Lemon Macarons
Hello friends! We have Lemon Macarons on the menu today! They are filled with Lemon Buttercream and Lemon Curd.
Make sure to watch the video on this page or on YouTube to see how I made these delicious Lemon Macarons.
I first published this recipe for Lemon Macarons in May 2018, over 1 year ago. And a lot has changed since then. I’ve evolved a lot in my macaron baking, and also in my photography skills, which is why I am also updating this post to include new pictures!
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Below is the first picture I took when I made the recipe for Lemon Macarons in 2018. So what do you think about the evolution?
First picture I took of the Lemon Macarons in 2018.
Since then, a lot has changed. This Lemon Macarons recipe is the most visited on my blog for months, along with my Chocolate Macarons recipe.
I have posted many many more Macaron recipes and ideas.
Check out below some of the most popular ones:
- Brownie Macarons
- Strawberry Lemonade Macarons
- Strawberry Mint Macarons
- Blueberry Macarons with jam filling
- Cookie Dough Macarons
- Dulce de Leche Pecan Macarons
- Toffee Macarons
- Blackberry Macarons
- Pomegranate Macarons
And I even made a vegan version of Lemon Macarons, my Lavender Lemon Vegan Macarons.
In today’s post, I have something to say concerning macarons. I want to talk about their storage!
That’s a big question I had one day. How to store macarons?
Last year, for my son Luke’s first birthday party, I wanted to make Pistachio Macarons for party favors. Turns out I was making all the food for the party from scratch, by myself.
And it would be nice to be able to make the macarons beforehand.
I searched up and down on the internet: HOW TO STORE MACARONS?
And found a bunch of different information. So I just decided to see for myself.
I made my Pistachio Macarons, filled them with Pistachio Buttercream, placed them neatly in air tight containers, and went for it!
The macarons were stored in my freezer for about 20 days!
And the results: Beautiful!
The day before the party, I removed them from the freezer and placed them in their little treat containers, wrapped a pretty bow around them with a little paper saying: Thank you for coming!
And that was that! Easy peasy! Saved me so much time!!
How to freeze French Macarons?
Freezing macarons works better for macarons with buttercream or cream cheese fillings, instead of macarons with jam type of fillings. However, I froze macarons with blueberry jam filling and they held up pretty well, but my jam was very thick, not a whole lotta wet.
So, after you are done baking your macaron shells, you may fill them as you wish.
I like to stick my macarons in the fridge at this point, so they will be cold enough for me to handle them and be able to place them in my air tight container.
The air tight container I use is this one, I got it on Amazon.
Seriously, this container is everything! I use it for a thousand things, specially for freezing cookies and such.
Anyway, after my macarons are cold and the buttercream in the middle is solid, I place them in the air tight container, and in the freezer it goes.
You can store them in the freezer for up to 2 months.
If you want to eat a macaron, simply pull one out of the freezer 20 minutes before you intend to do so, and let it sit at room temperature. It will be ready for you! Easy like that!
Check out some more Macaron Recipes and Macaron Ideas HERE!!
How to store French Macarons?
In general, if you want to store French Macarons, it will depend a lot on what filling you choose for it.
For example, these Lemon Macarons have a shelf life of about 1 week in the fridge and up to 2 months in the freezer because that’s the basic shelf life of the lemon curd.
Depending on what kind of macaron you’re dealing with, that might change. Just try to get informed about the shelf life of the fillings you choose.
Macarons that are only filled with buttercream made without milk, might keep well outside of the fridge for a few hours. But it’s always best to try to keep them refrigerated.
My Lemon Macarons lasted no time at all, I didn’t even have time to think about freezing them. I shared these lemon macarons with guests. And I also made more of the Lemon Macarons for my son’s second birthday party! You can check out how that party went here!
You can see the Lemon Macarons in this pic (right behind my Matcha Macarons!)
