Lemon Macarons with Lemon Buttercream Filling

I had a dream about this recipe two days ago, and I really happy it’s a reality, now. In my dream I could smell the fragrance of the lemon and taste the tangy taste of it, most of all it’s delicious. May be because of the lemon, which my sister carried into the house from the supermarket, their bright color is so lovely.

After the Vanilla Bean Italian Meringue Macarons , I still want to make the macarons using Italian meringue method, so, I decide to use it here.

One of my friends asked me about the shape of the macarons, the vanilla bean macarons are quite flat, so I adjust the recipe to make the batter a little bit stiffer. And you can see that my macarons are thicker and the foot is larger.

I made it 2 times, I take the picture of how-to on the first, but I don’t happy with the color (I use gel color). The second time is the finish product that I show you, the color is so bright and look like lemon, the way I want it to be. The result is from the powder color, and if you want the color to be so tense I suggest using it.

This macarons are the reality of my dream, the lovely lemon color, the fragrance (which I increase from ¼ tsp on my first trial into ½tsp) and the taste of the tangy lemon buttercream.

I have to admit that I felt in love with the macarons making now, and I really hope that you will joy me, because they are so lovely both their look and their taste.

Lemon Macarons with Lemon Buttercream Filling

Makes about 25

Lemon Italian Meringue Macaron
For the macaron base
75 g	almond powder
75 g	icing sugar
25 g	egg whites
½ tsp	Lemon zest
	Yellow food coloring (you can skip this but it will give the macaron a lovely color) *If using powder color, mix it with a little bit of water before use.
For Italian Meringue
120 g	caster sugar
30 g	water
60 g	egg whites
	* You will use 90 g for the macaron and the rest will use for the buttercream

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Mix the macaron base:

Sift together almond powder and icing sugar into a bowl, put the color, lemon zest and egg white into the bowl. Use a pastry scrap to bring everything together. Set aside.

Make the Italian meringue:

In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 114°C, start whisking the egg whites.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 120°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold.

Make the macaron:

Mix together the base and 90g of Italian meringue.

The mixture should be softer and very glossy, a little stiffer then cake batter..

Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe or spoon mixture into 2.5cm rounds onto baking paper-lined (or Silpat) oven trays. When you’ve pipe out all the macarons lift each baking sheet with both hands and then bang it down on the counter (you need to get the air out of the batter).

Bake for 9 minutes to 15 minutes depend on your oven (oven door maintained open with a wooden spoon). Remove from oven and cool on trays. Slide a knife under each macaron to release.

Make the Lemon Butter cream

Make the lemon buttercream

	Italian meringue the rest from making the macaron
100 g	Unsalted butter
1½ tbsp	Lemon juice
	a dash of salt

Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time into the meringue. Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated. Then add the lemon juice and salt, and mix to combine.

Sandwich macarons with filling.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour for filling to be firm.

Lemon Macaron with Lemon Buttercream Filling

Brown Sugar Chocolate Cup Cake: Simply Delight !

I had a little problem last week, not a big one but quite annoying. My oven light just broken and my favorite pan too, how they happened at the same day? Anyway, I called the oven company, just to receive the bad news that they don’t have the light bulb (for my oven model) in stock. So, now I have to use the flashlight when I bake (I like to sit in front of the oven to see how my baked goods go, so I can take them out at the right time). After a couple of time, I think it’ll be easier to use the small oven instead, haha. But the small one has its own limit; the baked goods have to be a little one too. So, cup cake will be my best friend now.

I got this recipe from.............. Actually I wanted to try it for a long time, because I think honey and brown sugar will make the taste of this chocolate cake mellow. And I’m not disappointed, the brown sugar makes the cake moist with a subtle sweet and the cake has a great fragrance of honey. I adjust the amount of the ingredients a little bit, and hope you like the result too.

Brown Sugar Chocolate Cup Cake

Makes 6 cups (3½ oz/cup)

90 g	cake flour
14 g	Cocoa powder
⅓ tsp	baking powder
	Pinch of salt
100 g	unsalted butter, at room temperature
85 g	Brown sugar
2	large eggs,
85 g	Nut (I use pecan), lightly toasted
2 tbsp	heavy cream
2 tbsp	honey

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Prepare the paper cups. Sift the measured flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt together into a bowl and set aside.

