Healthy Homemade French Macarons | Refined Sugar Free, Gluten Free (2024)

Feb 27, 2017

These Healthy Homemade French Macarons are low fat and gluten free, but you’d never know it — they taste like the kinds you’d get in a bakery!

I have made (failed) macarons over thirtytimes. Yes,thirty. The number of trials is quite laughable to me now, but looking back I remember the frustration of each and every failed batch. I was hopeful when I folded the batterperfectly, I was anxious as I let the macarons dryon the trays for thirty minutes to an hour, I was let down when I checked on the macarons baking in the oven without any sign of the classic “feet,”and then I was crushed as I set the hot pans on my counter… yet another failed macaron. It’s like a slap in the face, a shattered dream, a total defeat.

Here is (just) one ofmy failures:

In the beginning,I set myself up for failure by using powdered coconut sugar. The coconut sugar turned the batter brown and they flattened completely in the oven (to ~2 millimeters in height!) into gooey caramel-like discs of sugar.

Here is some background infoof my failed trials:

• I have tested real white sugar to erythritol to sucanat to coconut sugar (some batches using all granulated sweetener, some using all powdered, some using both and one batch using a stovetop cooked syrup… I even tested out different powdered sugars, one 100% cane sugar and another laced with starch)
• I have used almond flour, almond meal and pistachio flour
• I have used cold egg whites, room temperature egg whites, and aged egg whites
• I have tested batches with no added flavorings or food colorings along with batches with some of both
• I have undermixed, overmixed, and mixed perfectly
• I let the macaron batter rest on the pans from zero minutes to more than an hour
• I tested a range of temperatures, from 220-350 degrees Fahrenheit (I always use an oven thermometer to be sure)
• I baked the macarons on both Silpatsand parchment paper
• I have baked these trials over a span of twoyears, from cold weather to warm weather (neither of which is humid)
• Some batches of macarons spread into thin wafers, some poofed up into what looked like sugar cookies, some were crunchy throughout, some never solidified and stayed chewy and bendable. My closest batch looked like macarons but without the feet and had huge air pockets in them, despite tapping the pans on the counter and witnessing air pockets rise to the surface (grrr)
• I seem to fail at French Macarons despite how much research I have completed, videos I have watched and recipes I have tried… ugh!

After years of failure, Ifinally perfected my Homemade French Macarons recipe. And they’re amazing. They are light, petite and sweet.

*falls to knees and bows down to the baking gods*

Recipe Notes:

1- Do not replace the Powdered Evaporated Cane Juice with any other sweetener! You canreplace the 50g of Granulated Evaporated Cane Juice with Sucanat. Just note that they take a longer time to dry before baking (~30 minutes more), and the resulting color will be a dark tan.

2- Use an oven thermometer to ensure your oven is exactly 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

3- Use a kitchen scale to make this recipe. It is veeeeeryfinicky!

4- Do not use dark colored pans to bake the macarons on. use a light colored pan.

5- Do not attempt this recipe on a humid or rainy day. Humidity and macarons are notfriends!

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Recipe republished with permission from theNaughty or NiceCookbook!

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Enjoy 🙂

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With love and good eats,

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–Jess

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