Macaron vs. Macaroon

You may ask, "Isn't it the same thing?". They are far from being the same! Though they both share the similarity of possibly being gluten free and using egg whites, they taste and even look different! I decided to do a post for my fellow macaron fans to help others understand the difference.

The French Macaron

Photographer: Manus Chau Photography

This recently popular treat made from egg whites, almond flour and powder sugar taste as good as it looks. The meringue makes these very light and fluffy. And if you think they look pretty easy to make, then you have been fooled! The process is a very delicate process that can make you want to hit your head against a wall because it may take you 2-3 times your first time to get them to look and taste right. Plenty of patience and care is needed to bake these macarons.
You can see my experience with making the French macaron here.

The Macaroon

photo source

The macaroon, usually made with coconut, is not as light as the macaron and take about 1/3 of the time to bake compared to the macaron. They are not as pretty as the macaron but if you love coconut you probably are a fan of these cookies. This is probably known as the "American" cookie while the macaron is probably known as the "French" cookie.

Until you have tried a macaron, macaroon and macaron is all the same to you. So if you haven't tried a French macaron yet, what are you waiting for!?! They have been so popular within the last year or so, I am sure you are bound to find a bakery that has one near you. Once you have tried them, you too will be a stickler to make the correction between macaroon and macaron.

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