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A delicious macaron twist on a classic ice cream… a vanilla shell, chocolate ganache filling, and a strawberry shell… Neapolitan macarons!

Macarons!

I do love a lovely afternoon tea, and often an accompaniment to these are macarons. There are important things to know here… these are macarONS ~not~ MacarOONS. These are two very different things. Macaroons are a little ball of desiccated coconut, often mixed with condensed milk for example. They’re delicious, but they’re not macarons.

Macarons are delicious and delectable treats, that are light and delicious. I love them. I’ve made several recipes for them so far such as my salted caramel macarons and triple chocolate macarons. However, I wanted to try something a little more jazzy and thought a multi flavoured macaron would be amazing.

Inspiration

I found this DELICIOUS post from Every Nook & Cranny about her Neapolitan macarons, and new I wanted to give them my own spin. I prefer a dark chocolate ganache however, so went for strawberry and vanilla shells, instead of chocolate and vanilla shells with a strawberry filling.

Expensive treat

Macarons are one of those treats that seems ‘elite’ in a way, because often when you buy them they can be expensive. The ingredients aren’t the cheapest in all honesty, but its not as expensive as you might think when you actually look into it. For the amount of macarons that you get out of a batch, its really quite good! And if you make them at home, you get many many more for your money.

The one thing I will say about these, is they are a liiiittle bit faffy to make, but they are worth it. Also, a lot of it is down to practice. I can definitely say that the first few times I made these, they didn’t necessarily go to plan. But now after making them several times, and perfecting my recipe, I love make them and they work wonderfully!

No lumps please!

You reeeeaaallllyyy do HAVE to sieve your icing sugar and almonds in the mixture, because if you don’t, it will be lump city. You can see from my pictures that my shells are lovely and smooth on the tops, and thats due to sieving. It’s also due, to the ‘macaronage’ process. I only recently discovered what this actually is, but I love the name so I’m rolling with it.

Macaronage

You basically have to fold the meringue mixture with the almond mixture carefully, so not completely destroy the meringue, but once its all folded together, you ‘wipe’ the mixture around  the edges of the bowl. This is a hard thing to describe, and I haven’t had a chance to film it yet, but using your spatula you basically de-flate the mixture and make it slightly runnier in a way.

Handy tools!

I used to think that a runnier mixture was bad news, but if you follow this process, it’s perfect. I recommend using a smaller piping tip for this process as less mixture will come out a time, and using these macaron mats as your guide. They already have the circles marked out, and thats a life saver. I usually pipe directly down onto the mat, to the size of the smaller circle, and then naturally the macarons spread to the size of the larger circle.

Tips!

This recipe does use strawberry extract for the flavouring, which I know some people won’t be a fan of, but it really is such a good quality. It’s the same brand of flavouring that I use for my Kinder Bueno brownies that you guys all love as well! I do also recommend using a good quality pink food colouring so you have to use less, and therefore it won’t affect the quality of the mixture.

If you follow the method well and the ingredients correctly, you’ll have the perfect macaron. Match the sizes up if they become a little random, and they’ll be perfect. Any questions, leave them below in the comment section! Enjoy! X

Neapolitan Macarons!

A delicious macaron twist on a classic ice cream... a vanilla shell, chocolate ganache filling, and a strawberry shell... Neapolitan macarons!
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Category: Afternoon Tea
Type: Macarons
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Decorating: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 35 Macarons
Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

  • 200 g icing sugar
  • 100 g ground almonds
  • 100 g egg whites (3 medium eggs worth)
  • 75 g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp strawberry extract
  • Pink food colouring
  • 100 ml double cream
  • 100 g dark chocolate

Instructions

  • In a medium sized bowl, sift 100g of the icing sugar, and 50g of the ground almonds. Its very important that you sift it, as this will prevent any lumps. 
  • In a second medium sized bowl, do the same with the other 100g of the icing sugar, and 50g of the ground almonds.
  • In a stand mixer, add your egg whites. Make sure the bowl and whisk you are using are spotlessly clean first! 
  • Whisk the egg whites up to stiff peaks, and start adding the caster sugar teaspoon by teaspoon until all is incorporated. Whisk for another minute or so afterwards. 
  • Add half of the meringue mixture to one of the bowls of sugar/almonds. It should weight about 87/88g to make sure you're nearer half. 
  • In that bowl, add the 1 tsp of vanilla and fold the mixture carefully but making sure that it is all incorporated. 
  • The next step is called 'macaronage' where you basically press and wipe the mixture around the edges of the bowl to sort of de-fluff it in a way. It smooths the mixture out, making it better. 
  • With the other half of the meringue, add the pink food colouring and Strawberry Extract and whisk until combined. Add this to the sugar/almond mix and repeat the folding and macaronage. 
  • With a disposable piping bag, add a small round tip. Carefully pipe the mixtures onto some macaron mats. The mixture does spread naturally, so don't pipe them that large otherwise they might end up touching. 
  • You should end up with equal amounts of pink shells, and vanilla shells. 
  • Once piped, tap the trays onto the work surface 5-6 times to get any air bubbles out, and leave on the side for 1 hour to form a skin. 
  • Towards the end of the hour, turn your oven on to 130C Fan. 
  • Once the hour is up, put the macarons in the oven to bake for 16-20 minutes.  I usually go more towards 20 minutes. 
  • Leave them to cool full on the mats before peeling them off. 
  • Once cooled, make your ganache - add your dark chocolate to a bowl, chopped up. Heat your cream in a pan until its just starting to boil, and pour it over the dark chocolate.
  • Leave it to sit for 5 minutes, and then stir together. Leave again for 5 minutes to cool slightly, and then add to a piping bag. 
  • Pipe a smallish amount into the middle of all of the strawberry or vanilla macarons, and then sandwich on the opposite colour/flavour. 
  • Put them into the fridge for the ganache to set for an hour or so, and then enjoy!

