Making macarons at home might seem challenging but not with this recipe!
The homemade Lemon Macarons are tasty, crispy and decadent and pretty looking. They will surely impress everyone in your home both with taste and appearance!
I haven't baked macarons for quite some time now - more than a year. That's why when I ended up with two egg whites in the fridge I decided that the time has come for a new batch.
The previous time I made macarons they were a complete disaster. Complete! Meaning - they went all to the bin. The saddest part of the story was that actually they were almost perfect when I removed them from the oven. I let them cool calmly and started making the filling… For some reason I don't remember any more my first choice of filling didn't go well, so eventually I prepared a pudding from milk, sugar and cornstarch (!) and filled the macarons with it as it was almost hot (!!!). This happened at night so in the morning when I opened the boxes with the macarons I almost fainted after seeing them: all wet and melted. Well, I preferred to throw them away rather than eating them with a spoon… But I learned my lesson: treat macarons as a meringue and never fill them with anything too moist. The macaron filling must be thick and cold.
This autumn I am in a yellow mood, so it wasn't hard for me to decide the colour of today's macarons. And the lemon flavour paired very well with both caramel and chocolate (I guess I must be in a caramel mood too :)).
It is good that these macarons were not too many because I ate them almost all by myself. I just didn't want to share them as they were so tasty 🙂
📝 Recipe
Lemon Macarons with Chocolate and Caramel Filling
Ingredients
For the shells:
- 62 g egg whites, from two medium eggs
- 80 g almond flour
- 99 g confectioners sugar
- 38 g granulated sugar, or 48 g if not using lemon sugar
- 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest, ideally dried
- yellow food coloring, optional: powder or gel, but not liquid
For the Chocolate filling:
- ½ cup/ 120 g cream cheese
- 1.75 oz/ 50 g dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoon confectioners sugar
- 1 tablespoon rum extract, optional
For the caramel filling:
- Salted Caramel sauce
- 1.75 oz/ 50 g white chocolate
Instructions
Shells:
- In a food processor blend together almond flour, confectioners sugar and lemon zest until well combined. Sift the mixture and set aside.
- With an electric mixer beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the granulated sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
- Add the food coloring and beat for just a few seconds.
- With a rubber spatula fold in the almond-sugar mixture in 3-4 times. At the end the mixture must be smooth and all ingredients well combined. It is important not to overmix, because the macarons will not create feet during baking.
- Pipe round macarons onto trays lined with baking sheets or silicon mats and then leave the macarons to dry out for 30-40 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 320° F/ 160° C and bake the macarons for about 10-15 minutes (the exact time depends on the oven). They should be dry but not changed in colour.
- Let the macarons stay for 5 minutes on the pan and then remove them and let cool completely on a rack.
Chocolate filling:
- Break the dark chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan with simmering water.
- Add the cream cheese, confectioners sugar and rum extract. Mix well.
- Let the filling cool 1-2 h in the fridge before applying it to the macarons.
Caramel filling:
- Break the white chocolate and combine it with the salted caramel sauce. Heat the ingredients in a bowl over a pan with simmering water or on a very low power in the microwave.
- When the mixture becomes homogeneous let cool at room temperature for an hour.
- Cover with plastic wrap and transfer to the fridge for 12-24 h before applying to the macarons (the filling should be thick and creamy).
- Use a butter knife, a spoon or a piping bag to fill the macaron shells.
- I found that the best method for me is to put some filling on one shell with a butter knife, to cover it with another shell and to twist the second one: that way the filling stays all inside and doesn't spread out.
Notes
- 1 part egg whites
- 1,3 parts almond flour
- 1,6 parts confectioners sugar
- 0,8 part granulated sugar
Comments
No Comments