Lemon Macarons

Batch 5: Lemon Macarons

I love all things lemon, don't you? Lemon delicious with it's lovely lemon sauce and delicious sponge like cake; lemon pie; lemon meringue pie. I'm tempted to go whip myself up something lemony right now. But I won't, as I'm about to tell you about my latest batch of macarons, with a beautiful lemon filling.

Yellow colouring added to sugar syrup

I've decided stick to the same basic recipe that I have used so far. Why fix something that isn't broken, I say? For these macarons my only diversion from this recipe was the addition of a few squeezes of yellow gel food colouring (not that you can really tell from the finished product). I've actually had the filling made for about a week, and put it in the freezer til the day of the macaron making, which had the added benefit of stopping me from eating it all.

The filling is a buttercream with lemon curd mixed through it. I did a lot of research before I came up with the lemon curd that I wanted. I knew I didn't want one with water added (why dilute the flavour?) and knew from various recipes that there is no need for any kind of flour or cornflour to help it thicken. It was also a must that it use only egg yolks and not whole eggs. I'm keen to make more things that will use up my yolks so there are more egg whites available for more macarons!

Pouring the sugar syrup into the egg whites

Whisking my lemon curd

I was on the verge of making up my own proportions of lemon, sugar, butter and egg yolks when I came across this recipe, although when I made it I used the method from a Curtis Stone recipe and whisked the mixture over a bain marie. The finished product was a little tart, but with a beautiful flavour, and when mixed with my buttercream is just perfect, with a lovely velvety feel to it. Mmmmm.






So here's how they turned out. I had a friend over to taste test my macarons this afternoon, and she has described the filling as "lemon meringue pie". Who could resist?

Lemon Macarons

It's so tempting to eat them straight away, but I know that in a few days they'll be sooooo much better. Maybe I'll just have one with a cup of tea tonight.