Ok, I’m going to let you all in on a little secret. I mean, if you follow me on Instagram it isn’t a secret, but I haven’t posted about it here yet, so it’s a secret for those of you who don’t. My best friend and I have spent the better part of the last two months working on a little something we’re calling “Citrus Summer”. I’ve been working on a bunch of citrus recipes and she’s been making tea towels, prints, stamps, and stickers. These lemon meringue macarons are a bonus recipe for citrus summer and I’m bringing them to you today before we officially launch citrus summer next weekend!
Now that I’ve typed that, I really do have to make sure I’m all ready to go next weekend.
The plan for the recipes for them to be really simple for the novice baker. Obviously macarons are a little tricky if you’re relatively new to baking, but by now, you all know me well enough to know that I will absolutely always find a reason to make macarons. I’ve been wanting to make lemon meringue macarons for a while, so these are a bonus recipe and a little sneak peek of things to come over the next few weeks.
These macarons were so much fun to make. Mostly because a blowtorch was involved. Yes, friends, for these babies we’re whipping out the blowtorch and torching our meringue. We want a real, authentic lemon meringue experience!
The shells are our typical shells, just dyed yellow. The star of this show is the torched meringue and the lemon curd.
I’m going to be completely honest, I didn’t make the lemon curd. My knee is still the shittiest of all shit shows and it was just easier to buy a nice jar from the store. No judgment here, sometimes we have to go with what’s easiest for us.
The meringue though? That, we are making ourselves and I promise it’s super easy! All you need is egg whites and sugar. A candy thermometer is also helpful for when we’re cooking the egg whites and sugar. We want it to reach a temperature that makes the egg whites safe to eat (160°F).
Once they’re at a good temperature, we whip them until stiff peaks form. That’s it!
If you don’t have a blowtorch, that’s ok. These lemon meringue macarons will taste incredible either way. If you do have a blowtorch though, I definitely recommend breaking it out for these. I had so much fun torching the meringue on each shell.
A dollop of lemon curd added to the middle and that’s the filling taken care of! Just sandwich the top half of the macaron on top and you’re good to go 🙂
Lemon Meringue Macarons
Ingredients
- Shells:
- 138g almond flour
- 125g powdered sugar
- 105g aged egg whites
- 105g sugar
- Yellow food colouring (optional)
- Filling:
- 3 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Lemon curd
Directions
- Step 1 Shells:
- Step 2 To start, put the almond flour, powdered sugar, and espresso powder in a food processor and blend thoroughly. Sift into a bowl to ensure there are no lumps.
- Step 3 In the bowl of a stand mixer (make sure it’s clean and dry), beat the egg whites until foamy. Slowly add the sugar, about 2 tbsp at a time, beating on a medium speed. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase speed to medium high and beat until a thick glossy meringue forms (if you’re adding food colouring, add it now). The mixture should form stiff peaks and you should be able to tip the bowl over your head with none of the mixture coming out.
- Step 4 With a large, flat rubber spatula, gently fold 1/3 of almond flour/powdered sugar mixture into egg whites until combined. Repeat until all of the almond mixture has been added. Fold to combine until you see no streaks of almond flour in the batter. The batter should be pretty fluid, a lot of people describe as a lava-like consistency. It should run smoothly off the spatula when you pull it out. This part comes with practice. Once you know the consistency, you’ll just be able to feel when it’s ready.
- Step 5 Pipe the batter into circles onto parchment or silicone lined baking sheets. Bang the tray a few times on a table to remove air bubbles and allow to sit for about 30 minutes before baking. To see if they’re ready for baking, touch your finger to them. If you get batter on your finger, they need to rest longer.
- Step 6 While resting, preheat your oven to 300°F with a rack placed in the lower third of the oven. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 15-18 minutes (this depends on your oven, my old one was fine at 15 minutes, this one needs 17-18). The shells should cool completely before you remove them from the parchment/silicone.
- Step 7 Filling:
- Step 8 Combine sugar and egg whites in a bowl. Place bowl over a pot of gently simmering water and whisk constantly until mixture reaches 160°F.
- Step 9 Transfer to a standing mixer with whisk attachment and beat on medium-high speed (8) for 10-12 minutes, until it has doubled in volume and stiff peaks have formed.
- Step 10 Assembly
- Step 11 Pair up macaron shells of the same size.
- Step 12 On one half of each pair, pipe a ring of meringue. Lightly torch the meringue.
- Step 13 Add a dollop of lemon curd in the middle of the meringue ring and sandwich the shells together.
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