Sunday 26 April 2015

Rhubarb-Lemon Fizz Macarons


You may have noticed that my blog is looking a lot prettier all of a sudden! The lovely Toni of Lemon Freckles recently gave my blog a bit of a makeover, and as a thank you I thought I would bake her some macarons! 

I wanted to make them extra special, and I think I've come up with a Macaron that is basically Toni in food-form! Not only are these macarons super cute (everybody loves pastel sprinkles, right?) they're packed full of delicious, tangy flavors. Rhubarb shells sandwiched together with a zesty Lemon Sherbet Frosting and a sprinkling of Popping Candy! 


Rhubarb-Lemon Fizz Macarons
Recipe by Charis Mitchell
Makes 20 macarons

For the shells
3/4C water drained from a can of chickpeas
1/2C sugar
10 drops rhubarb flavoring (make sure it is NOT oil based)
1/4tsp pink food coloring 
1 1/4C ground almonds
1/2C powdered sugar
2tsp pastel sprinkles

For the frosting
1Tbsp heaped vegan butter spread
3 1/2 - 4C powdered sugar
Juice and zest of 1 large lemon

4tsp popping candy (vegan lemon popping candy here)

Make the shells
Begin by simmering the chickpea liquid in a small pan over a medium heat until it has reduced to 1/3C. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes while you prepare your dry ingredients.

Process the ground almonds for a few seconds in a food processor until finely ground, then add the powdered sugar and process again until combined. Sieve into a medium bowl and discard any pieces too big to pass through the mesh. 

Once the chickpea liquid has cooled down pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk and whisk on medium speed until white and fluffy (this takes me around 5 minutes) Add the sugar and whisk on high until the meringue is extremely stiff and glossy (depending on your mixer this can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes) Add the rhubarb flavoring and pink coloring and whisk until combined. 

IMPORTANT : At the end of this step the meringue should be really, really thick - almost the consistency of marshmallow fluff. If the meringue isn't thick enough your macarons won't turn out perfect.

Add half the dry ingredients to the meringue mixture and mix, using a spatula and pressing down to remove some of the air from the mixture. Add the rest of the almond-sugar mix and stir in a circular motion until there are no dry bits left. 

Press the batter against the side of the bowl and then scoop up from underneath. (Watch a video of this step HERE) Repeat this 15-20 times, until the batter is thick but slowly drops off the spatula, like a ribbon.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and seal it at the top. Pipe 1 inch circles onto baking trays lined with grease proof paper, being careful to pipe from above as opposed to from the side. Hold each tray at chest level and drop onto the work surface or table twice. Sprinkle the sprinkles over the top of half of the macarons and leave to dry out for two hours at room temperature.

Place your first tray of macarons in the oven and then set it to just under 100 degrees Celcius. Bake the macarons for 20 minutes before turning off the oven and leaving them in there for 15 minutes, and then opening the door and leaving them in there for a further 15 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and leave the macarons to cool completely on the tray while you make the frosting.

Make the frosting
Cream together the butter spread and a cup of the powdered sugar until fluffy. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix well. Add more powdered sugar, a 1/2C at a time until your frosting is thick but will pipe easily. Scoop into a piping bag and seal at the top. Pipe generous blobs of frosting onto the bottom shell halves (the ones without the sprinkles) and top with a sprinkling of popping candy before sandwiching them together with the top halves.

Place in the fridge in an airtight container overnight - this is an important step as it allows the flavor from the frosting to seep into the shells and gives the macarons the desired chew.

Macarons keep well in the fridge for up to a week and in the freezer for months.



Pssst...Floral Frosting is now open to Sponsors! xo

24 comments:

  1. Bookmarked! I will attempt these! I'm not holding out on them looking anything like yours but I have a little faith for something delicious. x

    ReplyDelete
  2. these sound INCREDIBLE. I am SO TERRIBLE at baking, so if you could just... send me some of these, I'd be tooootally indebted to you forever <3 YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  3. These are seriously amazing Ms Charis. YOU are seriously amazing. Kudos on your inventiveness and on sharing these wonderful recipes with us all so that we vegans can have something scrumptious and elegant to dunk in our teacups :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Toni sent me here! These look wonderful. I've always wanted to make macarons but they seem so daunting, but these are vegan and I've been looking for a delicious new vegan sweet to make. I might try these over the bank holiday.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think I have to buy a stand mixer. 😉

    ReplyDelete
  6. Where do you find rhubarb flavoring?? I'm having the hardest time finding this! Is it the same as rhubarb extract?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's the same as rhubarb extract. I buy mine in Lakeland, a kitchenware shop

