Lemon Macarons

Delicate lemon macarons are filled with a lemon curd-based filling. Use these tips and tricks for macaron success at home!

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There's a food truck in Philadelphia called Sugar Philly, whose motto is gourmet desserts served curbside. They make the most delectable macarons! They have three staple flavors, and additional flavors vary depending on the day of the week, and the season. I decided to go simple for this recipe, and made lemon macarons.

Despite having a culinary school education, my macaron game is still at quite the beginner level. So, I did some research, and I've compiled a list of tips and tricks for macaron success at home.

One thing I will note: many sites will recommend aging your egg whites for 24 hours. I didn't do that, and you'll see from the photos that I still got some decent feet on my macarons. You can certainly take that step if you'd like; it can't hurt.

Macaron Tip #1: Prep your tools

Macarons are a type of meringue cookie. If you've read my other meringue recipes, you'll know that if even a speck of fat remains on your mixing bowl, your meringue will never whip. So, before you begin, wipe down your bowl and whip attachment with a paper towel dampened with lemon juice. Let them stand until dry. This is in addition to the lemon juice in the lemon macarons recipe.

Macaron Tip #2: Weigh your ingredients

Baking is as much a science as it is an art. Having the correct ratio of ingredients is crucial. Measuring by volume is never as accurate as measuring by weight. I use OXO's 11-pound digital scale. It has a pull-out display, a backlight, a tare button, and easily switches between metric and U.S. measurements. I use it for all of my baking, not just macarons. I reference King Arthur Flour's Ingredient Weight Chart for weights.

Macaron Tip #3: Sift, Sift, Sift

I sift my almond flour and powdered sugar three times. First, I sift them separately into a mixing bowl. Then I pour the mixture back into the fine-mesh sieve to sift them together. Finally, I sift them over the meringue before folding. Lumps in your dry ingredients will cause lumps in your macaron shells.

Macaron Tip #4: Use a template for consistent size

Not only does it make matching up shells for sandwiching easier, consistently-sized shells will bake consistently! Shells that are differently sizes will bake at different rates. You'd either end up with some perfect shells and some overdone shells, or some perfect shells and some underbaked shells.

You can download and print this template, lay a sheet of parchment over top and pipe your shells. Slide the sheet of paper out from under your parchment before baking. Alternatively, you can find an object 1.5-inches in diameter in your home, and trace it with a Sharpie marker on a sheet of parchment paper. Flip the parchment over, and pipe your macaron shells.

Macaron Tip #5: Check your oven temperature

Using an oven thermometer showed me that although I preheated my oven to 300 degrees F, it was only 250 degrees when the preheat "I'm ready!" beep went off! Ovens that run too hot will cause your macarons to over-brown. If your oven runs too cold, you may take your macarons out too early, before they're fully baked. A fully-baked macaron should peel cleanly off of the parchment.

Also, some ovens have hot and cold spots. To account for this, you should rotate your baking pan 180 degrees halfway through baking. If you're baking more than one sheet pan at a time, you should also switch the top pan to the bottom and vice versa.

Macaron Tip #6: Practice makes perfect!

It will take practice to know when you've mixed your macaron batter just enough. It should have the consistency of lava. It should flow from your spatula in a ribbon (not fall off in clumps), but still be rather thick. It should take about 30 seconds for the ribbon to sink back into the batter.

And even if your macarons don't turn out perfect visually, they will still taste delicious!

Adapted from Indulge with Mimi

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