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ByCamila Hurst Posted on Updated on
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Hello friends! Today let’s make Vegan Chocolate Macarons! Please read the post below and the notes on the bottom of the recipe, because they are filled with tips that will certainly help you.
I’m going to start by talking about the MOST important thing when making macarons! Please make sure to have an oven thermometer when you bake macarons!
Everyday I get messages from people looking for help troubleshooting macaron issues, from regular macarons, and vegan macarons. And the most recurring issue is indeed due to oven temperature.
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You can do everything right up to the actual baking part, and if your oven isn’t on board, you can lose your whole batch of macarons.
Please read this post where I explain in detail why the oven is such an important factor when making macarons.
Basically, the tl;dr of the post is: home ovens are very inaccurate, and don’t do a good job at keeping the temperature you set it to, or at keeping a constant temperature if that. The only way to be able to control the temperature of the oven, is to have an oven thermometer, that will tell you what the actual temperature inside of the oven is.
Also, take time to get to know your oven. I have been baking at 285ºF, but with my previous oven, I was baking the vegan macarons at 310ºF, which seems to be way to high for my new oven, and causes my macarons to spread out their feet as they bake.
Another alternative if your feet are spreading out as the macarons bake, is to double pan the macarons. Which means, place the baking sheet on top of another baking sheet and bake it like that.
Anyway, I have a few more changes to my previous macaron recipes with these Vegan Chocolate Macarons. I have recently began to experimenting making macarons without reducing the aquafaba.
And it’s been working the exact same! I don’t think I will go back to reducing the aquafaba for the time being.
So, for these batch of Vegan Chocolate Macarons, I have changed my recipe below, to indicate that I do not reduce the aquafaba before making the macarons anymore.
These lovely Vegan Chocolate Macarons are filled with a Vegan Chocolate Ganache, made with coconut cream and dark chocolate.
These Vegan Chocolate Macarons are rich tasting, with a slightly crunchy shell, and a creamy filling.
For the ganache to achieve the perfect piping consistency, let it come to room temperature, and then place it in the fridge for about 30 or 40 minutes, and that will help the ganache obtain a nice and thick consistency.
These Vegan Chocolate Macarons can be stored in the fridge for a few days, usually from 4-7 days, and in the freezer for up to 1 or 2 months.
Here are the containers I use to store my macarons in the freezer.
If you like making macarons, here are some posts you might enjoy:
- Vegan Avocado Macarons
- Vegan Raspberry Macarons
- Lavender Lemon Vegan Macarons
- Vegan Pistachio Macarons
- Vegan Coffee Macarons
- Vegan Biscoff Macarons
- Vegan Vanilla Macarons
- Vegan Salted Caramel Macarons
- Vegan Matcha Macarons
I usually answer lots of macaron questions and troubleshooting, as possible on my instagram dm and email. Make sure to have pics if you’re sending me a message, since it’s easier to try and pin point what could have gone wrong.
Thanks for reading my blog! Have a lovely day!
Vegan Chocolate Macarons
Camila Hurst
Vegan Chocolate Macarons filled with a Vegan Dark Chocolate Ganache. They are delicious, rich, dairy-free, gluten-free, and perfect to enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea.
4.84 from 6 votes
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Prep Time 1 hour hr
Cook Time 40 minutes mins
Resting time 40 minutes mins
Total Time 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine French, vegan
Servings 20 macarons
Calories 160 kcal
Equipment
Large bowl
Sifter
Electric mixer
Spatulas
Piping bags
Large round piping tip
2 baking sheets
Parchment paper, or silicone mat
Whisk
Ingredients
Vegan Macaron Shells
- 100 grams almond flour
- 90 grams powdered sugar
- 12 grams cocoa powder
- 75 grams aquafaba
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 66 grams granulated sugar
Vegan Chocolate Ganache
- 1/4 cup coconut cream 60 ml
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate (56.6 grams)
Instructions
Vegan Macaron Shells
Gather all of your ingredients before starting to make macarons. Measure out all ingredients. Line two baking sheets with silicon mats. And fit a large piping bag with a round tip. You want everything ready to go when you need it.
