Recipe Review: Vegan Macarons
In a way, a bad macaron recipe does not exist – because macarons don’t exist without testing, retesting, tweaking, testing again…with some pulled hair in between.
Anyone who has had success with these impish treats has done their research and field work. Consequently, I present five recipes chronologically instead of authoritatively. They’re all authoritative, and offer valuable insight to boot.
Before I begin…
I’ve already alluded that macarons – and especially vegan ones – are world’s most insultingly difficult sandwich cookie. I assume a basic knowledge of how to make them in this post, but all you really need to know is that nothing tests a cook’s patience like these prissy little devils.
Setup: Controls and Variables
Multiple controls and a single variable produce the most accurate results. The Cake Test within my Product Review: Vegan Mayonnaise post is a keen example of how I run experiments; the only wild card is the “mayonnaise”!
Indeed, I structure all bake tests within my reviews accordingly. This setup strengthens the assumption that outcomes are different because of my variable (in this case, the vegan macaron recipe). If I’ve been baking on the same day with the same tools and food brands, then I can’t blame discrepancies on climate, equipment, ingredients, etc.
Losing Control?
Contrarily, hours-long vegan macaron recipes presented a unique challenge to this company of one: I logistically couldn’t bake them all in a day! Yet there was still much I could – and did – control:
- Relative Humidity – I cleared an area near a dehumidifier where macarons could rest at 45%.
- Equipment – All tools were meticulously scrubbed with a new sponge, dried with a freshly cleaned lint-free towel, rubbed with paper towels and vinegar, and air-dried before and between tests.
- Ingredients – Every recipe listed aquafaba, cream of tartar, granulated sugar, almond flour, and confectioner’s sugar. I sourced the following US-nationally available products:
Recipes themselves contain enough variables! But given these constants, I’m confident each batch of vegan macarons is the direct result of its formula.
The Recipes
In order, I analyzed vegan macaron recipes by:
- Fred Csibi, Doc Macaron
- Tom Adams, Project Vegan Baking
- Chloe Coscarelli, Baked By Clo
- Camila Hurst, Pies and Tacos
- Colleen Gershey, Bakes and Blunders
Note that I only tested each basic shell formula. Any suggested color, flavor, or garnish was omitted in order to highlight every baker’s master recipe.
As for “buttercream”, I had a can of Miss Jones on hand. Buttercream – vegan or not – is significantly easier to make! Besides, a great way to add insult to injury is to prepare frosting from scratch only to remove another batch of failed shells from your oven. Miss Jones could immediately celebrate success or indefinitely sulk on a shelf, mercifully providing me some flexibility on this otherwise scrupulous journey…
1. Doc Macaron
I honestly was most interested in trying Fred Csibi’s recipe for vegan macarons. Appropriately named Doc Macaron, this culinary scientist uses potato protein for an ultra-stable meringue – the only one on my list to do so…
for good reason. I clicked his affiliate link for Sosa Potatowhip:
We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.
Unfortunately, if you can even find it in the US, Sosa Potatowhip is around $90 per 300-g container! I was consequently forced to move onto the next recipe.
2. Project Vegan Baking
The vegan macaron recipe by Tom Adams of Project Vegan Baking is exactly what I wanted to test: a “core recipe for all vegan macarons”.
Yet a challenge surfaced almost immediately:
Place the macarons into the oven for 40 minutes or until the feet look dry. Turn the oven off and leave the macarons to dry out for at least an hour with the oven door ajar.
I can only fit one tray per rack at a time! Thus, I either had to risk an over-rested second batch, or risk baking two trays at once – a crapshoot for such airflow-sensitive treats.
I opted for the latter risk placing my racks at levels 2 and 4 and planning to rotate my trays up-to-down and left-to-right halfway through baking (at a conspicuously low 250°F/120°C). Alas, the deflated outcomes are pictured above.
But I actually think these vegan macarons failed because of Adams’s instruction to fold the meringue and dry ingredients until I could draw an unbroken 8 with a spatula full of batter. I folded several minutes before reaching this point! And even though I just barely reached it, I’m sure my batter was overmixed –
and overestimated. Despite piping 48 macarons slightly larger than the guides of my baking mats, I had 200 g of batter leftover. A buffer for squeezing out those last couple shells is appreciated, but 200 g could’ve given me a dozen more.
