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Cotton Candy Macarons

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We love making french macarons to share with you! Our latest flavor, Cotton Candy Macarons, are so pretty and just as delicious as they look! Blue and pink swirled together for the cookie portion and filled with an amazing cotton candy buttercream frosting.

Macarons can be finicky if you are not careful. However, Kayla and I have finally perfected our technique and we are sharing it with you in this post.

If cotton candy is not your jam, be sure and check out our Cinnamon Roll Macaron recipe. But for now, let's talk about these beautiful cotton candy macarons.

How to Make Cotton Candy Macarons

Macarons are a finicky cookie if you don't know what you are doing. For starters, I will tell you that before we were successful with this recipe, we FLOPPED 9 times. Yes — you read that right — 9 unsuccessful cookie tries. 

But now, we have it down pat and our cookies have turned out great since then.

The number one thing that I can tell you is to get an oven thermometer for the inside of your oven. Most macarons should be cooked at 300 degrees.

So — here is what you need to get started for making these cotton candy flavored macarons.

Start by gathering all your ingredients —

Start by combining 1 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar with 1 cup of almond flour. You will also want to add in 1 tablespoon of egg white powder. This will help your cookies to fill out more and not be hollow.

Now, using a sifter, sift the almond flour mixture. The reason you do this is so that you get rid of all the clumps that are in the almond flour. You want a very superfine powder to work with. This will ensure your cookies come out smooth on top.

The best almond flour to use is the Blue Diamond Finely Sifted Almond Flour.

Just throw away the clumpy bits because you will not use them. Set the other bowl aside.

Now, in your stand mixer, you will beat your egg whites until they are fluffy. Then, add in your sugar and beat on high until somewhat stiff. Your egg whites need to be stiff enough to create a little bird beak. When you dip your whisk into the egg whites and pull it out, the tip of the whites should stand up easily.

Fold the meringue into the dry ingredients. The batter will be thick but loose enough to make a figure 8 in the batter.

To whip this batter, you have to be super careful and not over whip it. This will cause your cookies not to gain their feet (which we will talk about below).

In the bowl, use a rubber spatula and start a circle in a clockwise motion. When you get back to the top at 12'oclock, then go straight down. That is 1 turn.

Do this 30-45 times.

Now, separate the batter and add one drop of baby blue food coloring to one part and one drop of light pink to the other batter. Gently mix until combined. You do not want to overmix the batters.

Now, put your round tip on the piping bag and fill the bag with the cookie batter. To get the swirled look, we added both at the same time from each side to ensure we got a swirl.

Pipe the cookies onto the tray. You can make smaller ones or you can make bigger ones. The size depends on you. The normal size is about 1 and 1/2″.

We like to stay somewhere in between.

Once you pipe the cookies onto your parchment lined sheet tray, take a wet finger and gently tap the top of the cookies if there are any tips sticking up.

Take the tray and firmly tap it on the counter 3 times to remove any air bubbles from the cookies.

Then, let the cookies rest for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are dry to the touch. They should not be sticky at all.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and when you are ready to bake the cookies, place them on the middle rack and bake for about 12 minutes.

Let them cool before peeling them off of the parchment paper. Your cookies should have feet like these when they are baked correctly.

Let's Fill Those Cookies

Before filling your cookies, take them and try to match up the sizes as best as you can. Since we are human and not perfect, the sizes will not all be uniform.

You can fill your cookies with whatever flavor of buttercream you like, but for this cookie, we flavored the buttercream with a teaspoon of cotton candy flavoring.

My easy buttercream frosting is what I use for all of my macaron recipes. I just usually half the amount for macarons.

For decorations, we dusted the tops of the cookies with this pearl luster dust and then drizzled on some melted white chocolate chips.

We finished the cookies with these fun cotton candy inspired sprinkles.

You can eat them right away or store them in the fridge for a couple of hours. I like to let mine stay in the fridge because they just taste SO MUCH BETTER!

Be sure to try my other delicious macaron flavors —

Make Macarons Like a Pro with These Supplies

If you like making macarons or want to try your hand at it, here are some supplies you might want to invest in.

Yield: 18 cookies

Cotton Candy Macarons

Cotton Candy Macarons

French Macaron cookies swirled with pinks and blues and filled with a cotton candy flavored buttercream frosting.

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

For the cookie shell

  • 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
  • 1 cup of almond flour
  • 1 tablespoon of egg white powder
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • pink and blue gel food coloring

For the cookie center

  • 1 stick of salted butter, softened
  • 2-3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tub of cotton candy
  • 3-4 tablespoons milk

For decorations (optional)

  • Pearl luster dust
  • white chocolate chips
  • pink, purple, and blue sprinkles

Instructions

    1. Sift almond flour, egg whites, and powdered sugar together. Discard all the chunky bits that are left behind. Set aside.
    2. In your KitchenAid mixer, beat egg whites on medium speed until they start to froth. Add the sugar and beat on high until stiff peaks begin to form.
    3. Now, fold the meringue into the dry ingredients. The batter should be thick but loose enough to make a figure 8 with the batter.
    4. Mix together between 35-45 times by hand with a rubber spatula. Start in a clockwise motion starting at 12 o'clock and ending at 12'oclock, then go straight down to 6 o'clock. This is one complete turn.
    5. Divide batter evenly and add one drop of blue food coloring to one and one pink drop to the other. Mix gently and do not overmix.
    6. Line trays with silicone mats or with parchment paper.
    7. Using a piping bag fitted with a round tip, fill the bag with both the blue and the pink macaron batter.
    8. Pipe onto trays, making cookies about 1 1/2" inches.
    9. Touch the tops of the cookies with a wet finger to press down any tiny tips that stick up.
    10. Tap the trays on the counter 3 times to release any air bubbles.
    11. Let the cookies dry out for about 15-20 minutes. The cookies should be dry to the touch and not sticky when you feel the tops of them.
    12. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees while cookies are drying out. Use an oven thermometer if you are unsure what the temps should be.
    13. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the cookies are set. When you touch them, there should only be a slight give to them.
    14. Let the cookies cool off before peeling off the parchment paper.
      While cookies are cooling, make the buttercream frosting and place in a piping bag fitted with a small star tip.
    15. Once cookies are cool, flip them over so that the undersides are face up. Match cookies together by size.
    16. On half of the cookies, brush with luster dust.
    17. Melt white chocolate chips and drizzle on half the cookie. Top with sprinkles.
    18. To make the cotton candy buttercream, take room temperature butter and mix on medium speed. Add in the powdered sugar and cotton candy. Mix until well incorporated. Use the heavy cream to thin to your desired consistency.
    19. Pipe the buttercream onto the cookie half that does not have the luster dust. Top with the luster dust half.
    20. Enjoy the cookies now or place in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

24

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 228Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 11mgSodium: 44mgCarbohydrates: 41gFiber: 1gSugar: 40gProtein: 2g

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