Sift almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
Place 75 grams of aquafaba in the bowl of a mixer with the cream of tartar.
Whip for about 1 minute on low, or medium low if the low on your mixer is way too slow. (On my hand mixer I whip on low, but on my KitchenAid I whip on medium low)
At this point, raise speed to medium, and whip for another 2 minutes.
Raise speed to high and start to add granulated sugar, slowly, a bit at a time.
Continue to whip until the aquafaba achieves stiff peaks.
The whole whipping, from beginning to end, should last about 10 minutes, but sometimes it may last longer. Make sure you have obtained stiff peaks, shooting straight up.
Add sifted dry ingredients to whipped aquafaba. Start folding with a spatula slowly.
Add food coloring at this point, if using any.
Fold forming a letter J with the spatula.
Fold until the batter is flowing slightly. You don’t want the batter to be flowing continuously off the spatula. When it comes to vegan macarons, the folding time is very very brief. You are basically just looking to incorporate the dry ingredients with the meringue. Please watch the video to see what the consistency should look like. 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 on a ribbon. Do not get to the ribbons stage! If you get to the ribbon stage, the macaron feet will spread out in the oven.
Transfer batter to the piping bag.
Pipe 1 1/2” circles on a baking sheet lined with silicone mat. I usually use 2 sheets. This will depend on how big you pipe your macarons.
Slam the trays against the counter to release air bubbles.
Use a toothpick to pop any remaining bubbles.
Let the trays rest for 30-45 minutes until the shells are dry. Test this by touching a macaron gently with your finger. Depending on humidity levels and weather, it might take longer or less time for your macarons to dry.
Pre-heat the oven to 285ºF.
Bake each tray separately.
Bake for a total of 20 minutes, or until the macarons are easily coming off the silicon mat.
Remember to rotate the tray after the first 5 minutes baking, to ensure even distribution of heat, so the feet rise the same.
Baking time might vary depending on your oven.
Let the macarons cool down before filling.
Vegan Dark Chocolate Ganache
Heat up the coconut cream until hot. Pour over the chocolate chips.
Whisk until all chocolate chips have melted. If they aren’t melting, microwave it for just a few seconds and whisk again to ensure the ganache is smooth without any chocolate lumps in it.
Let the mixture cool down. Chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes, so it gains a firm consistency that can be piped.
To assemble
Place the Ganache in a piping bag. Pipe a dollop of filling on top of half of the shells. And then top with another shell.
Wait for the macarons to mature for 24-48 hours before serving them. And let them come to room temperature for 10 minutes before eating, for optimal results and enjoyment.
Storage
Store the macarons in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Notes
Aquafaba is the water you obtain from cooking chickpeas (or other legumes). The aquafaba I use is water drained from a chickpea can. I prefer low or no sodium chickpea water, mainly because of the taste, I feel like the salted chickpea water adds a weird taste to meringues and such. Some people like to boil their own chickpeas to obtain the aquafaba, and you can do that, but make sure to study what are the best ratios water:chickpeas so your aquafaba is concentrated enough.
Reduced aquafaba: I have recently stopped reducing the aquafaba to make my vegan macarons, and they have been working fine. I used to reduce the aquafaba for my previous vegan macarons, but I decided to start skipping this step to experiment, and the macarons have been turning out great. I still like to use low sodium chickpea water.
Macaronage: If you are acquainted with making regular (egg white) macarons, one of the clues about knowing when the batter is ready to be piped, is when you can grab some batter with the spatula and start drawing a figure 8, if the batter doesn’t break up as you draw a few figure 8 shapes, that means the batter should be ready. However, I am learning with vegan macarons that it’s optimal to stop folding the batter right before it reaches this stage. Please watch my videos on youtube, as you can see in the videos what the batter should look like.