Notes

  • For this recipe I use the following items;
  • These Macarons will last for up to one week in the fridge. 
  • You don't have to use strawberry extract, but its the easiest way to get the strawberry flavouring in the macarons. You could easily just colour them pink if you wanted the affect, but without the flavouring. 
  • I will post a Youtube video of making macarons asap! 
  • If you don't want to fill the shells immediately, still store them in the fridge. 

Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!

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J x

© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.

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40 Comments

  1. Tara on November 22, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    Hi please could you tell me if you have done a video of instructions how to make these?

    • Jane's Patisserie on November 28, 2022 at 4:30 pm

      Hiya! Take a look at my instagram – I have a video of my salted caramel macarons which should be helpful! x



  2. Heather on November 10, 2022 at 11:08 pm

    Hi Jane, can you put the macaron mats in the oven?

    • Jane's Patisserie on November 16, 2022 at 9:45 am

      Hiya! Yes, but be sure to double check the ones that you have! Hope this helps! x



  3. Milly on August 31, 2022 at 10:10 am

    5 stars
    Hi Jane, please could I ask what brand of ground almonds you use? I have found some to be quite lumpy and very yellow.
    I am hoping you can let me know so I can try with the brand you use. X

    • Jane's Patisserie on September 1, 2022 at 3:08 pm

      Hiya! I use any brand! Ground almonds naturally have a yellow colour to them – just make sure you keep blitzing them in the food processor and sieving them! Hope this helps! x



  4. Pauline on August 10, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    5 stars
    Jane, these look amazing and im sure also taste incredible, but reading through what is involved, and the items i’d need to buy, to make them, gosh!! what a faff!!! I will stick to cakes and shortbreads, and buy macarons!!!

  5. Nicole on March 25, 2022 at 1:00 pm

    Hi Jane and team,

    I couldnt get the strawberry extract but still want to flavour that side. do you think orange extract and colouring the pink side orange would work?

    thank you

    • Jane's Patisserie on March 30, 2022 at 3:26 pm

      Yes absolutely it would! Enjoy! x



  6. Caz on February 15, 2022 at 7:28 pm

    Hi Jane, I have a tin especially for macarons. Please can I ask, will I need to spray it or is that not needed as it’s non stick?

  7. Lily on August 13, 2021 at 8:06 pm

    Hi, when I tried baking these a few weeks ago and I really struggled with sifting the ground almonds as they wouldn’t go through the sift. Is there anything I can do?

    • Jane's Patisserie on August 18, 2021 at 4:42 pm

      You may have to buy a smidge extra and then sift them yourself, sometimes it can happen!! x



  8. Aneta on February 14, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    Can they be frozen after they’re done?

  9. Grace on February 9, 2021 at 11:00 am

    Hi Jane
    Iv tried these today and my shells have come out lumpy, I sived the icing sugar and ground almond, could it be something else that I did wrong, if so what part of the recipe have I done wrong?
    Thankyou

    • Jane's Patisserie on February 11, 2021 at 8:38 am

      It may be worth watching a YouTube video on how to make them as it’s so hard to explain the process! It may have been the folding everything together wasn’t quite right but it’s hard to say!



  10. Megan on November 20, 2020 at 1:50 pm

    Hi tried these twice now and the Halloween ones but same results every time… no feet. Where am I going wrong? First time I left them for 1 hour then baked for 20 – no feet and very thick/cakey. 2nd time I left them for 1hr30m – still no feet and very heavy again. 3rd time added in a 20g extra egg white as the mixture was always too thick, they’ve just come out the oven and still no feet and cakey!

