When I first saw Blair Waldorf snacking on her favorite treat from Paris, I knew I had to try them myself. I searched far and wide for this delicacy and found them at a market in Columbus. I loved them so much and knew I had to try to make them myself. See my attempts to master one of the hardest French pastries below!
Lemon French Macarons
I found the recipe on a website called Sweet & Savory by Shinee and fell in love with her pictures! I followed her exact recipe for both of the batches I made.
The recipe was easy to understand. You can find the ingredients below!
For macaron shells:
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1 cup almond flour
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3/4 cup powdered sugar
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2 large egg whites
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¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
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¼ cup sugar
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1 teaspoon lemon zest
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½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
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½ teaspoon lemon juice
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Yellow gel food coloring
For lemon buttercream:
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3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
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1 cup powdered sugar
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2 teaspoons heavy cream
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1 tablespoon lemon juice
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1 teaspoon lemon zest
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½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
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1/8 teaspoon salt
I started with a lot of confidence and the help from my mom. After hours of hard work, we put them in the oven and hoped for the best…this is what came out.
As you can see, they look nothing like macarons! They actually tasted okay, other than the fact that they were all lined with wax paper that I couldn’t get off. These were essentially inedible. An hour later, I decided to wipe off my tears and try again with the help of my trusted best friend, Grace Harris, former Campus Cutie and photographer of the pictures in this post! With her baking skills and my determination, we were able to muster up the crumbly macarons you see below.
These tasted incredible and were much easier to make the second time around. The flavor was so light and fresh because we used freshly squeezed lemons.
Unfortunately, they were still really crumbly. So, we did what any good chef would do…we went to the store and bought some.
These looked beautiful and tasted great. They only cost about $3! Not too bad for how much work I know goes into making them.
In the end, I really loved being able to recreate one of my favorite desserts, but it was just way too much work! I think I’ll just stick to buying them from the store.