French Macaroons With Lemon Curd

  A macaroon is a type of light , baked confection , described as either small cakes or merguine like cookies depending on their consistency. The original macaroon was a small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almonds .

  The English word macaroon and French macaron  come from the Italian maccarone ormaccherone . This word is itself derived from ammaccare , meaning crush or beat , used here in reference to the almond paste which is the principal ingredient.

There are many varieties of macaroons , the most famous are fench macaron and coconut macaroon.

 In india , tuticorin and mangalore have their own varieties made with cashews and egg whites. I had tasted the tuticorin macaroon and I liked it a lot.

Most recipes call foe egg whites ( usually whipped to stiff peaks ) , almonds , coconut or nuts.

Macaroons are said to be originated from Italy and France.

 Macaroons are different in each country , out of all these French was the famous. The almond flour macaroon is called as le macaron in French.

 

 I  had seen the making of the macaroons in the Masterchef Australia. I didn't think of making it , till joining the Baking partner group. It was the recipe which has to be made for this month. We a group of home bakers has to bake a particular recipe and post it on  15^th of every month. Vidhya of A Portion to Share and swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen choose this recipe.

 My sister helped me in making these macaron , without her I cant be able to make. She helped me by beating the egg to the right consistency with hand beater itself. I thank her at this moment.

 I don’t have guts to make these till febrauary 13; yes I made on Feb 13 th.  I kept postponing in making this.My sister encouraged to make. Till taking out of the oven , I was not confident.

 Now , I want to make it  again to get it perfect.

There was a wonderful giveaway in Foodelicious and 

cupoNation. To participate click the link above. 

Requirements :

Egg whites – 2

Icing sugar – 1 cup

Almond flour – ¾ cup

Granulated sugar – ¼  cup

Yellow food color –   ¼ tsp

Vanilla essence – few drops

For Lemon curd :

Lemon juice – ¼ cup

Icing sugar – ½ cup

Lemon Rinds

 

Method :

I didn’t get almond flour in my place , so I used the whole almond.

I soaked about 200 g of almond in water , then remove the skin . Let it dry for a day.

Grind into a fine powder. Sieve to get fine powder.- Almond flour

Pulse the almond flour and icing sugar together.

Sift the above twice to remove any residues.

Break the eggs and separate the egg whites.

Add these egg whites to a bowl and keep whisking in the same direction. We whisked for half an hour. We didn’t see a large peak , but a small peak that was static in the whisk.

Add the granulated sugar and beat again for fifteen minutes.

Add the food colour and vanilla essence and mix once.

Divide the flour and sugar mixture into three .

Add the flour mixture in batches to the whisked egg  and gently fold in.

Repeat till all the flour is folded in.

Fold till the mixture is smooth and shiny.

Consistency of batter :

I had seen in a video , to check the consistency of the batter .

Take a spoon full of batter and place it on a flat plate with a spike at the top.

If the batter is in correct consistency  , the spike will disappear soon.

Piping of macaroon :

I used a polyethylene bag as the pastry bag with  the round nozzle .

Fill in the bag with the batter , pipe in small circles to the baking tray with a spike at top.

In the original recipe , they pipe on a parchment lined baking sheet. As I used nonstick baking tray , I didn’t use any paper.

Let it untouched for 15 minutes , the macrons will  stretched and form into circles.

When touched on top , it will be smooth and leathery skin to feel and won’t stick to hand.

In the mean time , preheat the microwave oven to 220 degree Celsius @ convection mode.

Place the baking tray and bake for ten minutes.

Within 2 minutes , the feet will start to rise.

Let the macroon shells cool.

Lemon curd Filling :

To the lemon juice , add the lemon rinds and icing sugar and mix well.

If the filling is watery can add more sugar and mix well.

Fill into the piping bag.

Assembling:

To a macroon shell, pipe the filling throughout the circle and press with another shell, rotate slightly.

Repeat with the remaining.

I got about 12 macroons.

Note:

Sifting the flour is important.

Always beat the egg white till spikes forms.

Gently fold in the wet and dry ingredients together.

Temperature of baking, in actual recipe they will reduce the temperature of the preheated oven , but for me 220 degree makes well baked macroons.

 

  

  @ ENINNIYAE ILLAM


 @ Priya's versatile recipes

 

@ Merry Tummy and Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot

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