Lemon Macarons

I believe I have stated that macarons are my favorite thing. What's something you could eat 40 of and totally be okay? Macarons. Maybe you're thinking to yourself that that's overkill. Maybe you don't want to eat that many macarons. To you, I say, don't be a quitter. Anyway, I digress. So, this is my first macaron recipe based on ratios. As I have been doing the last several posts, I will show the ratios to you as well. I think this is especially helpful with macarons because your base ratio is egg whites. Do you know how hard it is to get an exact weight of egg whites????? I do. It's pretty difficult. Anyway, so if you want to follow the ratios, it doesn't matter what your egg white weight is because you can just figure out the rest from there!

So I found this website to be pretty helpful while trying to figure out
ratios and some techniques for macarons. I will give you the weights I used and the ratios for the basic ingredients for macarons. This particular recipe makes about 24 cookies (48 halves if you get what I mean).

For the Macaron Shells:
1 part egg whites - 64 grams (2 egg whites for me)
1.5 part almond flour - 96 grams (64 from egg whites x 1.5)
0.8 part granulated sugar - 51 grams
1.5 part powdered sugar - 96 grams

1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp cardamom * this is a little citrusy and a little warming and it's super nice
zest of 1 large lemon

1. In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, start mixing egg whites. Don't mix them on too high of a speed (no higher than 6 on a kitchenaid). While this starts out, move to the second step.
2. Sift together almond flour, powdered sugar, and cardamom in a bowl. *I just put my bowl on my food scale and poured through my sifter until the right weight because I'm lazy.* Put aside until the egg whites are finished.
3. After the egg whites have started to foam up, add cream of tartar. *this is just to help stabilize the merengue, so you can leave it out if you want.
4. Start adding in the granulated sugar to the foamy egg whites a bit at a time. Let mixer keep whipping until you get to stiff peaks, like you see in the picture.
5. Once you have stiff peaks, gently fold in the lemon zest.
6. Pour in about half of your dry ingredients into the egg whites. You'd think you have to be gentle here because it's egg whites and you don't want to lose all that air. Nah. You can mix the shit of out of this; it's okay.
7. Pour the second half of dry ingredients in and keep mixing. Here I was a bit more gentle. You want to keep mixing until it looks glossy and it ribbons back on itself. The website I looked at said it should incorporate back into itself within 20 seconds or so. Here's a bit of me figuring out when it was ready.

8. Line baking sheet with silpat mat or parchment. *You will want to draw a circle template to pipe your macarons on to if you're using parchment;**You'll need at least two baking sheets with the parchment ***If you plan to make a lot of macarons, just invest in some mats. I bought mine on amazon for like 12 bucks for 2 mats.

9. Pour batter into a prepared piping bag with a large round tip. Pipe circles onto your parchment of silpat.
10. Whack the cookie sheet on the counter at least 3 times to get all the air bubbles out. *Again, you can whack them on the counter pretty hard.
11. Allow to sit at room temperature until they look matte and when you try to gently touch them with your finger, they don't stick. They form a skin on top. This can take between 20 minutes to an hour. In more humid months, this will take longer, but it's one of the most important steps! *also put them away from the edge of the table if you have a dog ;)

12. While you're waiting, preheat oven to 350F.
13. BEFORE you put them in the oven, drop to 325F. I would only bake one sheet at a time. I tried double once. It doesn't work out well. Anyway, bake for 12 - 14 minutes, but check at 10 minutes. If you can lightly touch it and the macaron doesn't move on it's base, it should be done.

14. Allow to cool completely before trying to remove from the sheet and fill.

For the Lemon Buttercream Filling:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 (ish) cups powdered sugar
Zest of a lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, put in butter. Slowly add powdered sugar into the butter.
2. Add lemon zest, juice, vanilla, and salt into the mix. Check for taste. If you feel like it needs a bit more powdered sugar, this is a good time to add it.

Assembly:
1. Put buttercream in a piping bag with a round tip *or any tip really- you do you, boo.
2. Pipe a dollop of cream on half the shells. *don't overdo it; you feel like it can take a lot more cream than it can. I was overzealous. **I feel like there's a that's what she said joke in there.

3. Put the other half of the shells on top of the buttercreamed shells.

4. You can store in the fridge. I don't do this. I just stored them in an air-tight container on the counter. I like them better this way, but most websites say to store in the fridge.