    • Jane's Patisserie on November 22, 2020 at 3:46 pm

      It may be worth watching a YouTube video on macarons, as there are so so so many reasons why they can fail! Often its the meringue at the beginning, or the mixing process when adding the sugar/almonds! x



  11. Joanna Howell on November 8, 2020 at 11:42 am

    Hi Jane, tried these today but my mixture was very similar to Angel Delight – is that right?. When I piped I had little points on top not flat. Maybe I needed to mix a little more to “deflate” I was afraid of overmixing! Just leaving them for an hour now so will see what happens

    • Jane's Patisserie on November 8, 2020 at 11:44 am

      No that is about right – it’s hard to describe but that’s quite a good way of describing it haha! And the little points are just the way you have piped – some people quick turn the piping tip to remove them, but that is just practice! It won’t ruin them at all x



    • Joanna Howell on November 8, 2020 at 2:28 pm

      Thanks but they just turned out like mini meringue kisses – still tasted lovely but a bit more practice required!



  12. Annie on October 27, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    Hey Jane I’ve just made these, never tried anything like this before, everything went really well I researched the macronage you mention and watched you tube videos too. They piped beautifully, I rested for an hour and put them in at 130 as you say for 20 mins, they developed “feet” and they were cooled off the tray but on their macron measured sheets, I was so looking forward to filling them but couldn’t get them off the sheets, they were stuck and wet inside, if I had left them longer they would have browned, where did I go wrong?

    • Jane's Patisserie on October 27, 2020 at 4:29 pm

      It may be the sheets you used – sometimes they can be sticky, but it can also be the oven as well. It’s hard to say, but maybe next time use just parchment paper rather than the macaron sheets and see if that helps xx



  13. Nicole on June 11, 2020 at 9:36 pm

    Hi Jane just wondering what consistency the mixture should be for piping? I had a bit of trouble getting my food colouring to blend through and I think I might of over folded and they were a bit runny. I want to try them again next week so just wondered if I could add The food colouring during the whisking of the egg whites or something to get it incorporated earlier.

    Thanks

    • Jane's Patisserie on June 12, 2020 at 10:30 am

      Hiya! Yes so you could take out half of the mixture for the ‘vanilla’ one, and then whisk the food colouring into the rest of the meringue. When making macarons you want to do ‘macaronage’ which is very hard to describe but it makes it a relatively soft mixture, but should still be thick enough to shape! If you find your’s too thin, it may be that you weren’t folding softly enough, or your meringue mix wasn’t thick enough! xx



  14. Amy on May 26, 2020 at 8:06 am

    These look gorgeous! Let’s go add that to my list of things to bug mum into letting me make…………………Do you have to put almonds in these? If yes, is there some sort of substitute? Thanks,
    Amyxx

    • Jane's Patisserie on May 26, 2020 at 8:53 am

      Hey! I’m afraid ground almonds are essential to macarons – you cannot make them without! x



    • Amy on May 27, 2020 at 7:27 am

      Oh ok, thank you🙂



  15. Faye on October 6, 2019 at 4:38 pm

    Hi Jane, these look incredible. I really want to make them but I don’t have a mixer. Can I use a hand whisk to whisk the eggs or does that never work?

  16. Judles on February 28, 2019 at 4:40 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Jane, I only made these recently and although they tasted and looked great, they came out tiny. I followed the recipe, left them out piped onto the predesigned mat in your link for the time stated, tapped them etc. I did only pipe them as small as the inner circle on the mat as stated but they came out not much bigger! Have you any idea why that might have been so I can have another go please? Thanks

    • Jane's Patisserie on February 28, 2019 at 5:05 pm

      Just pipe a little more next time so it spreads a bit more! Most likely you just piped less than I did, but they aren’t that massive anyway! x



    • Judles on February 28, 2019 at 5:11 pm

      Thanks Jane, I’ll have another go and try that! Other than them being small I guess I was lucky as they had perfect “feet” etc first time



  17. Lissi on July 27, 2018 at 10:11 pm

    Where did you find strawberry extract?

  18. Judles on June 5, 2018 at 1:37 am

    No Jane, there wasn’t a link in the menu on your website to them. I only saw four different recipe’s for Macarons but no Neapolitan. I saw this through the link in the email subscription only

    • Jane's Patisserie on June 5, 2018 at 1:14 pm

      Oh its on my homepage, its on all social medias, and theres links, and the recipe is on the post you’re commenting on so I’m not sure of the issue?



  19. Chloe (Musings on Dinner) on June 3, 2018 at 8:41 pm

    These look gorgeous – the contrasting ice cream colours and beautiful – and thanks also for recommending a macaron mat! I’ve been looking for something like this for ages because the drawing out of the circles is pure tedium.

    • Jane's Patisserie on June 4, 2018 at 6:36 pm

      Yesss same honestly these mats are a revelation!



  20. Judles on June 1, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    Can’t wait to try these Neapolitan macarons! I noticed they’re not yet on your website yet? Please let us know when the video is uploaded. Thanks!

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