– This lemon verbena French macaron recipe is pure gold. Cha-ching! –
It’s no secret that I love macarons – in fact I dedicated an entire week to the art and craft of French macaron recipes earlier this year – so it would be an understatement to say that I was excited to team up with my friend Anita Chu from the gorgeous baking blog Dessert First to photograph the preparation of a recipe she developed, lemon verbena macarons. Yum! Anita and I are synchronizing our posts today, so please click over to her post on making macarons to see her story behind this fabulous macaron recipe.
To give you a better idea on how to prepare macarons with the Italian meringue method, Anita and I photographed almost every step in the recipe. We hope that these pictures will guide you through making your own macarons, and if you have any questions, please leave either of us a comment!
Lemon Verbena French Macaron Recipe
Author: Anita Chu
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
This lemon verbena French macaron recipe makes a dozen fresh, tender cookies that taste just like springtime! Perfectly yellow bites of sunshine. All measurements are by weight, because macarons are a precision project.
Ingredients
- 200g almond meal or ground blanched almonds
- 200g confectioners’ sugar
- 200g sugar
- 50g water
- 150g egg whites
- Lemon verbena buttercream (recipe below)
Instructions
- Stack two baking trays on top of each other. Line with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Process almond meal with confectioners’ sugar in a food processor.
- Sift out any large bits of almond or big chunks of powdered sugar. Set aside.
- Combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat on medium until all the sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking until the sugar syrup reaches 245°F (118°C).
- Meanwhile, place egg whites in a mixer bowl with the whisk attachment. While the sugar is cooking, begin whisking the egg whites on medium speed. They should reach soft peaks by the time the syrup is at 245°F (118°C). Do not over whip the eggs. If it whips too fast, turn down or turn off the mixer.
- Turn the mixer speed to low. Carefully pour the sugar syrup in a slow stream into the mixer. To avoid splattering, carefully pour the sugar syrup down the inside of the bowl, along the side.
- Turn the mixer speed to high and let the meringue whip for several minutes until it has cooled and appears glossy and firm. The bottom of the mixing bowl should be room temperature to the touch.
- In a large bowl, combine the almond meal mixture with the remaining about 1/4 of the whipped egg whites and fold until partially combined.
- Scoop the remaining whipped egg whites into the bowl. Using a spatula or dough scraper, carefully fold the meringue in, trying not to deflate it.
- The final batter should be thick and flow slowly like magma. Do not overmix the macaron batter.
- Scoop the batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1/2” diameter plain tip.
- Preheat the oven to 320°F (160°C)
- Pipe 1 1/2” rounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. Let the sheets sit for about 20 minutes to let the shells harden.
- Bake one set of macarons for 15 minutes, rotating once.
- Let tray cool for a few minutes before removing from the silicone mat. Let finish cooling on wire racks.
- Once macarons have completely cooled, sandwich them together with a tablespoon or so of lemon verbena buttercream. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 24 hours before eating.
Notes
This content was originally posted on FearlessFresh.com.
Lemon Verbena Buttercream Frosting
Author: Anita Chu
Nutrition Information
- Serves: 1 cup
- Serving size: 2 Macarons
- Calories: 474
- Fat: 25g
- Saturated fat: 14g
- Unsaturated fat: 10g
- Carbohydrates: 59g
- Sodium: 39mg
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 10g
- Cholesterol: 43mg
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep time:
Total time:
This lemon verbena buttercream frosting is creamy and fragrant, a perfect filling for macarons.
Ingredients
- 100g sugar
- 2 large egg whites
- 6 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 100 ml heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (3 g) lemon verbena leaves, washed and dried
- 250g white chocolate, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Combine the sugar and egg whites in a medium heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water.
- Whisk the sugar mixture constantly over heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture looks smooth and shiny, about 3 minutes.
- Remove mixture from heat and pour into a stand mixer bowl. Whisk on medium speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture has cooled.
- Switch to the paddle attachment and with the speed on low, add the butter a few pieces at a time, beating until smooth.
- When all the butter has been added, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed for about 6-10 minutes until it is very thick and smooth.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the lemon verbena leaves with the cream.
- Heat on medium until warm. Remove from heat, cover, and steep for an hour.
- Place chocolate into a bowl.
- Strain the leaves from the cream. Reheat the cream until it just comes to a boil.
