Summer has officially hit Portland and we’re having a mini heatwave. As much as we don’t want to turn on our ovens, these lemon raspberry macarons are more than worth it. Truly a perfect summer macaron, and honestly, your oven doesn’t even need to be on that long.
Lemon and raspberry is such a good combination. You’ve got the slight sweetness from the raspberries and the bright tartness from the lemon. Basically a match made in heaven. I’ve already made lemon raspberry cookies, so you know it was time to channel that same iconic flavour combination into a macaron.
Lemon Raspberry Macarons
If you remember, when I made the raspberry macarons a few weeks ago, I used a raspberry chocolate from Valrhona. For these lemon raspberry macarons, instead of using that, I used raspberry powder to make a raspberry buttercream.
I had used the raspberry powder to make a raspberry frosting to decorate some cupcakes for my friend’s baby’s first birthday and everyone loved it so I wanted to use it in these macarons. Best decision! It pairs so well with the lemon curd.
Raspberry powder is basically just freeze-dried raspberries ground up into a powder. I ordered mine from Amazon, but if you can get your hands on the freeze-dried raspberries, you can make it yourself. You get all of the real raspberry flavour, without having to make a really wet buttercream with the fresh raspberries. It’s so good, I may have eaten some with a spoon!
I did think about putting some of the raspberry powder in the macaron shells, but I always get a little nervous adding extra ingredients to the batter so I decided against it. If you try it, let me know!
These macarons really scream summer. They’re fresh, bright, vibrant, and really just everything you want on a summer day. I never get tired thinking of new macaron flavour combinations and this one has quickly become a favourite.
I hope your summers are filled with lots of fun and plenty of macarons!
Lemon Raspberry Macarons
Ingredients
- Macaron Shells:
- 275g almond flour
- 250g powdered sugar
- 210g sugar
- 210g egg whites
- Pink gel food colouring (optional)
- Filling:
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp. raspberry powder
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
- Lemon Curd
Directions
- Step 1 Shells
- Step 2 To start, put the almond flour and powdered sugar 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 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 To make the raspberry buttercream, beat the butter for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating to incorporate, then add the raspberry powder and beat for 3 minutes.
- Step 9 Add in the vanilla extract and heavy whipping cream, 1 tbsp. at a time. Beat at medium high speed for 4-5 minutes, adding more heavy cream, if necessary.
- Step 10 Assembly
- Step 11 Match up shells. On one half of each pair, pipe a ring of raspberry buttercream and fill with a dollop of lemon curd. Sandwich shells together.
- Step 12 Macarons should be refrigerated until ready to eat. They will have the best consistency if they are taken out of the fridge 30 minutes before eating.
