Macaron

The macaron arrived twice in France — first to Nancy in the 18th century, then to Paris in the 1920s.

Origin

The word macaron travels through Italian maccarone and Latin maccarus, both rooted in a verb meaning “to crush” — fitting for a cookie built on ground almonds. The earliest French macarons appear in 16th-century records from convents in Cormery and Nancy, served as plain almond-meringue rounds, unfilled.

For three centuries the macaron stayed single-shelled and chewy, a regional almond cookie rather than the colorful icon we recognize today. The decisive transformation happened in Paris.

What it is

Two smooth disks of Italian-meringue-and-almond batter, baked until a “foot” forms at the base, then sandwiched around a ganache, buttercream, or fruit-curd filling. The shell should be crisp on contact and yield to a tender, slightly chewy interior.

Color comes from food-grade powders or gels added to the meringue. Diameter sits around 4–5 cm, weight under 15 g — small enough to finish in two bites, sweet enough that one is usually plenty.

Cultural context

The Parisian double-shell macaron was popularized in the 1920s by Pierre Desfontaines at Ladurée , who reportedly first thought to bond two shells with ganache. Today it appears at every Parisian salon de thé and as gift boxes for Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, and corporate occasions.

In Korea and Japan it has been adopted enthusiastically. Korea coined the larger ttungkaron (뚱카롱) in the late 2010s, abandoning Parisian restraint for fillings several centimeters thick. Tokyo and Kyoto patissiers favor matcha, hojicha, and yuzu.

Variations

Beyond Paris, macaron de Nancy and macaron d’Amiens survive as single-shell ancestors — denser, plainer, made by nuns. Korea’s ttungkaron is the most visible modern mutation, often filled with cream cheese, fruit jam, or matcha buttercream.

The Italian amaretti is a distant cousin, drier and unfilled, built on bitter almond. The American macaroon — coconut-based — shares only the name.

How it’s made

The macaronage step — folding meringue into almond-flour-and-sugar paste — is the technique. Folded too little, the batter sits in peaks; folded too much, the shells spread and crack on the tray. Pastry chefs gauge it by ribbon: the batter should fall in a slow, continuous ribbon when lifted on a spatula, settling back into the bowl without holding shape.

The shells then rest 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature so a skin forms. This skin is what produces the characteristic “foot” — the ruffled edge at the base — when the meringue rises during baking.

References

The 1920s Ladurée moment is documented in Larousse Gastronomique and Pierre Hermé ’s Macaron (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2011), which also formalizes the macaronage definition. For the Nancy origin, Encyclopédie de la pâtisserie française ( 2009 ) is the standard source.