Macha and Lime Macarons

The Chocolate Macarons turned out so well, I thought I give it another try with another flavour. Plus, I had some egg white left over and that was just the perfect excuse. Additionally, I had some lime laying around thus I thought some green Macarons with lime would be perfect.

When colouring macarons it is recommended to use powdered colours, which, as far as I know, are had to come by in Saskatoon. There is just no basis for them to sell them here. Even Wild Serendipity Foods, who sells the macarons at the Farmers Market said that it’s a no go in the city, though you can order them online. What to do? Use other things, like macha powder, which is green tea powder.

The recipe I used comes from Macaron Fetish, the filling comes from Macarons.org.uk. I simply had no white chocolate to make the filling Macaron Fetish suggested, next time though. The recipe is adjusted to the amount of egg white I had.

Ingredients:

– 85g egg white (about 3 large eggs) – aged for a 1
– 100g icing sugar
– 60g ground almond
– 60g castor sugar
– 1 tsp. macha powder

Tip 1: Castor sugar is fine sugar but not as fine as icing sugar. Put your white sugar into a food processor and let it work until it’s fairly fine. This will take some time. I haven’t seen costor sugar in the grocery store yet, but I also haven’t been looking for it.

Tip 2: The egg white has to age, which means you leave it out in the counter for about a day.

Place icing sugar and ground almond in a food processor and pulse together until fine. Sift into a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until somewhat foamy, then add half the castor sugar. Keep beating on high for 2 min before adding the rest of the sugar. Then beat until stiff peaks form.

Tip 3: Last time I felt that I beat the egg white too much and didn’t reach the lava consistency that was called for. As a result, I had to add another egg white. This time I beat the eggs less, stiff but not as stiff as with the Chocolate Macarons.

Then add the sugar-almond mix to the egg whites and fold together, adding the macha powder and mixing until you reach a lava consistency. Make sure you are not over mixing, it should be a shiny mixture. Fill a piping bag and pip the macarons on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper/parchment paper, leaving a bit space between each dot. Tap the cookie sheet on the table or counter so that air bubbles will be released.

Tip 4: The piped macarons will spread a bit in their wet state but not really when baking. Thus you should leave a bit of space between them.

Let the cookie sheets sit until the surface of the macarons are dry to the touch. Bake at 160°C for 12 min, rotating in between to make sure it is baked evenly. After 6 min the foot should have formed. After 12 min the top should not move around on the foot anymore. If it still does, let it bake for another min.

Filling:

– 100ml (3 fl oz) of lime juice (mine was freshly pressed)
– 1 egg
– 2 tsp. of corn flour
– 60g (2oz) castor sugar

Combine lime juice with corn flour and mix well before you add the egg and sugar in a sauce pan or small pot. Then heat on the stove and stir until a thick cream has formed. Remove from the oven and let it cool before transforming into a piping bag.

Tip 5: I used icing sugar instead of castor sugar and had to add more to the cream because it was fairly sour.

Pipe some lime filling on one side of the macaron, the carefully squish another macaron shell on top. Place the finished macarons in a container and store in the fridge for a day before eating.

Issues:

Oh boy, I had some issues while baking my shells. I mean, look at the pictures and you know what I mean. Broken shells and some half risen shells, not comparable to my Chocolate Maracons. Here are some thoughts on what happened.

– I used macha powder which could have given the batter a different texture maybe
– I didn’t beat the egg white enough, thus they didn’t rise well
– the oven was too hot
– the humidity was wrong, though I had doors and windows closed and it’s fairly dry these days
– the egg was not right, as in it sat too long maybe

So, these maracons are barely picture worthy but nice tasting as well. I also have to say that the lime filling was a bit too sour/bitter for me. Well, it’s not a complete failure but surely not comparable to the first attempt. We will see how no. 3 will go when I make it with a friend.

Happy baking!