And all this started after an hour and a half of reducing and cooling aquafaba.
3. Baked By Clo
Similar to Tom Adams (Project Vegan Baking), the vegan macaron recipe by Chloe Coscarelli of Baked By Clo starts with the lengthy process of reducing and cooling aquafaba.
At least this 12-hour endeavor was offset by her meringue instructions:
Keep whisking until the mixture becomes white and glossy and forms stiff peaks, until you can tip the bowl upside-down without it moving.
I hit all those targets after 5 minutes! But whipped aquafaba is tricky; externally, it can look shiny and stable while internally it’s still developing. And can you guess what happens to vegan macarons made with under-whipped meringue? They’re flat-footed, cracked, and hollow.
The same symptoms apply to short rest times and high oven temperatures. Although I have no doubt this recipe works in Coscarelli’s space, her rest time of 20-30 minutes and oven temperature of 300°F/150°C (on a dark, heat-holding cookie sheet no less) classically backfired for me and mine.
4. Pies and Tacos
Four years ago, I tried the vegan macaron recipe by Camila Hurst of Pies and Tacos and failed – multiple times. Yet after so clearly overmixing in the previous two recipes, I finally understood when Hurst wants people to stop.
If you grab a spatula full of batter and hold it over the bowl, it should still be separating in chunks, and not flowing continuously in a ribbon. Do not get to the ribbon stage! If you get to the ribbon stage, the macaron feet will spread out in the oven.
The stages of macaron batter can be thought of as paint finishes!
- marbled (not mixed or ready)
- matte (mixed, but not ready)
- satin (mixed and ready)
- gloss (overmixed)
This realization combined with three other details of her formula had me feeling hopeful. First, she mentions whipping the aquafaba at least 10 minutes thereby ensuring it will be properly developed; second and third, her rest time (30-45 minutes) and bake temperature (285°F/140°C) fall neatly between Adams’s and Coscarelli’s. I thus was guaranteed a stable meringue followed by the goldilocks zones for mixing, resting, and baking!
And it shows. The vegan macaron feet on my first tray slightly exploded, but lowering the temperature to 275°F/135°C produced rows of perfect shells.
5. Bakes and Blunders
I ultimately skipped the vegan macaron recipe by Colleen Gershey of Bakes and Blunders. Her low oven temperature particularly concerned me after the last time I baked at 250°F/120°C… (See: 2. Project Vegan Baking.)
Moreover, she adopted her ingredients list from Hurst (Pies and Tacos), which worked well for me at 275°F/135°C. I trust that 250°F/120°C works for Gershey! Yet in my environment, revisiting that low setting seemed like an unnecessary risk of ingredients.
Conclusion
All those annoying adages about failure acutely apply to making macarons: “Failure is the greatest teacher”, “If at first you don’t succeed…” I personally took a 4-year hiatus from trying!
In the end, I returned to the first recipe I ever tested: Vegan Vanilla Macarons by Camila Hurst of Pies and Tacos. It’s not any different than it was in 2021, but having gained more practical knowledge since then, I am.
I’m especially glad her recipe responds well to me and my space because it’s efficient. Hurst no longer recommends reducing aquafaba, and doesn’t even suggest sourcing or making castor sugar. Though the best vegan macaron recipe is simply the one that works for you, I’m grateful the one that works for me excludes a few time-consuming – and equipment-dirtying – steps.
You’re unique!
Perhaps more than the vegan macaron recipe by Camila Hurst of Pies and Tacos, however, I recommend shopping for the one that works for you and your resources. Maybe a low oven temperature will yield success for you as it does for Tom Adams of Project Vegan Baking and Colleen Gershey of Bakes and Blunders; or maybe a high oven temperature and dark sheets will suit your space as they do for Chloe Coscarelli of Baked By Clo.
Whichever formula you choose, remember that your ability to read ingredients through the various stages (meringue, macaronage, resting, and baking) is critical. A macaron baker has likely tested their recipe to their wit’s end – in their kitchens. A recipe that doesn’t work for you could be a bad match more than a bad recipe.
Yet Pies and Tacos is a solid place to start! And should you crave additional details and/or adjustments, look no further than my own vegan macaron recipe too.
