Rosewater Macarons with Lemon curd filling for Baking Partners challenge 7

   French Macarons always lured me, teased me, and challenged me to try it. I always thought it is not my cup of tea and let go the thought of trying it. When I was discussed with Vidya of A portion to share a recipe for this month “Baking Partners Challenge”, she told me we can do the French macarons. I told her it may be difficult we can give two recipes French macarons and other macaroons which made of coconut and egg whites. She agreed and even sends me one recipe on that.  However after discussion with Reshmi of EasyCook, we decided to stick to the French Macaron.

French macarons are sandwiched sweet meringue-based cookies made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond sugar and food color. It is filled with ganache, butter cream or jam.  The cookie is domed with a smooth shell, and a flat bottom with ruffled layer called ‘foot’. Macarons range in size from 4 (1.5 in) to 8 cm (3.1 in), but are generally on the smaller side. When you bite into a macron, the shell should crack and break with ease, giving way to a chewy middle layer of filling.

Macarons have a long history; it is marriage of an Italian pastry into the elegant French sandwich cookie that is popular today. The earliest date on the origin of this cookie is about 1500s. In France, even MacDonald’s sell Macarons; and Japan, Switzerland, South Korea etc have their own version of macarons.

I didn’t realize that when it comes to making French Macarons, the mood of the Macarons will decide the final outcome. Cake, bread are forgiving, curries doesn’t care if you   stir them two or three times extra or not stir them as much as it needs to be. Every step in the French macarons should be followed meticulously without any hurry.  If you treat them well they will be nice to you.  If you ask me is macaron making that difficult? No it is not that difficult, but like a child who learns to walk by repeatedly falling, you need to learn by practice. Minute details, like how many strokes you are giving while combining the almond sugar mixture to egg white, whether you kept a double sheet baking pan is important. Do you check and know your oven well, did you let the macrons to dry it out completely.

I got enthusiastic and tried and flopped miserably the first time.

I posted this miserable picture in the Facebook Group, Reshmi came to my rescue with lots of suggestion and tips; she thought out that I flopped perhaps due to my over enthusiasm in  beating the egg white.

Before making this macaron I had watched several YouTube videos and read lot of blogs. If you want to know different methods like, French, Italian, Spanish of macron making read   this blog Bake it off. If you want to read about history then read from here.   Stella of Braveheart has given a funny version of post regarding macaron myths.  Mardi of Eat .live, travel ,write has given exact step and video of macaron making  . In the e-gullet forum you can get very good information on macron making.  David Levbovitz gives a complete list of macaron literature.  If you want, you can even check out this video of Joy of Baking .  There is another excellent article about macarons you can check from here . I found this video is also helpful even though it is in French.  Also this video

For my first attempt I used Martha Stewart recipe and after failure, I changed and tried Tartelette’s recipe. It came out perfect. Since I had jumbo eggs in hand, I used two of them. I used red gel coloring resulting in pink macarons, filled with lemon curd to balance the sweetness of Macarons. I was literally babysitting them while they are baking in the oven. I reduced the oven temperature to 320 °F and baked the macarons for 20 minutes. They were easy to peel off from the parchment paper, and I filled with lemon curd and put it in refrigerator. I enjoyed after 24 hours in refrigerator, and they were best at that time. More they age, tastier they get.

Please check all baking partners’ macarons, as everybody has a story to tell, some got it first time, others tried few more times to get it right. These macarons are expensive; and sell for about $2 dollars apiece. So if you can make at home, you will be feeling like winning a triumph and also saving lot of money.   Here come my macrons, since Valentine’s Day is in this month I used pink color for my macrons.

I made macarons like this 

I made lemon curd filling  like this .

Print recipe from here

Rosewater Macarons with Lemon Curd Filling
Recipe adapted from Tartelette

Preparation time :1 hours, Egg aging for 3-4 days
Cook time: 20 minutes
Yield: 25 ( 1.5 inch)

Ingredients
For the shells:
82 gr egg whites ( I used two jumbo eggs whites that have been preferably left 3-4 days in the fridge)
30 gr granulated sugar
200 gr powdered sugar
110 gr almonds (slivered, blanched, sliced, whatever you like)
1 teaspoon  Rosewater
Red gel food coloring  a big scoop

Prepare the macarons:
    

• First step ,separate the egg whites and  set aside in refrigerator for about 4 days, and 5th take out  keep it room temperature while you working on the almond and powdered sugar.
• Day before macaron making, blanch the  almond by putting them in the boil water and and remove their skin by rubbing between two fingers. . First dry them using  paper towel and then spread into a baking sheet and dry at room temperature.
• Next morning when you are ready to make macarons, grind  almond into fine powder and seive twice to remove the big particles.
• In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, (think bubble bath foam) gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue (think shaving cream). Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry.
• Add almond and powdered sugar mixture  to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
• Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip  with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit.
• In the meantime, preheat the oven to 320 F. When ready, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. Once baked  and  let is cool until it easily peel off from the parchment paper.  Pipe the filling into one cookie and place one cookie on the top .   Place them in refrigerator for 24 hours to get the flavor infused on the cookies. store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer.

For the lemon curd filling:
1/3 cup lemon juice( zest of 3 lemons)
2 Eggs ( I used jumbo eggs)
113g/12 cup  unsalted butter at room temperature
 120g/1/2 cup 1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
2 teaspoon  cornstarch
1/5 cup almond meal.

In a medium bowl combine the lemon zest and sugar rub well so that it gets mixed well. Then add lemon juice.
and eggs mix very well so that it gets combine well.  Also add  cornstarch and almond  meal to this mixtures.

Heat the above mixture in medium heat with constantly whisking, until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon thickly (do not boil), about 12 minutes. While they are warm incorporate the butter and mix until combine.  Pour mixture through strainer into medium bowl. Place bowl in larger bowl filled with ice water and whisk occasionally until lemon curd is cooled completely, about 15 minutes.

I am linking this to my  Favorite recipes; Non Indian food, guest hosted by Ghar Ka Khana