Baking Chat / FAQ

American readers may be disappointed not to see measurements in cups. I’m not forgetting you – but making macarons and French pastry is particularly precise, and the French cook and bake this way by weight. This achieves consistent successful results in your cooking and baking.

So I recommend that you measure your ingredients by WEIGHT (grams, ounces), not volume (cups) using digital scales (they’re not expensive). This ensures that your measuring is as precise as it needs to be. If you’re used to ounces, with digital scales you can simply switch the button over to grams and we’re all talking the same language.

For more details, see my post explaining why I recommend digital scales.

Ça arrive – when sometimes things don’t turn out the way you planned. Nobody’s perfect! In my first book, Mad About Macarons, please refer to the troubleshooting section at the end of the book where I cover all sorts of problems. Many are easy to solve – it could be just down to your oven or your egg whites!

If your macarons are cracked, they’ll still taste really good – so please don’t waste them. Make the recipes here on the website such as

• macaron tiramisu
• mini Ispahan macaron trifles or
• macaron berry trifle

I would be delighted for you to share!

However, the recipes and images on the website are copyright Jill Colonna. If you wish to link to the recipes on the site, then please contact me (jill(at)madaboutmacarons.com) with credit to Jill Colonna at MadAboutMacarons.com.

For the recipes in the books, Waverley Books by law has the copyright and license to publish them, so they are uniquely in the books. If you wish to use a recipe from either book, please contact Liz Small at Waverley Books (info(at)waverley-books.co.uk) first for permission.

Many thanks!

I use good quality French butter preferably from Normandy or Brittany and often use salted butter, as it’s a speciality for many French cakes (e.g. Palets Bretons).  As I know it’s not often easy to find in the rest of the world, in my recipes I use unsalted butter and add fleur de sel salt in order to get the closest possible. Do try to use European-style butter with over 82% butterfat.

Please contact my publisher, Waverley Books (The Gresham Publishing Company Ltd.), directly: info(at)waverley-books.co.uk or their UK distributors at BookSource.
For orders or enquiries Tel: +44 (0) 845 370 0067 or via Gardeners Books Wholesalers

Distributor for USA/Canada: Interlink Publishing.
Distributor in France: OLF via Relay H.

Contact me via the Contact Form or by email jill(at)madaboutmacarons.com where I’ll be happy to answer you as soon as I can.