Lemon Macarons
Spring is in the air! Celebrate with these tender lemon macarons- they are sweet, tangy and vibrant to excite the air of SPRING!
Spring is here! Welcome! Welcome. It has been a brutal winter so I hope you are here to stay and be brutal with lots of sunshine. Depending on where you are located, you are probably thinking are you nuts? Spring is not even close to being here (Camp A) or Spring’s been here for ages what are you talking about? (Camp B). Despite being in Camp A, I refuse to succumb to that way of thinking. My calendar says it’s the start of Spring and thus I am choosing to spring forward. And with that, I have all things lemon on the brain. Lemon tarts, lemon poppyseed donuts (coming soon) and lemon macarons!!
Today is also Jour du Macaron or Macaron Day! This day originated in France and was created by the famous patisserie chef Pierre Hermé who wanted to mobilize and collect funds for a charity by offering a free macaron to customers in exchange for a donation to a charity. Now, several cities across the world celebrate on May 20th and each participating bakery in that city gives away a free macaron to customers and a portion of their macaron sales for the day goes to a charity. New York City Macaron Day, the closest participating city to me, will be donating to City Harvest, a food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding the city’s hungry men, women and children. Buying macarons today will not only be good for your taste buds, but it will also be supporting a great cause. Check to see if your city is participating.
If you are not lucky to live in one of those cities, that’s ok, You can make these lemon macarons at home and virtually celebrate jour de macarons! The macaron shells are bursting with lemon zest and lemon extract to give you a tangy crunchy cookie that is filled with a sweet lemon vanilla bean buttercream. The sweet and tangy balance in these lemon macarons make them the perfect spring treat.
Lemon Macarons
Lemon macaron shells filled with lemon vanilla bean buttercream make this sweet and tangy treat perfect for the Spring.
Ingredients
- 110 g fine almond meal/flour
- 155 g confectioner's sugar
- Zest of one lemon
- 90 g egg white (3 large egg whites)
- 55 g granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- Few drops yellow food coloring (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract
Filling:
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- zest of lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or scrapings of half a vanilla bean
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract
Instructions
- Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. I used a 1½-inch round cookie cutter to draw circles on the parchment paper and flip over the paper (drawing side down). Prepare a pastry bag with a round tip. I used Wilton 2A.
- Using a food processor, pulse the powdered sugar, almond flour and zest into fine powder. Sift several times until there is less than 2 tablespoons of almond bits left. Add these to the mixture.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, and sugar. Whip on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes. Add the food coloring and lemon extract and whip for another minute.
- Add the dry ingredients to the meringue and fold with a rubber spatula. Gently fold to deflate the meringue by pressing against the side of bowl and scooping from bottom until batter is smooth and shiny; about 20-25 folds. To check consistency, drop a spoonful of batter and it should have a peak that quickly relaxes back into the batter. Start checking the batter after 20 folds.
- Transfer batter into pastry bag and pipe the batter into the pre-traced circles on the baking sheet. Tap baking sheet hard on counter to release any air bubbles trapped in the batter. Let shells sit on counter for 20-30 minutes to dry.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until shells harden, rotating cookie sheets halfway through baking time. You should be able to peel off the macaron from the parchment. Cool completely on cookie sheets before peeling from the parchment.
For Filling:
- Whip the butter until light and creamy. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix on low until combined. Increase speed to low and whip for additional 2-3 minutes.
- Using a pastry bag fitted with a large round or star tip, fill macarons. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Allow to get to room temperature before enjoying!
Notes
Macaron shells adapted from Brave Tart
** Don’t forget to enter the giveaway going on right now for a chance to win a set of 12 silicone baking cups.**
Delicious and so cheery-looking! I shared them with my book club – outside next to some socially-distanced fire pits. Thank you so much for the excellent recipe!
Thank you, Michelle!! I am so glad to hear you loved this recipe. I’m jealous of your book club, sounds so cozy!!
Hi there! I’m just wondering what the net weight of one macaron is. I know it’s a random question, but if you could let me know, that would be great.
Hi Christina, unfortunately, I don’t know.
I used this recipe for my first ever attempt at making macarons and they turned out great!! I was always intimidated by the idea of making macarons but they were actually so simple. Coupled with homemade lemon curd and they were a bit hit!
So glad to hear Kiana! I think macarons get a bad rep from bakers who are not patient or love experimenting.
Zainab, thank you!! Our family has tried to make these for years and they were never quite right. Your recipe is the ticket!! Ours turned out to be picture perfect tasty sensations. We’re thrilled. And your buttercream is also perfect – neither of these recipes is too sweet. They are just the right amount for us. I made a batch of your lemon version and also made a batch of coconut ones. For the coconut I used your recipe but exchanges 2 TBSP of the almond flour with coconut flour from WalMart and used coconut extract in place of the lemon extract. We balanced that with a non-lemon version of your buttercream. My favorite!! Thank you so much. Macarons are possible with your recipe. Everyone should try it!! Your other recipes look interesting too, I’ll give more of them a go.
Oh, I am so glad to hear this!! I love the idea for the coconut macarons..so glad you tried it so now I can too 🙂
Hello! I just made these and they turned out beautifully! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I will definitely be making these again! 🙂
Hi Sarah! So glad you loved them!! Check out my other macaron flavors too 🙂 https://aclassictwist.com/recipes/sweets/macarons/
Hi Zainab! I’m an new baker who wants to use your recipe for my first attempt at macarons. Unfortunately, I’m confused by one of the first instructions (which doesn’t bode well for me. ha!)
“Using a food processor, pulse the powdered sugar, almond flour and zest into fine powder. Sift several times until there is less than 2 tablespoons of almond bits left. Add these to the mixture.”
To clarify, I sift and sift and sift until there are less than 2 tbs of little lumps left when I sift, correct? These little bits can then go back into the sifted dry ingredients without making my macarons lumpy?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Hi Amanda, you are correct. You sift the dry ingredients until there are just a few tablespoons left. You can add back in some of those and the macarons won’t be lumpy. You can also just leave it out if you don’t want to.
I made these for mother’s day and they were amazing!! I made lemon buttercream for the filling and let them sit for two days to allow the shells to become moist and chewy, and it worked!! The day that I made them, they were ok, but not amazing. On the third day, though, they had the most amazing flavor. This was my first time making macarons, but they turned out amazing!! Thanks for the recipe!! I will probably use it again!
So glad to hear Carolyn that you loved them. macarons are definitely better after they sit for a bit.
This recipe did not work well at all, i tried it twice and wasted so many ingredients just to create weird flavorless yellow disks.
Hi Laura, I am sorry to hear that. Macarons are delicate and take some practice to make. As you can see from above, a lot of people have tried this recipe and it works for them. Without being in your kitchen, it is hard to help you troubleshoot.
Hi! I wanted to try this recipe. Is there a way to convert this recipe to cups/tsp/tbsp?
You can use a conversion tool online or just google. However, for macarons, weights are really the best for the best results.
hi my filling came out a little runny to fix that do i just add a little more powder sugar
Yes, it should not have been runny. maybe you added too much liquid to the frosting?
I’m not sure if I’ll get an answer since this recipe is so old but I wanted to make these and didn’t want to run to the store to get lemon extract,… can I substitute for lemon juice? If so how much would I need? I know sometimes the extract is stronger than the real deal so I was just wondering if it would work or if it would throw the recipient off.
Hi Eden, I would not recommend using lemon juice in the meringue but you do want to try it go ahead. Let me know how it works.
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never had lemon macarons! This recipe looks great though so hopefully that will change! Thanks for posting it, Zainab!
Thank you! I hope you try it 🙂