Now that the holiday season’s over, are you still looking for a way to surprise your friends and family with gifts to show you love them? Well, we’ve got you covered with a fun recipe for some beautiful (and delicious!) French macarons.

Note: This recipe yields approximately 36 cookies.

Equipment

Large bowls for dry and wet ingredients

Sieve

Mixer

Measuring cups

Baking sheet

2 pastry/piping bags or plastic bags (1 for macarons, 1 for filling)

Ingredients

3 large egg whites at room temperature (leave out for a few hours)

1 ½ cups almond flour, sifted

½ cup granulated sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp cream of tartar

Gel food coloring

1 tsp salt

Directions

Using a sieve, filter your powdered sugar and almond flour into a bowl. Designate this bowl for dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, add your room temperature egg whites and whisk. While foamy, slowly add in your cream of tartar and salt. Then, gradually add in your granulated sugar and food coloring, whisking at medium-high speed until the egg whites “peak,” or become stiff when you raise your mixer. Add your stiff egg white mixture into your dry ingredients bowl and sift together carefully until the batter has a smooth, mixed consistency.

Empty your batter into a pastry bag and pipe macaron shells onto the baking sheet. For smaller macarons, use 2/3 the size of your index finger as a reference for how big to pipe the cookies. Allow baking sheet with uncooked cookie shells to sit for up to an hour, or until you can lightly press the top of the cookie batter with your finger and the cookie still holds its shape.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the cookies for 20 minutes or until you see the “foot” of the cookie, which is a tiny crust-like layer that forms on the bottom. They should not move when you take out the tray! Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes. For your filling, you can default to store-bought frosting or try your hand at one of the myriad buttercream recipes out there to cater to your personal taste. You can experiment with Nutella, peanut butter frosting, whipped cream, matcha filling and more! Just fill up a piping bag or a plastic bag with your filling of choice and make a sandwich with two macaron shells.

We hope this recipe inspires you to embark on a solo stress-relief baking journey, host a fun dessert social with friends or win major brownie points with this simple yet perfect Valentine’s Day gift. Good luck, and enjoy!