Matcha Macarons with Green Lemon Curd Fillings

This will or maybe not be an exceeding long post, its up to individuals, why will it be long? maybe i'm gonna show you pictures in every angle possible? LOL just kidding! just a few tips on macaroons making that's it! I've been baking macaroons for the past 2 nights i'm seriously not sure will i have the energy to do it again tonight i'm getting big black circles under my tiny miny eyes and they sure don't look gorgeous to me!
Anyhow here's the pictures of the macaroons I'd done last night...

Although these macaroons has feet, i still think it's not there yet, why do i say so? Hmm, i personally think the feet ain't high enough, although while baking in the oven the feet appeared very high, it collapsed after cooling. I really need a thousand more times of practicing as i mentioned to Eelin of NEL The Batter Baker. 

 
 And compared to my 1st attempt, this time the shells were kinda of wet, at first i thought i under-baked them, so for the 2nd batch i baked longer then required after the feet appears but its the same wet looking shells, the 3rd batch i baked even longer after the feet appears still the same so i concluded that i have under-beaten the egg whites, the time i whipped the egg whites yesterday was shorter then my first attempt, so i suspect under-beating the egg whites caused the batter to have retained moisture in it and thus the wet looking shells.

Actually before i baked this Matcha Macaroons, i did a batch of Pierre Hermes Chocolate Macaroons, the results were disastrous! no feet, the mixture is still gooey after baking, the eggs whites can't be whipped to the shiny stage. PH's recipe, the egg whites are beaten on its own, and i strongly suspect that this is why i was unable to whipped it to the shiny stage i had achieved on my first attempt, so off to the dustbin they go and i started on my Matcha Macaroons using back the initial recipe for my 1st attempt.

True enough, the eggs whites is this case is whipped with a high level of castor sugar and my egg whites batter soon start to show the shiny texture after 3mins of high speed beating. You could image my awe and excitement when i stand right in front of my oven and stare at the macaroons, the feet appear simultaneously! Yes, no cracked and burst shells! wohoooooooooooo! I know i'm a little crazy sometimes haha!

I hope these little tips are able to help you in your macaroon making, and the recipe i had posted is highly recommended by Cathy of Cathy's Joy and of course me!

Matcha Macaroons (makes 20 macaroons shells)
(adapted from Carol 烘焙新手必备的第一本书)

Ingredients

45g egg whites (aged for 2-3 days)
50g castor sugar
1/4 tsp lemon juice
65g almond meal
60g icing sugar
1/2 tsp green tea powder

Method

1. Measure all the ingredients and set aside. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, set aside.
2. Combine almond meal, icing sugar and green tea powder in a bowl and lightly whisk to mix, mill the mixture in a food processor until it represent flour or even finer (this step helps to make your shells top look smoother you can omit this step if you do not have a food processor). Pour the milled mixture into a bowl, set aside.
3. Place egg whites in a clean mixing bowl, with an electrical whisk, whisk egg whites until foamy, add in lemon juice and half of the castor sugar and whisk until soft peaks forms, add in remaining castor sugar and whisk until the egg white mixture is shiny and stiff peaks form.
4. Fold in half of the milled dry ingredients into the egg whites batter until just combined, fold in the remaining milled dry ingredients until thoroughly combined, be careful not to over mix the mixture. 
5. Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle, pipe the batter into 3cm circles (or whatever size you wished cause i can never pipe even circles even when the circle outline is shown so clearly beneath the parchment paper hahaha) and space 3cm apart.
6. Rap the baking pan,hard, a few times on the counter top to flatten the macaroons, set it aside to for the shells' surface to dry up around 20-30mins.
7. Preheat oven to 200C, once preheated slide the tray of dried macaroons into the oven, off the heat immediately and keep the oven door ajar with a thick glove placed in between, for 6mins.
8. Once the 6mins is up, close the oven door and bake the macaroons at 140C until the macaroons are puffed up and the feet has appear on each and every shell, lower the heat immediately to 120C and bake for 3mins, then lower the heat to 100C for 5mins, then off the heat and let the macaroons sit in the oven to "simmer" for 8mins.
9. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before removing from the parchment paper. Fill with fillings of your own choice and keep in airtight containers inside the refrigerate for 1 day before serving.

Green Lemon Curd
(adapted and modified from Quay Po Cooks)

Ingredients

6 egg yolks
3/4 cup castor sugar (reduced to 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup freshly squeezed green lemon juice
2 tbsps grated lemon zest (or more depending on how sour you want it)
115g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Method

1.  Prepare a medium saucepan and fill it with water, heat on high flame until it boils then lower the flame to low and the water is just simmering.
2. In a metal bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until smooth, add in lemon juice and zest and whisk until combined.
3. Place the metal bowl on top of the saucepan of simmer water, making sure the bottom of the metal bowl doesn't touch the water.
4. Whisk the mixture constantly until it thickens, once thickens remove from heat.
5. Whisk in the butter a cube at a time, whisk until each piece is almost incorporated before adding in the next. 
6. Spoon into clean glass container and allow to cool with a plastic wrap laid against the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming.
7. Refrigerate until needed, can be kept for 2-3 weeks.

These are the gifts that i won in the Valentine Giveaway hosted by Veronica of Quay Po Cooks! They are beautiful ain't they?? The earrings are handmade by Veronica herself!! The artwork is so exquisite! Thanks Veronica! We shall meet again soon!!  

P.S i took almost 3 hours to do up this post! woah! the longest i ever done haha!