Heart-Shaped Macarons Recipe

If you really want to wow somebody this Valentine's Day, why not bake them a batch of homemade macarons? Pretty pink heart-shaped ones, of course! But just a heads up: Don't try these if you're not a highly-skilled baker. As recipe developer Eric Ngo admits, "This is an advanced-level recipe because of how specific the batter needs to be." 

As Ngo says, in order for macarons to look right, the batter needs to be just the right texture and the shells need to be piped correctly (something that takes practice). He also says you'll need to make the cookies at least a day in advance in order for them to achieve the right texture. Although Ngo's directions call for refrigerating the filled macarons for 24 hours, he tells us that they should probably stay in the fridge for 2 days in order to achieve the proper level of chewiness. As he explains, "The filling and humidity from the refrigerator will soften them up."

If you're skilled enough to able to pull off this cookie-baking tour de force, you'll have a very impressive gift worth giving. These macarons also taste as good as they look, with Ngo describing them as "Crispy on the outside and chewy in the center" with a smooth, creamy ganache filling that contrasts nicely with sweet and tangy raspberry jam.

If your baking skills aren't up to such a challenge? You may need to buy your Valentine's Day macarons from Costco or Trader Joe's instead. 

To make these macarons, you'll start with white chocolate chunks or chips. The melted white chocolate goes into the ganache filling along with whipping cream and vanilla extract (you can also scrape the seeds from ¼ vanilla bean, if you want to be fancy). Raspberry jam makes for a secondary filling.

To make the macaron shells, you'll need egg whites, sugar (both granulated and powdered), almond flour, and a few drops of red food coloring. And yes, because these macarons are made with almond flour, Ngo does say that they are entirely gluten-free.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts until it is completely melted, something that will take up to 2 minutes. Stir the melting chocolate between each burst of roughly 30 seconds. Once the chocolate is melted, heat the cream for about 1 ½ minutes until it's almost at the boiling point, then stir it into the chocolate. Mix these 2 ingredients until they're smooth, then stir in the vanilla.

Spoon the ganache into a piping bag and pop it in the freezer. This filling needs to chill for about an hour so it can firm up.

Once the filling is chilling, preheat the oven to 325 F. Beat the egg whites until they've doubled in size, then add the granulated sugar in 3 parts, a little bit more than a tablespoon at a time. Each time you beat in the sugar, let the mixture rest for 30 seconds afterwards. Add the food coloring, stirring until you get a uniform shade of pink. Finally, fold in the confectioner's sugar and the almond flour.

Ngo warns not to over-mix the batter at this point. "The macaron batter is ready when it looks smooth [and] shiny and falls off the spatula while creating a ribbon pattern," he tells us. Folding the dry ingredients in with a spatula helps to prevent against the dreaded overmixing, so make sure to do this rather than using a stand mixer or hand mixer to do the job.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, then get out your trusty piping bag — a different piping bag than the one you put the ganache in, of course — and pipe heart shapes onto the sheet. You should wind up with 36 hearts in all, so plan accordingly. If you need to use a second cookie sheet, do so. Once you're done piping, take the sheet and bang it down on the counter. This may seem a bit weird, but Ngo says this will "eliminate micro bubbles in the batter."

Bake the macarons for 13 to 16 minutes. Ngo says you can check to see if they're done by giving the sheet a little shake. "If they wiggle," he says, "it means they are baked on the outside but still raw on [the] inside." If they pretty much hold their shape when they're shaken, though, you can take them out of the oven. Let the macaron shells rest on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then gently remove them.

Sort the macaron shells into pairs, trying to match size and shape as best you can. Take one shell per pair and pipe an outline of vanilla ganache all along the edge, then fill in this "frame" with the raspberry jam. Cover with the other macaron shell to make a cookie sandwich, then repeat until you've filled and sandwiched all of the remaining macaron shells.

Put the filled macarons into an airtight container and stick them in the fridge to sit for at least 24 hours, or preferably 48, before you serve them. They can be kept in that same container for up to 5 days — or longer, although they'll be slightly past their peak of perfection after that time. Ngo does say, though, to "Take them out of the refrigerator for 30 [minutes] before serving."