Chai Spiced Macarons Recipe ~ Barley & Sage (2024)

These chai macarons have lightly spiced French macaron shell and are filled with a fluffy brown butter chai spiced buttercream! With all the warming spices, they're the perfect wintery macaron!

I'll walk you through how to make homemade French macarons and give you all my tips and tricks for success!

You might also enjoy these espresso macarons or chai spice madeleines!

Ingredient Notes

You just need a few simple ingredients to make these chai spiced macarons!

• Egg whites- I've recently started "aging" my egg whites and I've found it helps with my consistency. This is absolutely not necessary, but it's super easy to do so I recommend trying it out. Weigh out 100 grams of egg whites into a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in the top. Place in the fridge for at least 24 hours but up to 3 days. Make sure to remove the egg whites from the fridge at least an hour before baking.
• Almond flour- If you've ever seen macarons that look bumpy, it's usually because the almond flour isn't ground finely enough. I love usingBob's Red Millfor my almond flour because it's super fine. But if you have lumpy almond flour you can also just pulse it in a food processor for a few seconds to break it up further. Sifting your dry ingredients is also super important for ensuring smooth macarons.
• Brown butter- The filling of these macarons is a fluffy brown butter buttercream! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips forhow to make brown butter!
• White chocolate - I wanted a fun drizzle on top of these macarons, so I melted some white chocolate and added a bit of chai spice! But this is completely optional.

The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in therecipe card below.

Homemade Chai Spice

Homemade chai spice is super easy and your probably already have all of the ingredients in your spice cabinet! This recipe makes more than enough for the macarons, so you'll have plenty leftover to make my favorite brown butter chai cupcakes!!

• 2 teaspoonsground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoonground cardamom
• ½ teaspoonground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoonground cloves
• ½ teaspoonground allspice

The best part of making your own spice mixes is that you have complete control! Don't like cloves? Just leave them out or reduce the amount! Love ginger? Add a little extra!

How to Make French Macarons

Sift together almond flour, powdered sugar, and chai spice into a large bowl and set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites on medium speed until they become foamy, then add in the cream of tartar.

Turn the mixer up to medium-high and gradually add in the granulated sugar. Once all the sugar is added, turn the mixer to the highest setting and whisk on high until soft peaks form.

Add in 1-2 drops of brown gel food coloring, then continue to whisk on high until stiff peaks form.

Using a spatula, gently fold in half of the dry ingredient mixture until fully combined. Then gently fold in the remaining dry ingredients.

Continue to gently fold the batter until it reaches a “flowing lava” consistency. You should be able to make a “figure 8” with the batter before it breaks. As soon as you reach this consistency, stop mixing! If you over-mix the batter, the macarons won’t rise properly in the oven.

Line alarge baking sheetwith a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Scoop batter into a large piping bag fitted with alarge round tip. Hold the piping bag perpendicular to the silicone mat and pipe 1 inch rounds.

Pick up the baking sheet and drop it onto the counter 3-4 times to help bring any air bubbles to the surface of the macarons. Then use a toothpick to pop any visible air bubbles to make a smooth surface.

Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 30-40 minutes or until a skin forms on the surface. You should be able to lightly touch the surface without any batter being disturbed.

While the macarons are resting, preheat the oven to 300°F.

Bake one sheet at a time on the center rack of the oven for 13-15 minutes or when they do not move on their “feet” when touched.

Let the macarons cool completely on the baking sheet before removing them. They should easily peel off when fully cooled.

Match up your shells before filling, and then turn one side over. On the other side, drizzle a small amount of white chocolate over the top.

Then pipe the brown butter chai buttercream in the center and top with the other shell.

Put the assembled chai macarons in an airtight container, then place them in the fridge to mature for 12-24 hours. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days. However, for the best taste/texture, let them come up to room temperature for about an hour before eating! [Directly out of the fridge they can sometimes be super hard but at room temperature they're perfectly soft and tender!]

Macarons Tips & Tricks

Macarons can be tough so setting yourself up for success is key!

• Buy akitchen scaleif you don’t already have one! Macarons are incredibly finicky, so weighing all your ingredients is super important!
• Clean the mixing bowl and whisk attachment of your stand mixer with lemon juice or white vinegar to make sure there are no trace fats on either (if you don’t, your meringue may not form).
• Use a super sturdy baking sheet that won't warp and conducts heat evenly! TheseCuisinart baking sheetsare my favorite for macarons! I have 6 of them lol.
• Invest in somesilicone macaron mats! They aren’t expensive and they will make your lifesomuch easier!
• Also invest in anoven thermometer! We want our oven as close to 300 degrees as possible to make perfect macarons but just because your oven says it's 300 degrees, doesn't mean it actually is. My oven tends to run hot, so I usually end up having it set to about 290.
• Always usegel food coloring! Since macaron batter is so finicky, we don’t want to add any extra liquid to the batter. So gel food coloring is the way to go! The color is also even more concentrated so you need less.
  • To get the brown color of these chai macarons, I used roughly 3 drops of AmeriColor Warm Brown and 1 drop of AmeriColor Espresso.

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