Macarons can be filled with many different flavor combinations. Macarons can be filled with sweet, savory, chocolate, fruit or dessert fillings.
You can add your own extracts, herbs, and spices to create your own macaron fillings to fit your tasting needs once you have the base of the macaron filling decided upon.
What are macarons traditionally filled with
Macarons are traditionally filled with chocolate ganache, buttercream based fillings or jam fillings.
What type of filling is best for macarons
The best type of filling for macarons is buttercream icing.
Buttercream icing holds its shape well, and can easily be flavored with spices, extracts, zest, or cocoa powder to create flavorful fillings for macarons.
Buttercream icing will not fall down the sides of the macarons and can be thickened by adding a little more powdered sugar.
Buttercream can also be infused with tea by heating heavy cream, and then steeping tea to infuse its flavor. The steeped heavy cream is then added to butter and powdered sugar to create tea infused buttercream icings for macarons.
What’s the filling in macarons
Macarons can be filled with a variety of fillings including caramel sauce, chocolate ganache, buttercream icing, jam, cream cheese, ricotta cheese (savory macarons), goat cheese.
What are the best macaron filling flavors
The best macaron filling flavors are:
- vanilla bean macarons
- salted caramel macarons
- cookies and cream macarons
- lemon macarons
- raspberry macarons
Fruit Macaron Filling Ideas
Fruit macaron fillings are typically citrus flavors or berry flavors. Jam, zest, or freeze dried fruits are added to a buttercream based filling to create fruit macaron fillings.
- caramel apple macarons
- raspberry macarons
- lemon macarons
- key lime macarons
- strawberry macarons
- passionfruit macarons
Chocolate Macaron Filling Ideas
Chocolate macaron fillings are made by adding cocoa powder to a buttercream base, or by making a chocolate ganache. Chocolate ganache can have zest and extracts added to it to create more flavors of chocolate macarons.
- dark chocolate raspberry macarons
- hot chocolate macarons
- peanut butter and chocolate macarons
- mint chocolate macarons
- black tea with guava and tarragon white chocolate macarons
- Thai milk tea white chocolate macarons
Tea Macaron Filling Ideas
Tea macarons are made with fillings that have steeped tea that has been infused into heavy cream. The heavy cream steeped tea is placed into a buttercream based icing to create tea macaron fillings.
- earl grey macarons
- chai tea macarons
- lavender macarons
- matcha macarons
- green tea macarons
Dessert Macaron Filling Ideas
Dessert macaron fillings are made with a buttercream base or caramel sauce. Some of them include marshmallows in the center of the macaron, or crushed candies to create a flavorful dessert macaron filling.
- creme brulee macarons
- pistachio macarons
- vanilla bean macarons
- espresso macarons
- salted caramel macarons
- candy cane macarons
- dulce de leche macarons
- hazelnut macarons
- apricot walnut macarons
- chocolate hazelnut macarons
- S’more macarons
- eggnog macarons
- champagne macarons
- tiramisu macarons
- cotton candy macarons
Savory Macaron Filling Ideas
Savory macarons are filled with a cheese or butter base to them.
Many savory macarons are made with a ricotta, goat cheese or cream cheese base to them, with herbs and spices added to them.
Typically a cheese that is spreadable works well for filling savory macarons because it will hold its shape after its been piped, and it can easily be mixed with other herbs and spices to create delicious savory macarons.
- smoked salmon macarons
- fig and sesame goat cheese macarons
- tomato, basil, and ricotta cheese macarons
- pimento cheese macarons
- bacon macarons
- blue cheese and pear macarons
How to fill macarons
Macarons are filled by fitting a piping bag with a piping tip of at least 1/4″ in thickness.
If you want the macaron filling to have a fancy edge to it, select the star tip or closed star nozzle. They will create a beautiful edging to your macaron fillings.
Fill the piping bag with macaron filling.
Twist the end of the bag while holding the tip to the ceiling. Cut the tip of the piping bag and push the nozzle to the end. Twist the bag until filling starts coming to the edge of the nozzle.
Squeeze the top of the piping bag with your fingers to evenly distribute the macaron filling on the macaron shells.
If you’re using 2 fillings, pipe the ring around the macaron edge first (usually buttercream icing).
Next fill the center of the macaron filling inside the ring you just piped. The center filling could be caramel sauce, jam, etc. The ring of more solid icing will hold the runnier filling inside the macaron, and will not leak out.
If you’re filling the macaron with only 1 filling, pipe the outside ring first, and end in the center of the macaron. Make you use test to see how full you are filling your macarons. Add the other shell on top to see how much filling is showing. If you want more filling showing, add another layer of macaron filling.
Can you fill Macarons the next day
You can store unfilled macaron shells in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
You can fill macarons anytime in the next 5 days after baking the shells.
Once you have filled your macarons, place them in the fridge for up to 3 days.
If you’re wanting your macarons to last longer, place them in an airtight container for up to 1 month in the freezer.
How to make buttercream macaron filling
Classic buttercream macaron filling is made with 1 cup of butter, 4-5 cups of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of heavy cream or milk, pinch of salt, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
This makes a large batch of buttercream macaron filling. You can split it up into 3 different flavorings.
By having the base of macaron buttercream filling, you can add different flavorings to change it from vanilla buttercream into the flavoring you want.
You can add:
- 2 tbsp of jam filling
- 1-2 tsp of spices
- 1 tbsp of zest
- 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp of espresso or coffee (you’ll need to add more powdered sugar to thicken the icing back up again)
- crushed cookies (1/4 cup)
- 1-2 tbsps cookie crumbs
- 1-2 tsp of extract
Create your own buttercream macaron filling using these modifiers for your own favorite macaron filling.
