Lemon Macarons with Italian Meringue

Name: Lemon Macarons with Italian Meringue
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 64 grams Almond flour; 60 grams Powdered sugar; 22 grams Egg white ①; 1 Yellow food coloring (lemon yellow & golden yellow or egg yellow); 60 grams ★Granulated sugar; 15 ml ★Water; 22 grams Egg white ②

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

Using the recipe from Pierre Herme's book "Macaron" as a base, I added a few detailed steps so that no one will fail making this. This is a recipe which I made many times with many trials and errors, to make the ideal macaroon as imagined by Pierre Herme.

●If you use fresh eggs, the shell might crack or will not have a "pied" or "foot", so make sure to use old eggs.
●For making Italian meringue, the keys are the temperature of the syrup and when to add it to the egg white. When adding the syrup, add little at a time, but whip up quickly! The meringue will harden if you are too slow. For 12 pieces of 4 cm [1.6 in] macarons. Recipe by yukoz1

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

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Ingredients

12 servings

64 gramsAlmond flour
60 gramsPowdered sugar
22 gramsEgg white ①
1Yellow food coloring (lemon yellow & golden yellow or egg yellow)
60 grams★Granulated sugar
15 ml★Water
22 gramsEgg white ②

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Steps

1

Prepare the Lemon curdthe day before. Add 20 g of almond powder (not listed in the ingredients list) on the next day, and mix in advance.
2

If the almond flour is humid or damp, sift it and put in a 250°F/120°C oven for about 2 to 3 minutes until it is dry.
3

Use a 4 cm diameter round mold and draw 24 rounds on a parchment paper. (This will be the guide when squeezing out the batter.)
4

Line a baking sheet with the parchment paper from Step 3 and place another parchment paper over it.
5

Prepare a whisk, piping bag with a round tip (1 cm), thermometer and other tools you need. (Be prepared so that you can work fast.)
6

Measure all ingredients precisely and be prepared. Bring the egg white to room temperature.
7

Combine almond flour and powdered sugar together, put them in a blender and pulse 10 times. (This is to make the rough powder fine. Pulsing too much will bring out the oil from the ingredients, so be careful.)
8

Sift the powder from Step 7 twice using a rough sieve. (You will not be able to sift the almond flour if the sieve is too fine.) Remove any rough powder.
9

Add 3-5 drops of lemon yellow food coloring and 1-2 drops of egg yellow food coloring to egg white① and mix. (Let the color be a little bit deeper than your desired color.)
10

Put the almond flour and powdered sugar mixture into a bowl, and add the egg white from Step 9. (Just pour the egg white in and don't mix at this point.)
11

Set a rack in the middle of the oven. Place another rack above with an empty baking sheet (to prevent browning), and preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
12

Put the ★ water and granulated sugar in a small pan, and heat up over medium heat.
13

When the temperature of the syrup from Step 12 becomes 230°F/110°C, start whisking egg white ② on high speed. (Whip up well until soft peak forms)
14

When the syrup temperature becomes 240°F/115°C, pour the syrup into the bowl with egg white little at a time. (Keep whipping the egg white on low speed while adding.)
15

After adding the syrup, continue whipping the egg white on high speed, until the egg white temperature becomes 122°F/50°C. The Italian meringue is ready.
16

Put 1/3 of the meringue into the bowl from Step 10 and mix well quickly using a spatula.
17

Mix well like pressing the spatula to the bottom of the bowl. (This is to melt the powdered sugar completely with the warm meringue.)
18

Add the rest of the meringue and scoop up the mixture with the spatula from the bottom of the bowl to make the macaronage. (Gently mix while rotating the bowl.)
19

When the mixture becomes shiny and the batter drips from the spatula like a ribbon, the batter is ready.
20

Pour the batter into the piping bag.
21

Squeeze out the batter into 24 rounds of 4 cm in diameter. (The batter will spread out after squeezing. The point here is to squeeze out the batter to be a little bit smaller.
22

Tap the baking sheet on the working board twice to eliminate air pockets, and poke small bubbles using a tooth pick. (If you don't eliminate air pockets, it might break or lose the shape.)
23

Remove the lower parchment paper with the round drawing, and let the batter dry for about 30 minutes. (Leave the batter to dry a little longer when making this on a humid day.
24

Touch the surface of the batter, and if the batter does not stick to your finger, it is ready to bake. If you don't let the batter dry well, the surface might crack.
25

Bake in a 350°F/180°C oven for 12 minutes. Open the oven after baking for 5 minutes and 8 minutes to release humidity. (Turn around the baking sheet on the way while baking.)
26

When you touch the side of the shell and it feels hard, and the shell does not stick to the parchment paper when removed from the paper, then it is ready.
27

After removing the shells from the oven, pour 1 teaspoon of water under each corner of the parchment paper. (The steam will allow you to easily remove the parchment paper from the cooking sheet.)
28

Remove the parchment paper from the baking sheet quickly, with the shells still attached, onto a table or a counter. (The shells will continue to bake if you keep them on the baking sheet.)
29

When the shells cool down, remove them from the parchment paper and transfer them onto a rack to cool completely. (Turn over half of the shells before squeezing on the filling.)
30

Squeeze out the lemon curd from Step 1 onto 12 pieces of the shells. Squeeze out plenty of filling!
31

Place the remaining shells on and then they are ready. If you store them in a air tight container and keep them in the refrigerator they'll be good to enjoy for about 3 days. Bring them to room temperature before eating.
32

This is a cross-section of the macaron. If you're careful with the temperature of the oven you won't get any air pockets and the shells should rise quite nicely.
33

If you let them sit in the refrigerator for 2 days, the shell will become moist and soft, and the lemon flavor will become more soft and mild.
34

You can store the lemon curdin the refrigerator if you have any leftover.
35

To store the macarons long: Wrap each macaron in plastic wrap, store them in a air tight container or zip bag and store in the freezer. (You can store them for few months.)
36

Put egg white in a container, cover with a plastic wrap, poke some holes in the plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks before using for best results.
37

I put 2-3 egg whites each in a container, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap and aluminum foil and stored them in the freezer. Transfer them to the refrigerator few days before making this recipe.
38

Try to use powdered sugar which does not include cornstarch. If you don't have any, put granulated sugar through a blender and make it into powdered sugar. (To be continued.→)
39

When making powdered sugar from granulated sugar, continue blending until the texture becomes fluffy beyond becoming fine. (To be continued.→)
40

Make sure not to blend for too long at one time, because this will be a burden on the motor. Use the blender while pausing between each blending. (To be continued.→)
41

If the granulated sugar hasn't been properly made into powdered, the shell cracks like in the picture, so be careful!
42

I have increased the amount of almond flour from the original recipe by 4 g. (This refers to the process of removing the rough powder when sifting.)
43

When making this on a humid day, use a dehumidifier in the kitchen and keep the humidity level to be about 35%, then this will be easier to make.
44

This recipe works best with an American type gas oven, so adjust the humidity and baking time when using a Japanese electric type oven.