7 Cozy Fall Macaron Flavors

Macarons took me an embarrassingly long time to get right.

Once the shells work though, they work, and after that most of a new flavor is just a new filling.

That’s the part I wish somebody had told me at the start.

A couple of these do something to the shell as well, but not much.

Seven flavors below.

1. Brown Sugar Cinnamon Macarons

The most autumn-tasting thing here and one of the plainest to put together.

Brown sugar buttercream with cinnamon through it, and nothing else at all.

Use dark brown sugar and dissolve it properly before the butter goes in.

Undissolved brown sugar stays gritty in buttercream and you’ll feel every grain of it against the shell.

2. S’mores Macarons

Graham crumbs through the shell, marshmallow and dark chocolate ganache inside.

Keep the crumbs fine and put them through a fine sieve with the almond flour.

Anything coarse leaves a bumpy top, and macaron shells show every single fault.

Torch the marshmallow after it’s piped, never before.

3. Cinnamon Roll Macarons

A cinnamon swirl on the shell and a cream cheese filling, which is about as close as a macaron gets to breakfast.

The swirl goes on by dragging a skewer through the piped batter before it rests.

Cream cheese filling is softer than buttercream, so give these a night in the fridge before you move the tray anywhere.

4. Cranberry White Chocolate Macarons

Cranberry jam sitting in the middle of a white chocolate ganache ring.

Pipe the ganache as a wall and drop the jam into the well.

Jam stirred through ganache splits it, and jam spread flat leaks out of the sides inside an hour.

Cook the cranberries down further than you think you need to, since a loose jam is what causes the leak in the first place.

5. Espresso Macarons

The one for people who find macarons too sweet, and they aren’t wrong.

Instant espresso powder, not brewed coffee.

Liquid coffee in a ganache is enough to seize it, and the powder gives you more flavor for none of the risk.

A dusting of cocoa over the shells stops them looking beige.

6. Biscoff Cookie Butter Macarons

Cookie butter straight from the jar, beaten into buttercream.

Almost no work, and it tastes like a great deal more.

Half-dip the finished shells and press a crushed biscuit into the chocolate while it’s still wet.

This is the flavor most likely to be gone first.

7. Eggnog Macarons

The end-of-season one, for the point where it’s stopped being autumn and nobody has said so out loud yet.

Nutmeg through the buttercream, and rum in the filling if you want it there.

Grate the nutmeg fresh with a microplane.

Ready-ground nutmeg has almost nothing left in it, and this filling gives it nowhere to hide.

Notes on the Shells

Separate the egg whites a day ahead and leave them covered in the fridge.

Older whites carry less water and whip more stably, which is most of the battle won before you start.

Sieve the almond flour and powdered sugar twice, then throw away whatever refuses to go through.

Every lump you leave in becomes a lump on a finished shell.

Weigh everything.

This is the one bake where a cup measure genuinely will not do, and a gram scale is the difference between feet and puddles.

A silicone macaron mat takes the guesswork out of sizing them, which matters more than it sounds when you’re pairing shells later.

Rest the piped trays until the tops are dry to a fingertip.

That’s anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour depending on how humid your kitchen is, and there’s no shortcut past it.

And get an oven thermometer in there, because most ovens lie by enough to matter here and by nowhere near enough to matter anywhere else.

Tips for the Fillings

The filling does all the flavor work, so make it stronger than tastes right on a spoon.

A shell is pure sugar and it flattens everything it touches.

Anything wet needs a ganache wall around it.

Jam, curd and caramel all leak, and a firm ring piped round the edge is the only thing that stops them.

Mature them in the fridge for a day before anyone eats one.

The filling softens the shell from the inside and turns it from crisp to chewy, and that texture is the entire reason to bother with macarons at all.

They also freeze filled, which almost nothing else on a dessert table will do.

For the other ten flavors, the fall macarons post covers pumpkin spice, maple pecan and the rest of the classics.

And if you’re making a tray of these you’ll want something to drink while they rest, which is where the fall pumpkin coffee recipes come in.