Calamansi Macarons

It's been a long while since I made macarons. They are time consuming to make and the process gives real meaning to "labor intensive". Even writing down the recipe is a chore. Hahaha. But the end result is very rewarding, specially this batch flavored with Philippine limes, calamansi. The recipe is adapted from Piere Hermé's Lemon Macarons from his book MACARONS. They are sweet and tart and utterly delicious. I urge you to try making them at least once. You won't be disappointed.

Assuming you already have liquefied egg whites which takes several days to a week to achieve, allow 2 days to prepare and wait another day to enjoy the treats. You will have to refrigerate the calamansi or lemon cream overnight before baking the shells and refrigerate the macarons 24 hours before serving them. The following is the full recipe but I made only half because it is rather huge. Also note the measurements are in metric weight; I used my gram/ounce tare scale and didn't bother to measure by cups.

To liquefy egg whites, measure required amounts in 2 separate small bowls, cover with plastic film, poke tiny holes with the tip of a knife, and refrigerate several days in advance so they lose their elasticity.  

Lemon (or Calamansi) Macarons 

recipe adapted from Pierre Hermé's MACARONS

makes about 72 macarons

lemon or calamansi cream

225 grams whole eggs

240 grams sugar

8 grams zest of untreated lemons

160 grams lemon or calamansi juice

350 grams butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature

100 grams ground almonds

macaron shells

300 grams ground almonds

300 grams icing sugar

110 grams liquefied egg whites

½ gram golden yellow food dye

10 grams lemon yellow food dye

Italian meringue

300 grams sugar

75 grams mineral water

110 grams liquefied egg whites

• Make the lemon (or calamansi) cream: Rinse, dry, and zest the lemons. Rub the zest and sugar together between your hands; place in a medium glass bowl. (I eliminated this process adding a tablespoon of pure calamansi powder to the mixture.) To the sugar and lemon mixture, add and mix in the lemon or calamansi juice and eggs. Place the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water and beat until mixture reaches 83°C. Cool to 60°C, then add the butter. Whisk until smooth then use a hand blender for 10 minutes. Pour into a shallow dish, press plastic film over the surface, refrigerate overnight. 
• Next day, prepare the shells: Sift together ground almonds and icing sugar. Stir the food dyes into the egg whites. Pour over the almond and sugar mixture; do not stir; set aside. 
• Prepare the meringue: In a saucepan, bring water and sugar to boil at 118°C. When syrup is at 115°C, begin whisking egg whites to soft peaks. When the sugar reaches 118°C, pour it into the egg whites and beat on high speed for 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium and continue beating for 2 minutes. 
• Let Italian meringue cool down to 50°C, then fold it into the almond sugar mixture, cutting with a rubber spatula from middle to sides of bowl, rotating the bowl as you do. When the batter is just starting to turn glossy, it is ready. The batter should be slightly runny cake dough. 
• Spoon the batter into a piping bag with a plain nozzle. Pipe rounds of 3.5 cm in diameter, 2 cm apart on baking trays lined with parchment paper. Rap the trays on the work surface; leave for at least 30 minutes until a skin forms on the surface. 
• Preheat oven to 180°C or 355°F. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove baked shells on to the work surface. 
• Stir together chilled lemon or calamansi cream and almonds. Transfer into a piping bag with a plain nozzle. Pipe a generous mound of cream on to half the shells and top with remaining shells. Refrigerate for 24 hours and bring them out 2 hours before serving.

**************************************************************

Let me apologize for marking my photos. I recently found out that a lot of my blog posts have missing photos on them. Apparently, when someone copies and downloads a photo from my pages, Picasa web album where I link all my photos, disable them right here on my blog. I can't complain because they are just protecting my photos from internet thieves. It takes long but they eventually restore the photos. I never considered disabling the downloading capabilities, so please, ask permission from me before downloading my photos. I normally give permission to reuse them as long as there is a link back to the photos and my blog posts where they appear. Thanks.