Macaron vs Macaroon

A macaron is really more of an assembly than a single recipe. Two almond meringue shells are baked separately, then brought together around a filling once they’ve cooled. Most recipes call for a short resting period afterwards, which allows the filling to soften the inside of the shells just slightly, so the finished macaron gives you both textures at once: a shell that yields with a light crack, and a centre that’s tender to the point of almost melting.

None of this is particularly forgiving. The meringue has to be folded into the almond base with a precise touch, since folding too little can leave the shells prone to cracking in the oven, while folding too much causes them to spread and lose their shape. Oven humidity, resting time, piping consistency: small details, but they all show up in the finished shell, right down to whether that little ruffled foot forms cleanly at the base.

At Ladurée, the double-shelled macaron filled with a delicate cream is part of the House’s heritage. In the mid-20th century, Pierre Desfontaines, Louis-Ernest Ladurée’s younger cousin, is credited with bringing two almond shells together around a filling, creating the distinctive format that has since become synonymous with the macaron as we know it today.