2 Whisk the cream and honey together and set aside.

3 Cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.

4 Add the egg one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

5 Add half of the dry ingredients, then the cream and honey mixture, mixing well then add the last of the dry ingredients and nut, and mix well.

6 Spoon batter into paper cup, bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the toothpick insert in the center comes out with a little crumb.

Adaptation from: たかこさんの12カ月のかんたん焼き菓子―ずっと、たいせつに楽しめる。(Happy and Easy Baking for 12 months from Takako) by 稲田 多佳子(Takako Inada).

Brown Sugar Chocolate Cup Cake

Japanese Choux Cream Variation: Caramel Top Choux Cream

I've got a lot of e-mail asking for the Japanese choux cream recipe. I, myself, have tried to find the good recipe too. If you have a chance to eat the Japanese choux cream, I think you would love it. The softness of the fragrance and sweet filling is contrast to the crunchiness of the pastry, it's so good. My love for Choux cream has began many years ago, in that day I couldn't make it by myself. My choux pastry always becomes soft after getting out of the oven.

The problem comes from the moisture in the dough doesn't evaporate from inside and makes the the pastry soggy (result is the soft choux pastry). So, here comes my solution: keep the door ajar for at last 5 minutes of the baking time this would let the moisture out of the oven (and lower the temperature as this recipe need to use the high heat to puff the pastry up but I find it's too much for my choux). So the pastry will be drier and crunchier, the way I want.

The main recipe come from the book name ............... The book that devoted to the choux cream recipes. There are more interesting recipe from this book, which I will try it and show you if I have a chance.

Here comes the Japanese Choux Cream recipe that everyone ask for, but this is not a simple one. The caramel flavor and the crunchiness from the nut, I hope you will love it as I do.

Note: The recipe starts from making the caramel powder, the choux pastry but you can prepare the filling ahead if you want to.

Caramel Top Choux Cream

Makes 9-10

Caramel powder

7 g	Honey
7 g	unsalted butter
15 g	sugar

Line the baking sheet with non-stick baking paper.

Put all the ingredients in a small sauce pan, and place over low heat.

When the mixture turn into caramel color, pour onto the baking sheet.

Let the mixture dry, and put it in the small food processor and process until fine.

Choux Pastry
Makes 9-10

100 g	water
40 g	unsalted butter
4 g	sugar
60 g	cake flour
2 (100 g)	large eggs, at room temperature

1) Preheat your oven to 220 degrees C. Line baking sheet with waxed or parchment paper.

2) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the water, butter, and sugar to the
boil.

3) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly, stirring for a further 20 seconds to dry the dough.

4) Transfer the dough into a bowl, add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

5) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 1 cm plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough, into 3 cm rounds onto the baking sheets.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.


6) Bake for 25 minutes, or until they are puffed, golden and firm.

*I have my oven door maintained open with a wooden spoon for the last 5 minutes).

Crème Pâtissière

260 g	whole milk
60 g (about3)	egg yolks
32 g	Sugar 1
32 g	Sugar 2
18 g	cornstarch, sifted
10 g	Cake flour, sifted
	Vanilla bean
10 g	unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk and sugar 1 to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar 2, seeds from vanilla bean, cake flour and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F,stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled.

Make the caramel top

	Caramel powder
	Almond sliced

Preheat the oven to 250 °C

Cut the bottom of the pastry and place it in the baking sheet.

Sprinkle with almond slice and the caramel powder.

Bake for 3 minutes, or until the caramel is melted.

Make the Filling

100 g	Whipping cream
7 g	Sugar
	Crème Pâtissière

Pour the cream into a bowl and add the sugar. Using a balloon whisk or electric beaters, whip

Fold the whipped cream into the Crème Pâtissière.

Make the Crème Chantilly

360 g	Whipping cream
24 g	Sugar

Pour the cream into a bowl and add the icing sugar. Using a balloon whisk or electric beaters, whip the cream until it just forms soft peaks.

Assemble

Place the choux pastry up side down.

Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm nozzle, and fill the hole with the filling.

Spoon the Crème Chantilly into a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm star nozzle and pipe over the top of the filling, place the caramel top on top of the cream.

Japanese Choux Cream Variation: Caramel Top Choux Cream