Lemon macarons are the most refreshing and fantastic dessert that you can bake. They’re as flavorful as a lemon meringue pie, but in a smaller, much more snackable bite. I always get a little kick out of making something with lemon because of the blog name, but I also just adore lemon flavor. If you have not yet attempted macarons, this recipe is such a great one for beginners. The filling is so simple, and it will allow you to experiment with food coloring in the macarons which can get a bit tricky. Regardless, whether you’re a macaron master, or it’s your first time dealing with macs, you’re sure to fall in love with these lovely lemon macarons.
The recipe calls for lemon curd… what is that?
For those not too familiar with lemon curd, here’s the 4-1-1. Lemon curd is basically a custardy lemon spread that people use for various different things. It’s the equivalent of lemon jelly, I suppose. It’s just less gelatinous, and more tart than your average jelly. You can make your own lemon curd with lemons, sugar, eggs, and butter. It is not that hard to make, but often times you wind up making much more lemon curd than necessary, and it’s not worth the effort.
If you want lemon curd without the effort of making it, Trader Joe’s has a wonderful lemon curd that they sell. It’s inexpensive, and the perfect curd to fill your macarons with. I personally love using theirs because I always know where to go to get quality lemon curd. It is so much easier, and it saves you time and money, so I would say it’s definitely worth the trip.
Lemon Macarons
Ingredients
For the Macaron Shells:
- 3 Egg Whites 100 grams
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar 100 grams
- 1/2 cup Almond Flour 50 grams
- ¾ cup Powdered Sugar 100 grams
- Yellow Food Coloring gel
For the Buttercream:
- 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter
- 3 tablespoons Lemon Curd
- 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
For the Macarons:
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. For best accuracy, trace 1-inch circles onto the paper. Flip it over so the side that was drawn on is on the bottom and will not touch the food side.
- In a medium-sized bowl, sift together the almond flour and powdered sugar, set aside.
- In a small or medium sized bowl, combine the egg whites and granulated sugar. Place over a pot of boiling water to form a double boiler. Whisk the mixture until the sugar completely dissolves and the mixture is warm to the touch and frothy. This will take 4-6 minutes.
- Take off the heat and using a hand mixer, whip the egg whites until you achieve stiff peaks. This will take 4-10 minutes.
- Once you have stiff peaks, pour in the sifted almond flour and powdered sugar mixture. Add your yellow food coloring at this time.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients into the meringue in a “U” shaped motion. Continue folding until the batter becomes “drippy” and you can consecutively form a figure “8” in the batter. Youtube tutorials are very helpful for determining when your batter is just mixed enough, and when it is overmixed.
- Once the batter is totally mixed, fill a piping bag with the batter. The piping bag should have a ¼-inch circle tip, or something around there.
- Pipe macaron circles onto the parchment paper on the baking sheet. If you drew circles on it, follow the outline. If you did not, try your best to make them the same size.
- Once all of the macarons are piped, bang the tray on the table top hard. You want to make sure all of the air bubbles are out of the macaron shells, so you want to bang them at least 10 times to make sure there are no hidden bubbles.
- Once you have hit the air bubbles out of the batter, the tops should be fairly flat. Carefully pat down any points that might have resulted from piping them, but they will probably resolve themselves in the drying stage anyways.
- Next, preheat the oven to 310°F and allow the shells to dry for 20-40 minutes until the tops are not sticky when touched. While the shells are drying, you can make your curd and buttercream.
- After the shells have dried, bake the shells in the preheated oven. Rotate them after 5 minutes, of baking, and allow them to bake for a total of 16-20 minutes depending on your oven.
- Once the macarons are baked, take them out of the oven and allow them to cool before filling.
For the Buttercream:
- Add the soft, room temperature, butter and lemon curd and beat together until combined. Add the powdered sugar and salt and mix until fully incorporated. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a ¼" circular piping tip.TIP: You can make your own lemon curd, or you can use store bought lemon curd.
How to Fill the Macarons
- Find two similarly sized macarons. These are your macaron halves. On the flat side of one half, pipe a small ring of lemon buttercream along the perimeter. It should follow the edges closely, leaving about 5mm of space between the end of the buttercream and the edge of the cookie. There should be a little hole formed in the center of the buttercream circle. Using a spoon, place about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon curd into this hole. Your cookie half should look like a bullseye, where the center is lemon curd and the outside circle is lemon buttercream. Lightly press the other half on top to create the sandwich. Place in fridge and allow the filling to set for 10 minutes before enjoying. Macarons are best after 24 hours, and can last in the fridge up to 1 week.
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