Lemon Cream Macarons

Recipe adapted from here

  

Ingredients for macaron shells:  yield 64 shells about 3.5cm dimension
130g ground almond (I used superfine almond powder from Phoon Huat)
120g icing sugar

90g egg white (cold)
80g super fine caster sugar

A few drop lemon juice

A few drop of yellow coloring

Macaron Fillings:

homemade buttercream with lemon juice and lemon zest

Method:

1. Sieve ground almond and icing sugar twice. (the sieving takes a bit more patience for almond powder as it is not easy to sieve, sometimes need to use spoon to stir or press to let it go through the sieve) 

2. Beat egg white and a few drop of lemon juice until foamy and caster sugar in batches then change to high speed and beat till peak form (thick and glossy).

3. Then mix the dry ingredients into egg white in two batches, then mix in the yellow coloring and fold mixture well thoroughly with a rubber spatula till the batter smooth and glossy. This step is very important, mix about 2 mins, to release out the big bubbles from the batter so that the shells will not crack during baking. The final batter will drop down slowly with obvious fold mark onto the batter. Do not over mix as well.

4.Add batter into piping bag with nozzle tip #1A attached. Then pipe small circles on non-stick baking sheet. (When piping macarons, hold bag straight up from the sheet, with the tip close to the baking sheet. The batter will push itself out in a perfect circle).

5. Dry the macaron shells for 15-20 mins at room temperature.

6. Use a toothpick to prick any air bubbles that appear.

7. Preheat oven at 200 degree for 10 minutes. Place the macaron shells at centre rack of the oven then off the oven immediately. Use 2 thick glove insert at the oven door, heat the macaron shell in the oven for 3-5mins.

8. Close the oven door, on the oven  heat again and adjust the temperature to 140 degree. When the skirting of the shells appear, quickly adjust the temperature to 120 degree and bake for 3 mins.

9. Adjust the temperature to 100 degree and bake for 5 mins

10. Off the heat, let the macaron shells sit in the oven for 3 mins bake with the residual heat

11. Remove the macaron shells from the oven and leave them to cool on the cooling rack. You can store them in an airtight container and refrigerate it until you're ready to use them.

10. Pipe cream of your choice onto one macaron shell and sandwich with another half. Chill in the fridge.