If the batter is too thick while mixing, add a teaspoon of aquafaba as you mix, until you obtain the perfect consistency.
Macaronage: Do not let the batter reach ribbon stage. If it reaches ribbon stage it will be over mixed, the batter is supposed to be thick. Watch my videos on YouTube to see what it should look like.
Oven thermometer: Please make sure to have an oven thermometer! I receive a lot of troubleshooting questions and the great majority are issues caused due to not having an oven thermometer. Read this post for more detailed information about how important this is.
Oven temperature: Please experiment with your own oven temperature. Temperatures will vary depending on your oven and technique. It’s important to experiment and see what works best for your own oven. In my old oven I used to bake this same recipe at 310ºF. However, with my new oven, I bake it at 285ºF. This comes to show that the temperature will vary greatly depending on your own oven. Please experiment and find out what works best for you.
Troubleshooting: if your macarons are exploding, flattening out, with the feet spreading to the sides, that can mean a few things:
1- hot oven (make sure to have oven thermometer and experiment with the optimal oven temperature for your oven).
2- over mixed batter. It’s really easy to over mix vegan macaron batter. Mix it just until it starts to flow. Watch the videos on my youtube channel for reference.
3- under whipped meringue: make sure the meringue has really stiff peaks. It can take some time. Just be patient.
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Cada vez mais eu fico maravilhado com suas receitas, parabéns!!!!!!!Reply
Amazing!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏Reply
These vegan chocolate macarons are amazing Camila! Total perfection!Reply
Tried these and I must have done something majorly wrong – they looked fine before going in the oven, the temperature was good (I have an oven thermometer) but after 20 minutes they came out completely flat and spread all over the tray! Any advice for what went wrong would be really appreciated.
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The oven temperature was probably too high, experiment with what temperature is best for your oven, divide the batch of macaron between a few different trays, and experiment with lowering the temperature, maybe even using a double tray to bake the macarons. Each oven operates differently, and when it comes to macarons they are very precise and particular, and it’s important to learn how to bake them in your own oven.
Also, that could be a result from over mixing the batter, but I believe it was the heat that’s too high for your oven. maybe you baked them too close to heat source? Experiment with your oven and find the optimal settings 🙂Reply
Thanks for the tips, I’ll have to set aside an afternoon for experimenting. Guess I’ll be eating a lot of chickpeas!
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Tried these today and exactly as Kara said , It looked awesome before going in the oven, even in the oven initially it looked as if they are rising perfectly, but suddenly started to flatten. Please guide, as I really wanted to try them as my kids love them. Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe!
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My first question would be: do you have an oven thermometer?
Make sure to have one to control the temperature. Home ovens are never accurate in maintaining the temperature you set it to. So if the oven is too hot this can happen to the macarons.
My second guess is: over mixed batter. It’s really really easy to over mix vegan macaron batter, and by far the biggest issue I see happening while helping people troubleshoot. Mix the batter just a little bit until it starts to flow. Stop mixing before it comes to the figure 8 stage.Reply
Can you replace the cream of tartar with vinegar? If so how much?
Thank youReply
Some people love using vinegar, some people say it doesn’t work for them. I am basing off what I read on the Vegan Mac Attack Facebook group where lots of people share their experience. So I would give it a shot, and see how it goes. and the replacement would be the same ratio.
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Have you tried this using powdered aquafaba?
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I have not tried it. Must look into it!
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Could I use greaseproof paper instead of a silicon mat and when you say they should “mature” does this mean leave them in the fridge?Reply
yes you can use parchment paper. not wax paper tho.
And mature yes it means leaving them filled in the fridge overnight, they soften up, and their texture improves as well as the flavor. Some vegan ones I leave maturing for 48 hours (specially if I over bake accidentally 😅)Reply
Hello! I am going to experiment these macarons with different oven temperature. I don’t want my whole batch of batter to fail at one go! So i was planning to pipe a few first and bake. What should I do with the leftover batter if I don’t have extra trays to pipe them?
