Macarons with Lemon Buttercream Filling
Aug 15, 2011, Updated Jul 07, 2021
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Macarons with Lemon Buttercream Filling: French macarons filled with a silky lemon buttercream filling.
Once upon a day I spent a Sunday afternoon on the couch watching reruns of “A Different World”, “The Cosby Show”, and “Who’s the Boss”. The day would have been complete if I caught an episode of “Growing Pains”.
“As long as we got each other
We got the world spinnin’ right in our hands.
Baby you and me, we gotta be
The luckiest dreamers who never quit dreamin!”
(Random: I looooove theme songs.)
I don’t want to say it, it’s going to hurt, but I’m going to – those were the days!
Can’t believe I just quoted my mother, my aunts, my grandmothers, and Edith and Archie Bunker.
That’s not so bad, is it? I could’ve quoted Andrew Dice Clay and added a few colorful adjectives in there, too, but I’m going to remain a lady… damn it.
What does any of this have to do with macarons?
Back in the day, my mom, once in a while, would make macarons, or Целуфки, on Sunday mornings, and we would have to wait until that night to have a few. And while waiting for the macarons to dry, my sister and I would watch all those abovementioned shows.
P.S. Pierre Herme, don’t worry, I’m going to keep my day job, but just for the record, Chuck’s recipe is the easiest I have ever found for macarons. Thanks, Chuck!
Macarons with Lemon Buttercream Filling
(Adapted from Food Network)
(makes about 30 macarons)
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Macarons with Lemon Buttercream Filling
Ingredients
For the Macarons
- 2 cups almond flour
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4 egg whites, , divided, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- food color
Instructions
- In a food processor, pulse together the almond flour and the powdered sugar.
- Add in 2 egg whites to the almond mixture and process until smooth (the texture will be like almond paste).
- Add in food coloring of your choice and continue processing until the color is all blended in
- Put the mixture in a large bowl and set aside.
- In a saucepan bring the water and sugar to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes, or until a candy thermometer reads 110 degrees-celsius.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer beat 2 egg whites until soft peaks form.
- Slowly add in the hot syrup and continue beating until firm peaks form and the meringue has cooled.
- With a spatula, gently fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the almond mixture.
- Continue folding the meringue until completely incorporated.
- Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Fit a piping bag with a 3/8-inch round tip and fill it with the macaron mixture.
- Pipe the batter onto the baking sheets.
- Let dry at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven at 275 F.
- Bake the macarons for 20 minutes; rotate the baking sheet after 10 minutes for even baking.
- In the meantime prepare the buttercream.
- Set buttercream aside and remove macarons from oven and transfer to a cooling rack; do not remove from the parchment paper, yet.
- After they have completely cooled, turn half of the caps on their backs and pipe about 1/2 teaspoon of the filling onto it and cover with another cap.
- Once all of your macarons are assembled, put them in an airtight container, in the refrigerator and let them rest for another 24 hours.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Click Here for the Buttercream Recipe
ENJOY!
If you would like to learn the art of making Macarons, enter my friend Mardi’s giveaway at Eat.Live.Travel.Write. for a copy of “Mad About Macarons: Make Macarons like the French”, written by our talented friend, Jill Colonna!
I’m linking up with TidyMom – I’m Lovin’ It Fridays
I had the same problem with the butter cream recipe… to the poster: you should really remove this recipe.
Thanks, Jessica, for your comment…I will reconsider. Have a great day!
