Ok, I've officially lost my macaron mojo. I've made three not-great batches lately. These ones are actually excellent in terms of flavor, but they didn't come out looking like I wanted. They got very frilly feet, and are flatter than my usual, and the shells are softer which is probably a good thing. I baked these a bit shorter than usual - 12 minutes rather than 15. Colorwise... well, I just can't seem to get the hang of that. These were supposed to be yellow and had a good amount of yellow food coloring in them but you can't see a trace of it in the baked cookies. Oh well!
Anyway - I made them for Easter, and for Mac Attack 6! Head over to MacTweets to see a lot more - and much prettier - macarons.
Lemon Cheesecake Macarons
15-20 filled cookies
(Printable recipe)
3 egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp caster sugar
200 g powdered sugar
110 g almonds, blanched
yellow food coloring (optional)
Combine powdered sugar and almonds in your food processor, and grind until very fine. Sieve. Re-grind any lumps or big pieces of almonds. Mix carefully (they tend to separate a little bit when sieving, since the sugar falls through first.)
Beat egg whites and sugar until you have a thick, glossy meringue. Don't overbeat. Stir in the almond-sugar powder, and fold together. Add food coloring, if using. Don't overmix this - most seem to say that you should use less than 50 strokes. (You can try it by dolloping a little batter on a baking sheet - if the peak falls down, it's ready. If it doesn't, try a few more strokes. The batter will thin as you keep stirring it.)
Pipe small rounds on a baking sheet with baking paper. Leave at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, to form a skin.
Bake at 150°C for 12-15 minutes. (I have a convection oven, and 12 minutes was perfect for me.) Let them cool completely before filling. Unused shells can be frozen, or kept in an air-tight container for a day or so.
Lemon Cheesecake filling:
150 gram cream cheese
60 gram unsalted butter, at room temperature
250 ml confectioner's sugar
finely grated zest from 2 lemons
Beat all ingredients until it's really light and fluffy. If it seems too runny, place it in the fridge to firm up for a short while, before sandwiching between the macaron shells.
Recipe in Swedish:
Citron-cheesecake macarons