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I would try to keep it covered in the piping bag, however I am not sure how this can go, because as the batter sits it will begin to dry out and lose its structure, lose air and start to deflate. So I don’t know if this is going to work well.
And you might not be able to even experiment accurately with the oven temperatures since the batter may have lost some of its structure as it sits, so if the macarons don’t come out right might not be due to the temperature of the oven, but because of the batter sitting there. Also note that the macarons have to rest before baking, so that’s even longer than the batter would have to be sitting there waiting for the macarons you’ve piped to rest, and then waiting for them to bake as well.Reply
Great recipe tasty and easy to make. Made a double batch – gave one batch away as a present.
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Awesome! Thank you!
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Can you bake them, and meringue generally, in things such as deep dish pans, or pans that have raised walls? Thanks!
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is it always with almond flour? can it be withe normal flour?? thank you!
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you can make with all-purpose flour. I actually did that this past week. the shells turned out a bit wrinkly, which tells me it needs less all-purpose flour, so next time I will decrease the amount by about 15 grams, and then keep experimenting. Some people replace it 1:1 and it turns out of for them.
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Hi Camila!! Thankyou for the vegan recipe. I’m so obsessed with Macarons and been trying out many recipes but failed. I tried yours as well today. I made half the quantity of your recipe. My aquafaba whipped perfectly to stiff peaks and all the ingredients were precisely measured. But once I folded in the dry I ingredients to the aquafaba mix, it went too thick and dry. I couldn’t fold it at all. Even after some mixing the batter did not loosen up. I folded the dry ingredients in two batches. What went wrong?? Where did I go wrong? Please help me.
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It depends on how you whipped the meringue, and on the consistency of the aquafaba. Did you use it aquafaba straight from a can?
When that happens you can add 1/2 teaspoon to 1 tsp of aquafaba to the macaronage stage to see if it helps the batter loosen up a bit, as I indicate on the notes of the recipe.
Hope you can get it soon! It happens to all of us, it’s a bit of a journey to master these cookies, specially vegan ones!Reply
Hi! I couldn’t find canned chickpea, so I boiled the chickpeas at home and used the water. What do you mean by consistency of the aquafaba? How is it supposed to be?
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that was your issue then. Because the aquafaba will have a certain level of concentration, it could be too watered down or too concentrated. That’s why I used canned chickpeas, because the aquafaba from the can has the perfect concentration for macarons. I recommend experimenting with different ratios of chickpeas and water in order to obtain aquafaba that will be optimal for making macarons. It will take experimenting, but it makes a big difference.
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The exact same thing happend to me 🙁 I used aquafaba from canned chickpeas. Even added more whipped aquafaba (another 70g) to see if it would loosen up but it barley made a difference. I’m still gonna bake them, maybe they’ll turn out edible. Next time I’m trying a different brand of chickpeas and skip the cocoa powder.
Appreciate any hints or tipps as to what went wrong.Reply
what flour do you use?
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I used almond flour
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Do you happen to know of a good substitute for almond flour? I love your blog and need a vegan macaron recipe, but have an allergy to almonds.
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you can use all purpose flour (reduce 10 grams). and you can use sunflower seed flour, or hazelnut flour, I’ve also seen people make it with coconut flour, not sure about the amount though, since coconut absorbs more moisture so you’d probably need less of it.
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Hello! Do you by chance know what the conversions would be to cups?
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I don’t give out the measurements in cups for macarons because I highly discourage to measure the ingredients in volume. You need a scale, there are too many variables in macarons, and the variables you can control such as ingredient measurements and oven temperature (as in have an oven thermometer), you absolutely have to.
When you scoop a cup of almond flour it won’t be the same every single time, the actual amount will vary depending on how you scooped it. Which is why I recommend getting a scale if you want to make macarons.Reply
Hi Camilla I love your blog and all your recipes. Wanted to check if you have tried making macaroons using potato protein? The acquafaba results in a lot of chickpeas 🙂 appreciate your thoughts
I havent tried yet though I get this request a lot, so it’s on my list of things to make soon. I have some on my amazon cart, I will buy it and make it.