      Delete
    2. I found some on ebay - Vegan and £3.50 and it worked perfectly. :)
      http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30ml-HIGHLY-CONCENTRATED-LIQUID-FOOD-FLAVOURING-30-FLAVOURS-SAME-DAY-DISPATCH-/161878106669?var=&hash=item25b0afe22d:m:mufxJJfynAWqApq1aPfpvfQ

      Delete
  7. HI, your recipe is wonderful. and i tried it today. but i dont know what went wrong when i added dry ingredients to the whipped cream it didnt turn out thick as yours. it was little runny. still i tried with it and when i baked after 2.5 hrs. it got shrunk. one more thing have you added cream of tartar or veg.gelatin to make cream stiff? and sugar have you added granual or confectionar sugar?.TIA

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HI there - apologies for such a late response! I have two little ones under the age of two and somehow managed to completely miss this question! If the meringue is thick enough it definitely shouldn'y go runny or thin when you add the dry ingredients, so I would recommend whipping for longer to get a really really stiff meringue. It should be hard to get off the whisk, it's that stiff! I don't add anything to help to help it, however if you want to you could add 1/4tsp cream of tartar to help it get started on stiffening up. I find it can take up to 10mins to whisk up properly, and that's using a stand mixer. If you're using a handheld mixer it would take longer, so just make sure to give the mixer regular breaks so it doesn't overheat.
      I hope this helps! Thanks for your comments!

      Delete
  8. I just came across your macarons recipe! Awww, they look so delicious! I have a few attempts already behind me, but always failed. I would love to try your recipe out. I am not sure about "cups". Is there a possibility for you to "translate" the ingredients into "grams"? That would help me a lot!
    Thanks anyway for this great recipe!
    Simone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Simone,
      sorry for the late response! My latest macaron recipes all are in both cups and grams, so maybe take a look at those!
      Thanks for your comment!

      Delete
  9. is it absolutely needed to add the rhubad flavoring ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not at all! Add any flavoring you like, or leave it out!

      Delete
  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I just made these and they're delicious! However, I ran into some trouble with baking. I had two trays, and neither of them elevated the way that macaroons should, and the bottom tray's macarons sank down in the middle, while the top tray took about twice as long to cook long enough to come off the tray without coming apart. What should I do to change them so they cook properly? Thanks for the recipe!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Emily, sorry for the late response! Did you bake both trays at the same time? It sounds like you did, in which case that will be part of the problem. Always bake one tray at a time to make sure they cook evenly. In regards to taking longer to cook, I wonder if perhaps the mixture wasn't quite thick enough? Or if they didn't dry properly? If the mixture was very thick but still didn't cook properly then maybe try increasing the oven temperature slightly? All ovens are different, so you could try baking at 100 degrees and see how that works!
      I hope this helps! Thanks for your comments!

      Delete
  12. Hi Charis, thank you for sharing the recipe. Just wondering if I can use maybe just 1/3 or 1/2 icing sugar in this recipe? will that work well?
    Thank you
    Wendy

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Charis, I'm attempting to make these. Reducing the chickpea liquid is a bit tricky. My can of chickpeas had also contained 3/4 cup of liquest I used medium heat to boil but it kept hovering around the 1/2 cup mark; then I decided to increase the heat and now it's reduced to 1/4 cup! Should I add back some water to make it back to the required 1/3 cup? It's tricky to gauge the amount in the pot while it's boiling. Anyone have advice? I just want to keep pouring liquid back and forth between my pot and the measuring cup.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Linda, yes it doesn't need to be perfectly 1/3C of the liquid. I often reduce to 1/4C and then top it up to 1/3C with tap water, or if its just a little more than 1/3C I pour the rest away. I hope that's helpful!

      Delete
  14. Why the oil flavouring cannot be used? What if I mixed just 5 drops with the almond meal?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Charis. I love this recipe and i try it but no matter what i do , macarons hate me. I really don't know what i'm doing wrong , but the mixture it's too liquid and no matter how many hours i wait the shells to dry , they are always sticky , Can you help me ??

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hello! I tried these, and could never get the feet on them, or get them fully fry. When you bit into them, they instantly glued your teeth together. Any tips?

    ReplyDelete
  17. I don't know what I did wrong. My macarons are sad and collapsed and squished out of the sides . I didn't change anything except I used vanilla extract to flavor them. Will have to try again sometime. Not anytime soon though.

    ReplyDelete