- 1 tsp heavy whipping cream
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
- Add egg whites and powder color to mixing bowl and let sit for 5 minutes so the color develops. 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 gel 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 into ¾ inch circles about 1 inch apart.
- Tap the tray against the counter about 3 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 15-16 minutes.
- Macarons are ready when they no longer shift if you touch the tops.
Cookies and Cream buttercream
- Using the stand mixer, whisk the butter until smooth.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and whisk until fully combined.
- Add the remaining powdered sugar and whisk until you no longer see any sugar.
- Add heavy cream and chopped Oreo cookies and continue to whisk until the buttercream looks smooth and creamy and the cookie pieces have been mixed in completely.
Assemble the macarons
- Fill an 8 inch pastry bag with the buttercream and cut a ½ inch opening at the bottom of the bag.
- Pipe the buttercream in the middle of half of the macaron shells.
- Place the shells on top of the filled macaron shells and refrigerate for at least 24 hours so that the macarons can mature.
- Remove the macarons and allow them to come to room temperature (at least 20 to 30 minutes) before eating.