Lemon macarons

White chocolate ganache

Combine your baking white chocolate and cream in a microwaveable bowl.

Melt in the microwave for 1 minute. Mix well and heat for a further 30 seconds.

If your ganache still has large pieces of unmelted chocolate, heat for an additional 30 seconds. Heat in bursts of 30 seconds until you have a smooth mixture.

Mix until well combined.

Chill the ganache in the fridge for a minimum 20 minutes.

Almond based

Using a hand blender pulse the ground almonds and icing sugar until fine.

Sift the almond mix into a bowl, if the are still large pieces that do not pass through the sieve, toss them in the blender and repeat.

Add in the egg whites, mix until well combined and set aside.

Italian Meringue

Have your mixer prepped, ready with the egg whites and placed right next to the stove. Also have a candy thermometer on hand.

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

As soon as the syrup reaches 110^C, start whipping your egg whites on a medium speed.

Once the temp hits 118^C take the syrup of the heat and add to the whipping egg whites in a gentle stream.

Increase the mixer speed and whip until the mixer bowl is cool to the touch. About 10 minutes.

Add in the lemon extract, vanilla extract, salt, food coloring and beat on high until the coloring has been fully incorporated.

Macaron batter

Fold the Italian meringue into the almond mix in 2 additions.

Mix until the batter is at ‘ribbon stage’, see above as well as my reels and stories

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and macaron templates. I’ve tried silicone mats but I feel that the baking paper with templates just work better.

Fit a piping bag with a round nozzle and decant the batter into the piping bag. I place the piping bag over a utensil jar, this makes decanting the batter easier.

Pipe the batter onto the templates, refer to my stories and reel for the technique.

Drop the tray onto your counter several time to ensure that all the air bubbles dissipate.

Allow your tray of piped macaron shells to rest for a minimum of 45 minutes before baking. The test to see if they’re ready for the oven is to touch the top of the macaron, if it’s not sticky, it’s bake time. If you get a little residue on your finger it needs more resting time.

Baking and assembly

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Bake the macarons for 13 minutes.

Allow the macarons to cool completely on the tray.

Using a hand mixer or whisk, whip the chilled ganache for 3-4 minutes. This will be abit hard initially as the chocolate hardens in the fridge but the ganache will soften quickly.

Transfer the whipped ganache to a piping bag fitted with your preferred nozzle.

Pipe a bit of the ganache onto the back of one of the shells and place another shell on top of the piped ganache.

Enjoy immediately!!!

Tips

• Smooth top – To achieve a flat top, the ground almonds must be as fine as possible. The quickest, easiest way to achieve this is to pulse the ground almonds and icing sugar together using a hand blender, then just sift it in.
• Italian, French or Swiss? – I use the Italian meringue method as I find it the most stable and dependable. The key is to move quickly so have your mixer prepped, ready with the egg whites and right next to your stove.
• Coloring – I add my food coloring to the meringue in its final stages of whipping. I find that this is the best way to incorporate color without knocking out too much air.
• Batter consistency – The right consistency is ‘ribbon stage’. What is ribbon stage? Using your spatula, pick abit of the batter up and drop it into the bowl. As it drops if it creates visible folds like a ribbon, spot on. If it simply dissolves into the remaining batter, it’s over mixed.
• The ‘feet’ – The key to getting the feet is rest. Allow your tray of piped macaron shells to rest for a minimum of 45 minutes before baking. The test to see if they’re ready for the oven is to touch the top of the macaron, if it’s not sticky, it’s bake time. If you get a little residue on your finger, it needs more resting.

Reprinted with permission from Keshree Chundriah, follow on Instagram for more recipes.