Hazelnut Macarons (2024)

Hazelnut Macaron Shells

• 4 grams egg white powder optional, read notes
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 100 grams egg whites
• 30 grams hazelnut flour
• 75 grams almond flour
• 100 grams powdered sugar
• Food coloring I used pink

Hazelnut Custard

• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar divided (50 grams)
• 1 large yolk
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts 65 grams
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp unsalted butter

Hazelnut German Buttercream

• 1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 125 to 187 grams
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature (56 grams)
• 1/2 cup Hazelnut Custard recipe below

To decorate

• 1 oz dark chocolate optional
• Edible gold leaves optional

Hazelnut Macaron Shells

• Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/2” diameter tip. Set aside.

• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.

• Measure out all of the ingredients.

• Sift the hazelnut flour. Measure the hazelnut flour after sifting it, because hazelnut flour tends to be very lumpy, and you want to make sure you’re using only the very fine crumbs. Which is why it’s important to measure it only after sifting. I needed about double of the amount of hazelnut flour to obtain 30 grams of finely sifted flour.

• Combine the sifted and measured hazelnut flour with the almond flour, and powdered sugar, and sift them together. Set it aside.

• Whisk the sugar and the egg white powder (if using) in a bowl, and place it over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the egg whites to the sugar and whisk the mixture until frothy and the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.

• Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.

• Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.

• Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.

• With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to high, or medium-high and whisk for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.

• Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.

• Pour the sifted powdered sugar, almond flour, and hazelnut flour into the stiff meringue.

• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.

• Add the food coloring at this point, if using. I’ve added a touch of pink gel food coloring.

• How to know when to stop folding the batter: It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.

• If you are used to making regular almond flour macarons, you will notice that the hazelnut macarons have a thicker batter, and won’t flow as effortless as the almond flour ones. The hazelnut flour will make for a thicker, and sort of lumpy batter, not as smooth as the only almond flour batter.

• So the way to test if the batter is ready is pretty much the same as the almond flour macaron batter, only a bit thicker, less flowy.

• First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form just a couple of figure 8s without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.

• There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.

• Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.

• If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.

• Test again.

  See Also

  Foolproof Macaron Recipe (Step by Step!)Hazelnut FlourThe Role of Cream of Tartar in Making Perfect French MacaronsHow to Age Egg Whites for Baking Macarons

• Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it’s ready.

• You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.

• When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.

• Transfer the batter to the piping bag.

• Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.

• Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each.

• Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.

• Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.

• Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF.

• Bake one tray at a time.

• Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.

• I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.

• When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.

• Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.

• Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Hazelnut Custard

• Place the milk and 2 tbsp of sugar in a small saucepan, over medium heat, and bring it to almost a boil. Make sure to turn the heat off before it actually comes to a boil. The sugar should be melted with the milk. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolk with the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, until lightened in color.

• Slowly pour about a couple of tablespoons of the milk over the yolk mixture, while whisking non-stop. This is called tempering the egg, and it means to slowly add the hot mixture to the yolk so it doesn’t cook it. Keep adding the remaining milk very slowly, while whisking the custard. Once all the milk has been added to the yolk, return the whole mixture to the saucepan that you used to heat the milk by pouring through a strainer, to retain any bits of yolk that may have cooked.

• Add the ground hazelnut to the custard. Place the pan over medium heat and start cooking, while stirring non-stop. Keep heating the mixture and mixing it with a wooden spoon or spatula, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom very well while you cook it. The custard will start to get thick and it will look lumpy for a while, just keep stirring over medium heat. After a couple of minutes the mixture should be thick like a cream, and smooth. At this point, remove the pan from the heat, and add the vanilla extract, and unsalted butter to the custard. Pour it in a small bowl, cover it with a plastic wrap, placed right on the surface of the custard, so it doesn’t form a skin as it cools. Place it in the fridge to chill completely.

Hazelnut German Buttercream

• Start by sifting the powdered sugar, and set it aside.

• Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, and cream at medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the chilled Hazelnut Custard to the mixer and cream it with the butter for 45 seconds. Turn the mixer off and add 1 cup of the sifted powdered sugar in. Mix on low until the sugar is incorporated with the butter and custard, then raise the speed to medium-high, and cream for another minute, until creamy and thick. If the buttercream is too soft and runny, add more powdered sugar as necessary. And in case the buttercream is too stiff, add one or two teaspoons of milk or water to thin out the buttercream.

To decorate the shells

• I melted the 1 oz of chocolate in the microwave, placed it in a piping bag, snipped the end with scissors, then I piped some different sizes circles and swirls on top of the shells.

• Once the chocolate was dry, I placed a tiny bit of edible gold on top of the chocolate swirls to decorate.

To assemble

• Place the Hazelnut German Buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a round tip.

• Pipe on the bottom shells, then top with another shell.

Storage

• These macarons can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 to 2 months.

Hazelnut flour: Make sure to sift the hazelnut flour BEFORE measuring it to use in the recipe. I had to sift about 60 grams of hazelnut flour to obtain 30 grams of hazelnut flour that would be fine enough to be used in the macarons. If the flour is too coarse, you will run into several issues such as misshapen shells, batter that’s too thick and won’t flow, feet that separate from the top of the shells. I used Bob’s Red Mill Hazelnut Flour, which claims to be finely ground, but really wasn’t.

Egg white powder: Egg White Powder is not the same as meringue powder. Egg white powder is made of only egg whites. They help with getting fuller shells, and specially when adding a lot of food coloring to the batter, because they make the shells dry faster. I recommend experimenting with it if you can find it. I use 4 grams for each 100 grams of egg whites.

Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage.

Batter thickness: When compared to almond flour macaron batter, this hazelnut macaron batter is a bit thicker, so you might think you have to continue folding when in reality it’s just the nature of this batter to be on the thick side due to the hazelnut flour. As long as you can draw a couple of figure 8s with the batter falling off the spatula, and also as long as the falling batter is incorporating nicely with the batter on the bowl, you are good to go. Watch my video on this page or on YouTube which will show you the proper consistency for the batter.

Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.

Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.

Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.

Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.

Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.