The 17th Century compiler of recipes, John Murrell, included in his 1617 opus, A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen, a recipe for French Macaroones (the spelling of ‘macaron’ hadn’t settled at this point, but he definitely means the luxury almond biscuit not the coconut treat that is spelled with the double ‘o’ in modern English). This is the earliest known written recipe for macarons in English, but the history of the French macaron goes back a lot further than that.

Italian Origins

Amazingly, all sources seem to trace the French macaron’s origins to… er… Italy. It seems that the monks of Venice were enjoying them as far back as the 8th Century AD. Etymologically, the word may have come to Italy via the Greek root ‘maccare’ – to crush – as the first step in making macarons from scratch is to grind the almonds into a flour. Both the word and the biscuit were well established in Italy by the time Catherine de’ Medici brought her Italian chefs to France when she married Henri II in 1533.

Taking France by Storm

Macarons were a hit in France. Patisseries in towns and cities across the Gallic nation began selling them. Towns as diverse as Amiens, Montmorillon and Nancy all developed their own macaron tradition and claimed theirs as the original and best. It was also during this period that the recipe made its first trip over the English Channel and was recorded by John Murrell.

Doubling Up

It wasn’t until the 19th Century that someone thought of taking two of the flat-bottomed biscuits and pressing them together. This Macaron Parisienne is the forerunner of the modern macaron and though historians are divided, probably owes its genesis to one Claude Gerbet of Chartres. We’re on firmer ground with who decided to put a filling in between them – Pierre Desfontaines was working at Ladurée, a Salon de thé in Paris founded by his grandfather, and began double stacking his macarons with a creamy ganache filling. Today the Ladurée brand sells 15,000 macarons a day.

Versatile Treat

The macaron is a versatile treat. With an infinity of possible flavour and colour combinations – it is always possible to invent a new macaron for a particular occasion. 

If you would like to try your hand at making French macarons, why not sign up to one of our cookery school macaron classes. For more information about any of our products, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can call our bakery on 01603 419506 or email contact@macaronsandmore.com.