Meyer Lemon Macaruins with Lemon Curd

Hello all~ I had to try it, with the Silpats sitting there and all the right ingredients in the pantry! It was pretty nerve wrecking! And everything that could go wrong, did go wrong! haha :) Must have been the nerves.

Lemon Curd

While cooking dinner, I prepared some lemon curd as this has to chilled in the fridge for approx. two hours before use. Simple recipe to produce two cups of curd: 6 yolks, 1 whole egg, 1 cup of sugar, 2/3 cup of fresh lemon juice - all whisked in a bain marie for about 10mins, remove from heat and whisk in 2 tablespoons of salted butter. Gorgeous natural yellow!

And then I got carried away whisking the egg whites....as you can see from the photo, I set the KA on 8! and waited for the glossy shine...forgetting that this recipe does not add sugar to the whites and therefore, it won't get that shine!

KA set on 8

Overbeaten whites with some yellow gel added

I was very careful not to overmix. The ground almonds I got were a little on the rough side but I managed to get it through the flour sifter. It could not fit through the sieve at all.

Macaronage

 

Here is what the piped macarons looked like. A bit undermixed as the peaks didn't flatten entirely while drying. I'd turn on the air con to remove humidity from the air the entire process. Also made the mistake of piping before placing the Silpats on the trays so the ones on the edges were on a slant!

And then disaster struck! I had trouble positioning both trays in the wide oven, I wanted to place them side by side but was worried the overhanging Silpats would get burnt at the back of the oven. So I placed them top and bottom, by which time, the oven temp had dropped from the required 130 degrees celsius to 110. After the required 20mins, they were still not cooked. Feet had appeared at 6mins with a nice defined but then proceeded to flatten out :(


Was a bit shy to put any photos of the macaruins...but figured it was only fair to give a sneak pic....
Till next try! Will be more prepared with the oven and bake only one tray at a time! Might give another recipe a go, one that incorporates sugar into the whites :) Didn't need colour in the shells either, would have given a nicer contrast.

Credit to my lovely partner J for trying to sort out my oven issues and taste testing! xoxo