Fiona Poole More macarons, Lamington and Lemon
This is the first time I have made macarons since our move to the States. I still used the same method and base recipe as my last lot but in a very different oven.
My oven over here is not fan forced and tends to brown the bottoms of my baking more rapidly than the tops. I am constantly staring through the glass door and guessing what is going on in there!
The first batch (lamington) I baked at 250ºF (120ºC) as stated in the recipe. The recommended time is 18 minutes, I had them in for over 30 minutes. So I did a little internet search and found that many cooks recommend 325ºF (160°C). So, with the second lot (lemon) I tried at 325ºF. The result was great, 18 minutes and they were perfect.
With the lamington inspired macarons I used the base recipe with 10g of cocoa powder added in to the almonds and icing sugar. Sprinkled with desiccated coconut before leaving to form its skin. Filled with dark chocolate ganache and a smidge of jam (I had strawberry in the fridge).
The lemon macarons are a more traditional flavour I guess. Lemon zest added to the macaron shell mixture, white chocolate ganache and lemon curd to fill.
Ganache was not quite set, they look like little fried eggs 😀
The almond meal I used included the skin, for a less rustic looking macaron use almond meal made from blanched almonds. I wanted to do something to jazz them up a bit so airbrushed some little planes onto them once baked. I had the plane stencil in my box of goodies from when I made some baby shower onesie cookies.
Not quite an F-35!
Both lots of macarons were made for a work picnic for people involved in the F-35 Lightning II program from several different countries, hence the Australian lamingtons and the planes 🙂
Fiona Poole 