Macaron Mission: Stage 3 (Lemon Blueberry Macarons)

Stage three of my perfect macaron mission has come and gone and I must say I am pretty pleased. You might be wondering what happened to stage two since I never posted it; truth is I was so pissed I couldn’t bear to blog about the disaster. I used the recipe for standard macrons from Tartlette, the so called guru of online macaron making, and was sorely disappointed since the tops cooked to quickly and the middle didn’t cook at all. I blame myself, not her.

Nonetheless, I decided to try another recipe and since my chocolate macarons (David Lebovitz recipe from stage one of my macaron mission) turned out so well, I thought I would just omit the cocoa powder and hope the chemistry and proportions of the ingredients would hold up to produce a great regular macaron as well. My hope’s were realized when out of the oven popped perfectly shaped and cooked macarons that were oh so tasty. Lebovitz is the man! 

I was so caught off guard by my success that I had not even prepared a filling for my macarons; shows you what a pessimist I am. Luckily I am also a planner and I had frozen the buttercream I was going to fill my stage 2 macarons with, so I popped it out of the freezer to defrost. After an hour I threw in some lemon zest and lemon juice and had myself a nice lemon buttercream. 

My only gripe with the recipe is that it may have been a little too sweet. However I am torn about whether I should rectify the situation. On one hand, macarons tend to be very very sweet and I am scared to mess with the sugar content for fear of messing up the recipe that seems to be so perfect. But on the other hand, it would give the almond flavor and the flavor of the filling more life if the sweet factor was reduced. Hmmm.. we will just have to see. Stay tuned for a stage 4? 

And now for my standard macaron recipe filled with lemon buttercream and blueberry jam.

Standard Macarons with Lemon Blueberry Filling

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Macaron Ingredients:

• 1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
• ½ cup powdered almonds (about 2 ounces, 50 gr, sliced almonds, pulverized)
• 2 large egg whites (66 grams), aged for 1-2 days (meaning they have sat out on the counter loosely covered 1-2 days)
• 5 tablespoons (65 gr) granulated sugar

Macaron Recipe: 

1.    Preheat the oven to 350

2.    Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, silicon mats preferred, and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2-inch, 2 cm) ready.

3.    Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn't quite fine enough.

4.    In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 and a half minutes.

5.    Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in three batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. If you are adding food coloring, which I did, use the powdered kind and add with the second addition. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you're alone).

6.    Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.

7.    Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten themacarons, then bake them for 12-13 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.

Lemon Buttercream Recipe:

It's pretty easy. Just make a regular buttercream and add some lemon zest and lemon juice to taste. Make sure not to add too much lemon juice or your buttercream will be too runny.

To Assemble:

Take the cooled macaron and spread some lemon buttercream on it and top with a very light amount of blueberry jam. Top with another macaron and store the completed macarons in the fridge for at least a day to mesh flavors. Set out the macarons 10 min before eating and enjoy! (See picture at the top)

Lemon Buttercream Recipe:

It's pretty easy. Just make a regular buttercream and add some lemon zest and lemon juice to taste. Make sure not to add too much lemon juice or your buttercream will be too runny.