The History of French Macarons

Macarons des Sœurs are the original type of French macarons, not to be confused with the colorful Paris-style sandwich cookies of a similar name, which came about later. The almond-flavored cookies were invented by two nuns named Marguerite Gaillot and Marie Morlot in the late 1700s. The two lived in an abbey in Nancy, France, where they made their cookies as a way of supporting the abbey. It is possible one of the nuns brought a form of the recipe to the abbey with her upon joining and then perfected it there. In 1792, a decree abolished religious congregations in France and the nuns supported themselves by making and selling their macarons, which came to be called Macarons des Sœurs. Interestingly, the recipe remains unchanged to this day and is passed down orally from one pâtissier to the next. However, while Macarons des Sœurs are a distinct type of macaron, in their general form, the cookies have a long history. It’s thought that a version of the macaron was first created in the Arab world, then later brought to Italy by Arab soldiers in the 13th century before eventually arriving in France no later than the middle of the 16th century. (Notably, the French term macaron comes from the 15th century Italian word, maccarona.) Macarons as a class of cookie remained relatively unchanged until the brightly-colored, sandwich-style Parisian macarons were created in 1930 by a Parisian pâtissier named Pierre Desfontaines. Today, Macarons des Sœurs and Parisian-style macarons are both widely popular desserts in France and versions of each are baked all around the world.