When Life Gives you Lemon (Extract)

I'm halfway through a nice long post about ethnicity and my favourite Filipino dishes but I thought I should really try to get at least one recipe up here. 

In March, I was given the opportunity to attend a conference in Paris on French nuclear standards and at the last minute Carl decided to tag along. On our last day, we visited a patisserie which Carl's mum recommended and Carl tried macaroons for the first time. Needless to say, he became hooked (just like I was already).  So when Carl and his flatmate acquired the most amazing food processor/blender/general awesome kitchen gadget we knew we would have to try our hand at macaroons. You can get the basic recipe here.

For our first attempt, we made a pistachio version. We followed the instructions (including the last little bit of the chef's tip) which included replacing half of the ground almonds in the meringue with ground pistachios, adding green food colouring, and mixing some chopped pistachios in the buttercream filling. We found that a ridiculous amount of food colouring was required to give the meringue a nice green hue but after we removed them from the oven, the green was hardly noticeable. They tasted great but we decided to save the pictures until we could get the macaroons to look as good as they tasted!

We planned for weeks to do a second batch but never seemed to have enough time on the weekends. We finally made a pact not to leave the flat on Sunday until we made the long awaited treats. I came up with the idea ages ago and was absolutely thrilled with the result. So, without further ado:

Lemon Raspberry Macaroons

lemon raspberry macaroon displayed beautifully by Carl

Ingredients

175g icing sugar

125g ground almonds

3 large free-range egg whites

75g caster sugar

1.5 tbsp lemon extract

yellow food colouring gel

raspberry jam

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Whizz the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor to a very fine mixture, then sift into a bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until thick and glossy. Stir in the lemon extract and food colouring carefully.

3. Fold half the almond and icing sugar mixture into the meringue and mix well. Add the remaining half, making sure you use a spatula to cut and fold the mixture until it is shiny and has a thick, ribbon-like consistency as it falls from the spatula. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle.

4. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Pipe small rounds of the macaroon mixture, about 3cm across, onto the baking sheets. Give the baking sheets a sharp tap on the work surface to ensure a good 'foot'. Leave to stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to form a slight skin. This is important - you should be able to touch them lightly without any mixture sticking to your finger. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.

5. Match up the macaroons according to size and use the jam to bind the flat faces of two rounds together.

We found that the jam made these slightly soggy the next day so I recommended only adding the filling at most a few hours before you plan on enjoying these lovely treats.

Next weekend, Carl and I are planning on making some more macaroons with different flavours. At the moment, we're thinking about doing chocolate, Nutella, or possibly salted caramel. Hopefully they'll come out just as nice!

Until next time, enjoy! x