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Hi Camilla, I tried out eggless macarons with aquafaba and it was a major disaster. I want to send you pics of my batch so that you can guide me.
Can you please share your email address
Thanks,
HavoviReply
[emailprotected]
Reply
Thanks. Have emailed you.
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I’m not sure what went wrong with these but they just would not dry even though I followed the directions closely. They cracked in the oven and never developed feet. Tried the vanilla vegan macarons before this and those came out perfectly! I don’t know what happened with this recipe though. Guess I’ll try again another day
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your meringue wasn’t stiff.
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It was. I know when my meringue is stiff enough and that wasn’t the issue here. The peaks were straight up and I could even hold the bowl upside down without any movement.
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well there was definitely something wrong with your batter since they wouldn’t dry, and that indicates the batter was “wet” which usually means it was over folded, or the meringue was under whipped. However, since they didn’t form feet, that means the batter was not over folded. If the batter was over folded, the feet would have spread out, which means most likely the meringue was under whipped.
It can take a long time to whip the aquafaba meringue to the proper consistency required for macarons, and it might take beginners quite a few tries to get it right. The fact that the meringue wasn’t falling off the bowl without movement does not mean the meringue was ready, even if the meringue is at firm peaks it will hold on to the bowl without falling, but that doesn’t mean it’s stiff enough to be folded with the dry ingredients.
Also another classic sign of under whipped meringue is exactly what you described: cracked shells with no feet.Reply
Could humidity have been a factor too? I’m sure I’ll try again another time. I think the humidity where I live definitely plays a factor too.
Hello – tried this recipe for the first time. They looked perfect going into the oven and just as perfect coming out with very little ruffling. However, they didn’t have a base. The inside looked underdone so I’ve popped them in to dry out. Followed your recipe exactly. The only thing different was the oven temp – I had it at 120c – my oven runs hot. And they were on the bottom. Any suggestions on what could be the problem?
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that means they weren’t baked long enough
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Great recipe! But do you think you could use chocolate buttercream instead of chocolate ganache ?Reply
you can fill it with whatever you want
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Do you use sweetened or unsweetened cocoa powder?
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unsweetened
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I have been wanting to try making vegan macarons with aquafaba for a while now. I am SHOCKED at how these taste exactly like normal macarons…or even better, honestly. I brought them to work and non vegans were saying they were “life changing.” I really am so pleasantly surprised at how amazing these are. I cannot recommend enough. I can’t wait to try other flavors.Reply
That’s absolutely amazing to hear! Thank you!!
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I love macarons! I haven’t had a good vegan one yet so I’m very excited to try these!
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Hello! Super interested in trying this recipe for my friend who has a long list of restrictions in her diet – including cane sugar. I expect that my usual substitute for her (coconut sugar) would be acceptable in the meringue, provided that I could prepare it Swiss method by cooking/melting it – would that ruin the aquafaba? It may be alright French method I’ll have to experiment. My actual question is if you have any idea how I might substitute the powdered sugar or if that’s possible at all. Or can you make macarons with sifted almond flour only, no powdered sugar? I know, very unusual questions lol thanks for you any input 🙏🏼
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it is not possible to make it without refined sugar sorry
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Hey 🙂
Do you mean with coconut cream the solid phase in the cans with coconut milk? Or is it something different? Also dark chocolate is not very liked here as a ganache, what’s your experience with milk chocolate? Is it too sweet? Thank you!Reply
you can def use milk chocolate, and coconut cream is sold in a can it’s simply called coconut cream 🙂
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Hi! I’m Camila
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I’m Camila Hurst, and I love making fabulous desserts. My goal is to teach you how to make delicious desserts from scratch to impress your guests, friends, and family!
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