LEMON MACARONS RECIPE
Servings
24
Prep Time
30 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Calories
80
SKILL LEVEL : Advanced
TIME : 2 ½ hours
Naturally gluten free*
*Risk of trace particles from manufacturing of- Sesame, gluten, dairy,
Ingredients contained in kit: Sugar, almonds, white chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa butter, Whole milk powder, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavouring),freeze dried lemon (100%), yellow food colour (sodium chloride, tartrazine e-102, allura red e-129)
Allergens: Dairy, milk, soy, nuts
*Risk of trace particles from manufacturing of- Sesame, gluten
Mon Dessert
Ingredients
70g white chocolate
72g ground almonds,
108g icing sugar
2g yellow powdered food colour
40g cane sugar
60g egg whites or 60 ml aquafaba and cream of tartar
30 ml lemon juice
Large baking tray
-
Parchment or a macaron mat
-
Piping bags
Mixing bowl
Electric whisk
Scales
Tea towel
Spatula (silicon is preferable)
Sieve
INGREDIENTS REQUIRED
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
Directions
Make the ganache first. Empty the white chocolate into a non-metallic bowl. Next, pour in 30ml of water and the lemon powder. Microwave for 15 seconds at a time and mix with a spatula. After 1-2 minutes in total you should have a smooth, glossy consistency.
Pop the bowl in the freezer for at least to cool and thicken. Check after 1 hour and whisk, it should be the consistency and thickness of buttercream icing so that it is easily pipeable. If not quite there, put it back in for another 30 mins- 1 hours further.
Meanwhile, using a wooden spoon as a wedge if needed, open your oven door by 1-2cm and heat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2/ 300°F. Alternatively, if your oven is a well-ventilated fan oven you can have the door closed and lower the temperature to 120°C/gas mark ½/250°F[Text Wrapping Break]Lay the macaron baking mat onto a large baking tray. Alternatively you can use parchment paper. Note the macaron will take less time to bake on parchment, but it will be more difficult to pipe and get a uniform shape.
Place the piping bag pointy end down, into a tall glass. Slightly tilt upwards so that the mixture doesn’t fall through.
Carefully separate out 60ml of egg whites or aquafaba (approx. 2 large eggs) into a clean mixing bowl or a freestanding mixer.
Into the mixing bowl add the sugar. Using an electric whisk, whisk the ingredients together on a high speed for 5 minutes. Once complete, turn your whisk to face upwards and check that the ‘peaks’ in the mixture are very stiff (they should remain upright unaided). You now have a meringue mixture. [Text Wrapping Break]If you do not have an electric whisk you can do this by hand, but you will need to really whisk vigorously and potentially have to whisk for at least 10-15 mins until you have stiff peaks as described above.
Empty the macaron mix into a bowl. Sieve our obvious lumps. The almond will not go through a fine sieve but that is ok, you just want to get rid of any obvious large bits (over 3mm diameter).[Text Wrapping Break]Once the macaron mix is lump free empty the dry contents into the meringue.
Now comes the crucial part of mixing the batter. Do this by scooping the mixture up with your spatula and pressing it back down into the centre of the bowl. Repeat this action 30 times, rotating the bowl as you go. With the spatula raised, you should now see a treacle-like ribbon of batter that takes about 20 seconds to fall back into the batter. If it is thicker than this, fold again and re-check until the consistency is perfect. It should be smooth and shiny with no grainy bits.
When you have the right consistency, pour the mixture into the piping bag, keeping it in the glass. Pick up the bag with one hand on the nozzle end, and the other hand sealing the open end in a twist.[Text Wrapping Break]Pipe batter onto each of the cavities on the macaron baking mat. Pipe generous rounds (circular disks of mixture) 1mm outside of the inner circles of the macaron baking mat. Or 3.5 cm diameter rounds on parchment paper.
Pipe using a slight swirling motion from the centre of the round to disperse the batter, or pipe using a 45-degree angle. Experiment and see what works better for you. Take your time. The key is to get control of the flow of the mixture. Tilt the bag upward if you feel it starts oozing out too much.
Remove any air bubbles by tapping the baking mat firmly against your kitchen counter several times, rotating the sheet as you go. When complete, the macarons will form perfect circular rounds in the grooves of the mat. If they do not you may need to tease them a little with a teaspoon.
Let the macarons rest on your kitchen counter until the tops form a skin. They are ready to bake when you touch the tops of the rounds, and the mixture doesn’t stick to your finger. Depending on humidity, this will take around 15-30 minutes. You want to make sure they are dry.
Put your macarons into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check if the macarons come away from the mat easily. If not, return them to the oven for 5-10 minutes at a time and keep rechecking.[Text Wrapping Break]The easiest way to take them off the mat is to flip the mat onto a tea towel (so shells are upside down) and peel the mat away. Note with a macaron mat it is not always the case that the underside is completely smooth, but rather they are quite porous. We actually prefer this as the shell absorbs the flavour of the filling more this way. IMPORTANT: Check out the video section on our website for a full demo on all of this!
Cool the macarons upside down for 10 minutes or until completely hardened.
Turn half the shells the right way up.
Whisk the ganache and make sure it is smooth (no lumps) and a pipable consistency. It needs to be firm enough to hold its shape yet not too firm that it is impossible to pipe.
Pipe a 10p sized blob of ganache onto upturned half of the macaron shells. Try to pair up shells according to size and form sandwiches twist rather than pushing them together otherwise they may break.
Your beautiful macarons are finished! You can enjoy them straight away, but they are even better 24-48 hours later. Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature before you serve them.
This process is called “ageing” and softens the inside of the shells, whilst keeping the outer shells crisp. Yummy[Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]TIP: Your macarons can be enjoyed for up to 7 days (if kept refrigerated). You can also freeze them 48 hours after they are made and bring them out when you have guests that you would like to impress! Make sure you defrost them for at least two hours at room temperature before eating.
Recipe Video
Recipe Note
This videos shows our chocolate macaron recipe, but will give you a good visual guide to how to make caramel macarons too. For the longer form video tutorial, click here.
Leave a comment