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
Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring, not liquid. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage.Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy. Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.