Same problem here with the buttercream : ( I’ve made swiss meringue buttercreams dozens of times always with success. I whipped the sugar mixture and 4 yolks + 1 whole egg for 10 minutes. It grew so big it was severely close to coming to the tippy top of my mixer bowl and overflowing. It was a lil more on the foamy side than fluffy but I knew was on the right path…until the next step. Like others – as soon as I added the butter – the mixture failed. It became the consistency of water. I popped it in the fridge for 15 minutes but no luck. It then went for a nap in the freezer. Because it hadn’t curdled I figured chilling it would be my best bet. The butter was cold, chuck into lil cubes, and added very slowly to the mixture (like 1 piece every 10 sec) so it could incorporate gradually. After a looooong rest in the freezer this mix is still water. My best guess is that the water to sugar ratio is off and this is severly lacking the amount of butter needed. French meringues use a thick syrup of sugar and water – heated until it reaches a soft ball stage. The combination of 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar produces watery results. Most recipes call for a 2:1 ration of sugar to water. That must be where all of us are going wrong. Although, it doesn’t explain how these measurements work out for you. Either way, I’m ditching this batch and going back to the testing lab. I’d try 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sugar next. This is definitely an issue with stability. A soft ball syrup and more butter would probably fix it.
many thanks for the recipe!!! I will try for shurly 🙂
oh but on a good note- the flavor is DIVINE. I really want to get it to turn out right because I think it could be my most fave filling yet! So thanks 🙂
Hello – I am having the same problem as the person commenting above me, amanda. I have followed eveyrthing you said – and just failed at it for the SECOND time. I heat the syrup… and had put my yolks and extra egg in my kitchen aid. Then with the whisk attachment start beating the eggs on medium speed and poured in the syrup. And let it beat in Medium for 10 mins. This time it started to get more fluffy, and looked like it was going to be successful. I made sure the mixture was cooled and quite fluffy then added my chilled butter straight out of the fridge and added it in little bits at a time along with my zest.. turned into a runny curdly goopy mess. Help!
I just tried it again today for a 3rd time. Made sure I beat my syrup and egg yolk mixture until it was really fluffy and cooled.. it looked AWESOME. Then I added the butter.. Little small cubes at a time. After about 1/4 of the total amount of butter called for, the mixture was turning into liquid. I do NOT get it. It shouldn’t be this hard. I’m frustrated 🙁 Any help would be appreciated.
I also tried to make the buttercream filling and it turned out a mess. Tried it twice and each time it was ruined. Why is this happening?
Hey ladies, me too. Just made them tonight, all going well until I added the butter. So I thought “hang it, you’re already curdled, what’s the worst that could happen” and I put it on the stove. Direct heat. I even added lemon juice and a bit more butter – what the heck! Eventually it came together – when it cooled it was still a little runnier than I would have liked but flavour = delicious AND texture = restored. Kate – help us out? =)
Hi! Gosh, I have no idea why it’s not turning out for anyone :((( I have made it on a few occasions and it always works out for me. I just follow Chuck’s (Food Network) recipe for buttercream and add in lemon zest. Here’s the link: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Dessert/recipe.html?dishid=11384
hi kate so this is my second attempt at making this buttercream. i’ve followed everything to a T including the time and as soon as i add the butter it turns into this goopy mess and it curdles:S its cold butter just like you said.
HELP!
Hi Amanda!! Did you add in all the yolks + one more whole egg? If you can, please send me an email to katerina@diethood.com and we’ll figure it out. Thank you!
These macarons look wonderful…I’ve been wanting to try and make these for months now and after seeing your post I am inspired! I’m going to make a pink batch for my bridal shower this Saturday! One question, I was thinking of using a different ‘flavor’ other than lemon, could you suggest something that might compliment the macarons/buttercream instead. Also, for the buttercream when you say to add an additional egg, does this mean the whole egg or just the yolk again?
Thanks!
Michelle, I highly recommend filling the pink macarons with chocolate ganache… they are HEAVENLY!
The whole entire egg…yolk and white. 🙂
Oh my, they look so delicious 🙂 wish I had a huge bowl of them right now while I’m on the net and watching TV 😛 ROFL hey I’m multitasking here LOL
I am on a mac quest! My macs still are struggling, they have just little baby feet…makes me sad… I just bought a thermometer to check my oven, it is old, probably out of calibration:-p
I think you macs look fantastic!! I love the lemon buttercream:-)
Hugs, Terra
Beautiful photos! Your macarons look wonderful!