Lemon Macarons

These tart and lemon-y petits fours stuffed with cream cheese macaron filling are the perfect addition to your springtime Easter celebration.

Channeling the happiness brought on by warmer climates, I’m continuing my springtime macaron series with a zesty lemon recipe. In my opinion, there are two excellent options when it comes to lemon-flavoured fillings: a classic curd (like the one in the post linked here- just substitute grapefruit juice for lemon juice), and cream cheese filling. This post will teach you my very own classic cream cheese filling recipe with sour lemon juice and fragrant zest, my recommended alternative.

INGREDIENTS

100g egg whites

100g raw sugar, plus extra for decorative topping

100g almond flour

100g powdered sugar

yellow food coloring

2 lemons

300g cream cheese, room temperature

30g butter, melted

700g icing sugar, sifted

Pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

Lemon macaron:

1. Mix egg whites with granulated sugar over a bain-marie until sugar dissolves completely (55°C).

2. Add the desired amount of yellow food coloring, while whisking on high to hard peaks.

3. Sift almond flour and powdered sugar together.

4. Fold into Swiss meringue.

5. Macaronner: continue folding until the mixture looks glossy, it holds its shape but then slowly moves and loses its form.

6. Put into a piping bag fitted with a tip with a 1.5cm opening.

7. Keeping the tip parallel with the lined baking sheet, pipe disks the size of a toonie.

8. Sprinkle on raw or decorative sugar.

9. Lightly bang the sheet on the counter to help even out the shells.

10. Wait 15-30 minutes for the shells to dry.

11. Bake for 14 minutes at 300°F.

Cream cheese macaron filling:

1. In the stand mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese until soft and fluffy.

2. Stream in the juice of one lemon and the melted butter.

3. Add in the lemon zest from two lemons, salt and icing sugar and mix on low until combined.

4. Once cool pair macarons together based on size, then organize the pairs on a sheet, one right side up and the other upside down.

5. Fill a piping bag with the lemony cream cheese filling and pipe onto half the shells. Sandwich the pairs together and let set in the fridge.