ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

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If you’ve ever found yourself at the counter of a premier Parisian macaron maker, lucky you. You know that picking from the vast array of pastel confections is almost as fun as tasting them. But what many customers at Ladurée or Pierre Hermé don’t realize is that the flavors of the cookies are dictated entirely by the filling itself—all traditional macaron cookies are made with the same <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/classes/french-macarons#/french-macaron-cookie-base">base recipe</a>, then tinted with food dye to augment the effect of the filling flavor. These guys are a little different. They came about when the American Pistachio Growers approached Grant to create some pistachio-based recipes. Grant and Nick started brainstorming and wound up with this cookie variation, which subs pistachio flour for the traditional almond. While our other macaron recipes use an Italian-style meringue, here we use the French approach instead. For the filling, Grant and Nick developed a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pistachio-nutella">Pistachio Butter</a> that was inspired by Nutella and is equally delicious atop toast. The result is an original cookie that has all the charm of a classic one but with a fun new twist we think you’ll love showing off to your friends and family.