Light, crisp, and chewy French macarons are topped with pistachios and filled with a chocolate pistachio buttercream filling. These naturally gluten free cookies are rich and nutty, the perfect treat for any time of day!
If you love making French macarons as much as I do, be sure to check out some of my other favorites like my Strawberry French Macarons, Chocolate French Macarons, or my Raspberry French Macarons.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Chocolate and pistachio is probably one of my favorite combos. The sweet and salty pistachios combined with rich chocolate is just heaven. Today I'm sharing my traditional Pistachio French Macarons recipe, but I've added chocolate to the filling. My traditional Pistachio French Macarons recipe can be found in my book, Cookies for Everyone.
I love making French macarons because it is so satisfying when you bake them perfectly, since they can be incredibly challenging. Plus, they are truly one of my favorite cookies to eat because their texture is unreal! If you don't agree – then I will say it's probably because you never had a good mac! Seriously, there's no way you don't like these cookies if made properly. They are a serious explosion of texture, chewy, crunchy, airy – all at the same time.
This is also why they are incredibly difficult to make, and also don't last more than one day! Yes, I am serious people. Do not “store” your French macarons. I get really heated on this subject, but for good reason. French macarons are not to be kept for more than one day. That is it! And if you've had a bad French macaron before, it was probably because it was kept longer than 1 day, as they just don't taste the same the following day! So, when you bake macs, enjoy and eat them all, or give them to friends and family. I gave a big box of these to my neighbors when I made them!
Tips for Chocolate Pistachio French Macarons
• Use a scale! I say this with every single recipe, but if you are anti scale – get on board right here and right now! French Macarons are temperamental (to say the least) you don’t want to make a mistake measuring. Everyone measures differently, even if you know the right way to measure by cups – let’s be real, it’s not as accurate as a scale. It will never be as accurate as a scale! Get a scale, find the one I have here.
• When separating your egg whites, do not get any part of the yolk in the egg whites. If you do, set them aside and start over. Yolks are fat, and we don’t want any fat in our egg whites so it will whip up into perfect meringue.
• Make sure to whip your egg whites until stiff peaks form. The egg whites should not droop, should not fall off the whisk, or should not really even move. It will be thick, shiny, and bright white.
• Do not overstir your batter. It should be thick and barely fall off your spatula. If your batter is too runny, your macarons will spread out too much and you will probably not have the iconic feet form correctly, they will most likely be flat and on the sides of the macarons as opposed to underneath, how they should be.
• Pipe your macarons evenly, I know this can be challenging. But, they all need to be the same size so they bake properly and you don’t have ones that are burned or not done. I like to count to 2 while piping, that’s all it should take to pipe the size of macaron you need.
• Banging the cookie sheets is super important to remove air bubbles and smooth out the tops. It also helps create the iconic feet that French macs are known for. And, I wait until after the banging to put the pistachios on top – otherwise, they will go everywhere!
• French macarons should not be kept for more than 1 day. I am serious about this, I get really heated on this topic! Eat them all the same day you bake them! I have no storage tips for you as they should not be stored!
Ingredients for Chocolate Pistachio French Macarons
Costco Kirkland Organic Cane Sugar
Simply Organic Vanilla Extract
Florida Crystals Organic Powdered Sugar
Food to Live Organic Almond Flour
NuNaturals Organic Dutch Cocoa Powder
Organic Shelled Roasted & Salted Pistachios
Alexandre Family Farm Organic A2/A2 Chocolate Milk
Why Organic
Why use organic ingredients in this recipe? You all know I’m a huge organic advocate, and I bet you may be thinking sometimes, Why would I even bother to use organic ingredients in something that is so sweet and indulgent? But, that is the exact reason why you should use organic ingredients! Sweet things need to have flavor in order to be good, otherwise they are just sweet and they don’t taste like much else. Organic ingredients are more pure than conventional ones, therefore they actually have more flavor than the non organic options. Say it with me, organic means more flavor! And not just more flavor but a more true and pure flavor. And organic ingredients are much healthier for you to eat in general as they do not contain GMOs or anything artificial. Plus, you are being environmentally friendly when you choose organic ingredients!
So, I highly recommend that you buy the best organic ingredients for this recipe! You can also shop my Amazon Storefront for all my favorite organic ingredients here. Tip – hover over each ingredient to see the name. And if you want to learn more about organic foods and the difference, read my post here on Food Labels and What They Mean.
Light, crispy, chewy and melt in your mouth all the same time – that is the allure of French macarons. These are filled with a chocolate pistachio filling and topped with pistachios.
Ingredients
- Macs
3 large (102 grams) organic egg whites
71 grams (1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) organic cane sugar
1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
198 grams (1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons) organic powdered sugar
113 grams (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) organic almond flour
35 grams (1/4 cup) organic roasted, salted, and shelled pistachios, finely chopped
- Filling
155 grams (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) organic powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons (85 grams) organic salted butter, softened
15 grams (3 tablespoons) organic Dutch cocoa powder, sifted
2 teaspoons organic chocolate milk
1/2 teaspoon organic pistachio extract
Directions
- Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add the egg whites, cane sugar, and vanilla extract. Whisk, starting on low to avoid splattering, and slowly in creasing the speed to high, until stiff peaks form.
- Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together into the bowl of meringue. Turn the mixer on low for 10 to 15 rotations until the dry ingredients start to blend into the meringue. Pulse the mixer on medium/high 4 to 5 times to incorporate the batter.
- Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer, and gently stir the batter with a spatula just until there are no pockets of egg whites or dry bits of almond flour. Don’t overstir. Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with Ateco tip #804.
- Pipe the macaron batter onto the prepared cookie sheets (30 should fit on each cookie sheet). Holding a cookie sheet firmly in both hands, and making sure the parchment paper doesn’t slide around, bang the cookie sheet on the counter a few times. Rotate the cookie sheet and bang it a few more times. Repeat with the other cookie sheet. This will smooth out the batter and will help form the macarons’ famous “feet.” Sprinkle the chopped pistachios on top of the macs.
- Let rest for 45 minutes, or until the rounds of batter have formed shells.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the macs look dry and the shells look shiny. Let cool completely on the cookie sheets.
- To make the filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the powdered sugar, butter, Dutch cocoa powder, milk, and pistachio extract. Mix on low until combined, then speed mixer up to high for 1 minute or until light and fluffy. Transfer to a piping bag with no tip.
- Turn over every other macaron and pair them together. Pipe a dollop of filling onto each turned over macaron and sandwich together.
- Serve or eat immediately!
Notes
- High Altitude — Bake for 8 minutes or until the macs look dry and the shells look shiny.
Did you make this recipe?
Make sure to tag @mimibakescookies and @mimibakesphotos on Instagram!
Did you like this post?
Make sure to check out my Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, which I'm sure you'll love too! And, share it with someone who you think may also like it!
