While they're colorful, have a delectable texture, and have been popular on Instagram for years, there's more to the high cost of macarons than aesthetics and popularity alone.

Macarons have long been an expensive cookie, and it is one particular ingredient that makes them as expensive as they are: almond flour.

Macarons are consistently made with almond flour, which costs around $11 per pound (for comparison, all-purpose flour is, on average, $4 for a five-pound bag.)

Depending on where you buy your baking essentials, you could pay nine times more for almond flour versus all-purpose flour.

Making macarons with a less expensive variety of flour would significantly change the way they taste, and you'd end up with an inferior final product in terms of texture.

Almond flour makes macarons jaw-droppingly expensive, but if you choose where you buy them wisely, you can significantly reduce your cookie expenditures.