- Slowly pour the cream over the chopped chocolate, let sit for 5 minutes, then stir to melt the chocolate. Begin stirring in the middle and work your way out as the emulsion forms. Continue stirring gently until mixture is completely smooth. Allow to cool and thicken before proceeding.
- Fold the room-temperature chocolate into the buttercream until well incorporated. Use as filling for macarons.
Notes
Nutritional analysis includes buttercream frosting below.
This content was originally posted on FearlessFresh.com.
This content was originally posted on FearlessFresh.com.
can you give me cup measurements i don’t know about
grams.
What if I just make the lemon verbena buttercream and pipe it directly into my mouth?
I love the recipe. It looks great.
Ohhh, they look so so pretty, especially in that lovely little cup. Casey, now that mental picture (you, standing under the piping bag, mouth agape) is making me laugh :-))
Too pretty for words, but I’m guessing NOT too pretty to eat!
These pictures are fabulous. You’re making me hungry. I’ve never made macarons before. These instructions make it look easy enough. Thanks.
Good thing you have the step-by-step for the people like me, to whom baking is usually just pouring strawberries over store-bought pound cake. I’ve gotta try these one day!
Have been wanting to try my hand at these a year now. After seeing your beautiful macarons maybe it’s time. Oh how I wish I had a friend to help me make these since I do not have much confidence in my own baking skills.
Wow, those look adorably tasty! I’d love to make these for my housewarming this weekend, but I’m afraid they might not turn out as well as yours did. Meringues are tricky.
I’m thinking it must have been an interesting process to decide the best way to tell the story visually…
I’ve never even tried a macaron, but your photos and recipe make me want to make them RIGHT NOW! :-)
Love the step by step photos and the attention to detail. I just mixed Italian meringue with Nutella to make a semifreddo, but I think using it for macaron is brilliant.
You have managed to make me really hungry for these- even before I read one word of it. The photos are absolutely mouth-watering!
You’re just the queen of macarons, Missy. And I just love lemon verbena. Plus your pic is very inviting. Happen to have any leftovers?
These look incredible! I’ve never had lemon verbena. Bring some with you when you come to Ashland?! Please???!!!
These photos are delightful! What a lovely tutorial.
Please put the cup conversion measurements if you can. Very interested in giving this a try!
I think macarons will be my 2011 challenge – they look like fun to make and I get a kick out of all the colors! Also, the lemon verbena in the yard is going crazy :-)
Thanks for the post. Something I want to try to make one day.
i really need a pastry bag. i’m hoping to make this for 2011 :D
oh these are gorgeous! gor-geous!
Gorgeous little fellas! Love the colors! Look absolutely yum!
Am new to macaron baking and definitely motivated to try making them.. About the filling, er.. do you mix the Buttercream & Lemon Verbena Ganache & adding yellow gel color at the end? Or are they 2 separate fillings? Tks.
Hi, i feel ashamed to say this but how do you rotate the tray? I can’t imagine it… Can you please give me some advice? I made my first batch today and it didn’t have “the collarette” as it should and also those little macaroon i made was too flat…
Thank you
I featured it as Article of The Week on my site, hope you don’t mind (just a thumb and link to your post).
Such lovely delicate macarons! I’ve never used verbena leaves before, but it sounds like an interesting flavor. Great photos!
Thank you for sharing at the March of Macaron link party!
Thank you, Sara! :)
Instead of egg what else I can use..
I am sorry but I could not understand 100% the recipe. can I combine the buttercream and cream + chocolate mixture later?
Hello! I’m don’t understand – there is no chocolate in this recipe. Are you thinking of another? These are lemon.
Hi Kimberly, Somehow step 10 got pushed below the last photos. I’ve moved it back where it belongs. Thanks for the heads up.
Hi Steph.. The macarons look so pretty. I’m confused abt the buttercream. What happens to the egg and sugar mixture? When is it added to the cream and lemon mixture? Thank you for your reply.
Hi Zurita. :) You whisk the sugar and eggs over a pan of hot water until it’s smooth, and then you throw it into a stand mixer and whip it until it cools. Once it’s cool, you slowly add the butter. Can you see the first four steps of the buttercream recipe, or is the website broken?
The Lemon Verbana Buttercream recipe has white chocolate in the ingredients. But you never mention what to do with the buttercream after you pour the lemon verbena cream over the white chocolate. Do you then mix the melted white chocolate with the buttercream??? There is no lemon verbena in the buttercream portion of this recipe only in the white chocolate portion.