Rose Macarons

You will adore this rose macaron recipe. Delicate French macarons paired with rose, white chocolate ganache, and pistachio crumble. These macarons taste delicious and are loved by Turkish Delight lovers and rose dessert newbies alike.

These rose-flavored macarons taste like a spring morning. The sweet rose ganache, balanced by the pistachio crumble and nutty macaron shells, taste divine.

I love filling my macarons with ganache. Not only is it less sweet than many buttercreams, but ganache is also super easy to make. When you consider macaron cookies tend to take about an hour to make, keeping the filling simple (yet delicious) is a huge bonus.

Tools you’ll need

You will require quite a few pieces of equipment to make macarons. They are many levels above your average cookie, in both taste and complexity. To make these rose macarons, you’ll need standard equipment required for most macaron recipes, including:

• Electric Mixer
• Food Processor
• Bowls
• Spatulas
• Knives
• Kitchen Scales
• Fine Sieve
• Piping Bags and Nozzles
• Baking Tray
• Parchment Paper
• Toothpicks
• Microwave
• Macaron template (optional, but recommended).

Rose Macaron Ingredients

You’ll need the following ingredients for these macarons:

• Rose Extract: This is the key flavor profile in these macarons, so choose a high quality brand. 
• Almond Flour: Look for a almond flour that is finely ground. Be aware that Almond Meal is not a good substitute.
• Icing Sugar: Also known as powder sugar or confectioner’s sugar.
• Egg Whites:
• Cream of Tartar: This will help your egg whites to whip nicely.
• Caster Sugar: Also known as fine granulated sugar
• Vanilla Extract:
• Salt: gives the macarons a more rounded flavor.
• White Chocolate: Choose your favorite brand of chocolate, preferably one that contains cocoa butter.
• Cream: use heavy cream (aka cream with 30%-40% fat content).
• Beetroot Powder (optional): This optional ingredient is used to naturally color the macarons pink. It does add some flavor to the macaron cookies, but this is barely noticable once the macarons are assembled with rose ganache.
• Pistachios (optional): These add a little texture to the macarons and balance the rose flavor.

Substitution Ideas

Beetroot Powder

The purpose of the beetroot powder is to naturally color the macaron shells. However, it can be omitted entirely, so your macarons will be a lovely white color. Alternatively, you can add gel or powder food color to your macaron batter to color it.

Just be sure to use water-based gel or powdered food color. Both the gels and powders allow you to add color to the macarons without upsetting the delicate balance of ingredients. Using liquid food color adds too much moisture to the batter and you risk having lumpy macarons that do not hold their shape after baking. Also, oil food color will destroy your meringue, turning your light fluffy meringue into soup.

Add artificial food either directly to the meringue when you add the vanilla extract or as soon as the dry ingredients are added to the meringue.

Rose Extract

I have in the past used real edible roses in substitution for rose extract. Ganache made with real roses tastes wonderful, but given rose extract is easier to come by, I thought it was a more practical ingredient to include in this recipe.

Although I personally haven’t tried it, rose water in theory could also be used as a substitute for rose extract. However be mindful that it has a milder flavor.

Refer to my Rose Ganache recipe for full details on making this ganache with rose water or real roses.

How to make rose-flavored macarons

My 10 steps to make these macarons are:

1. Make the ganache first to give it time to set prior to assembling the macarons. Add the cream, butter and chocolate to a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 20 seconds. Stir to combine and ensure all the chocolate melts. If needed, heat for a further 10 seconds and stir again. Stir in the rose extract, cover with cling film (so that it’s touching the ganache) and place in the fridge to set.
2. Blitz the dry ingredients (almond flour, powdered sugar and beetroot powder) in a food processor. This will break up any large pieces of almond flour.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into a clean bowl, discarding any large lumps that don’t fit through your sieve.
4. Use an electric mixer to whip the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla extract and salt together until they form stiff peaks.
5. Use a rubber spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites.
6. Deflate the batter until it loosens enough that it falls off your spatula in a ribbon shape.
7. Use a piping bag to pipe circles of macaron batter onto a baking tray. 
8. Allow the macarons to rest until they feel dry to touch, then bake them.
9. Finely chop the pistachio nuts and mix through salt.
10. Assemble the macarons.

Storage Recommendations

Store assembled macarons in an airtight container in the fridge and consume within 5 days.

If you want to keep your macarons any longer, they can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer. They will last in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let them defrost in the container on either the countertop or in the fridge.

Macaron cookies can also be stored in the freezer or fridge prior to assembling. For food safety reasons, do not refreeze macarons after they have been defrosted.

Related Recipes

I have heaps of macaron recipes on this site. Here are some of my favorites for spring!

• Blueberry Macarons
• Lavender Macarons
• Salted Caramel Macarons

I hope you love these rose macarons as much as I do. Please let me know in the comments how you go.

Happy baking x