About the lemon curd
Any lemon curd leftovers can be frozen in a Freezer Bag for up to 3 months, or kept in the fridge for up to 1 week. Or, you can get creative and make other recipes with it. Such as this delicious Lemon Coconut Layer Cake. Or, if you’re classy like me, just eat it with a spoon!!
When you fill your macarons, first pipe some of the buttercream around the edges like this.
And then, spoon some of the lemon curd inside.
And voila! There you have it.
If you would like more tips on how to make macarons, please go over to Macaron School, where I publish lots of helpful articles if you are learning how to make macarons, with all the science behind macarons, plus a lot of tips, tricks, troubleshooting guides!
Thank you for reading my blog, leave a comment below or tag me on instagram if you make these Lemon Macarons recipe!
Lemon Macarons
Ingredients
Shells
- 100 grams egg whites
- 100 grams white granulated sugar
- 105 grams almond flour
- 105 grams powdered sugar
- One drop of Lemon Yellow Food coloring
Lemon curd
- 3 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (66 grams, 2.3 oz)
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature (42 grams, 1.5 oz)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/8 tsp salt
Buttercream
- 1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 -1 tbsp whipping cream as necessary
- 1/2 tbsp lemon zest optional
Instructions
Shells
- Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/2” diameter tip. Set aside.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
- Measure out all of the ingredients.
- Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set it aside.
- Whisk the sugar and the egg whites in a bowl. Place it over a pan with barely simmering water to form a double boiler. Whisk until sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
- Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
- Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
- Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to high, or medium-high and whisk for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
- Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.
- Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
- Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
- Add the food coloring at this point, if using. I added some yellow gel food coloring!
- How to know when to stop folding the batter: It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.
- First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
- There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
- If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.
- Test again.
- Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it’s ready.
- You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
- When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
- Transfer the batter to the piping bag.
- Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
- Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
- Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.If using sprinkles on top of the shells, make sure to add them before the shells dry, or the sprinkles won’t stick.
- Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
- Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF.
- Bake one tray at a time.Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
- Bake for 5 more minutes. Rotate again.
- I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.
- Remove from the oven and bake the other tray. Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Lemon Curd
- Cream butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer. Slowly add sugar and lemon zest to butter and keep creaming at medium speed for a few minutes, until mixture is light in color and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, waiting until egg has been completely incorporated before adding the next one.
- Add salt. And finally, add lemon juice, and stir on low speed.
- Pour mixture in a small sauce pan and cook it over medium-low heat, while stirring nonstop.
- You are looking for a very thick and creamy curd. Don’t stop stirring, don’t look away. And don't let the curd actually come to a boil.
- The temperature of the curd should be reaching 170F.
- When that happens, remove from heat and pour into a heat proof bowl.
- Let it cool in the fridge.
- STORAGE: The shelf life of lemon curd will be up to 1 week in the fridge, and up to 3 months in the freezer, if well protected.
Buttercream
- Cream butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 1 minute. With the mixer off, add all of the powdered sugar, and lemon zest in.
- On low speed, beat the sugar and butter together. Once they are incorporated, turn speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy.
- Add vanilla and cream in, beat for another 30-45 seconds. Only add 1/2 tablespoon of cream if necessary, sometimes you may find that the consistency of the buttercream is already perfect and doesn't need any more liquid. If the buttercream seems too stiff, add a tiny bit of cream as necessary. If the buttercream seems too runny, add more sifted powdered sugar until you obtain a firm, but smooth and creamy consistency.
- STORAGE: Store buttercream in the fridge for up to 1 week.
How to assemble
- Pipe a circle of buttercream around the edges of the macaron, in a way that you have a little hole in the middle. Fill the little hole with a bit of lemon curd. Don't overfill it. Place another shell on top.
- STORAGE: This Lemon Macaron's shelf life is up to 2 months in the freezer, and up to 1 week in the refrigerator. I don't recommend keeping it out of the fridge unless it's for just a couple hours.
Notes
Nutrition
These macaron shells turned out amazing! I used a different filling, but all in all was very satisfied with the results. I loved the Swiss method and will try more of your recipes.
Thank you so much!!!