Happy Easter! While we’re celebrating differently this year, it doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun at home and enjoy eating nice treats. The kids will love these tasty macarons (when they’ve tired of all that chocolate) and they don’t take long to make at all. The recipe below will get you about 25 macarons so plenty if they want seconds or thirds 

What you need:

For macaron shells:

• 100gr almond flour
• 100gr powdered sugar
• 70gr (1/3 cup) egg whites
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 50gr sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 drop yellow food colouring (optional)

For lemon buttercream:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 130g powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Sift together almond flour and powdered sugar twice. Set aside.

2. Then whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue to whisk while adding sugar one tablespoon at a time – it should now have a shaving foam-like consistency. Whisk again until your egg whites develop stiff peaks. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and yellow food colouring if you have it. Whisk until this is evenly dispersed.

3. Sift the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture over the whipped egg whites. Gently fold in the mixture in 3-4 parts. Try not to undermix or overmix; batter shouldn’t be runny but ideally will fall down from the spatula in a blob.

4. Transfer the mixture into a pastry bag.

5. Pipe out 1.5-inch rounds about an inch apart on two lined baking sheets.

6. Tap the baking sheets firmly on the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles (if air bubbles stay in the mixture, your macarons shells will crack).

7. Let the macarons rest for 15-30 minutes at room temperature before baking.

8. Bake the macarons for 18-20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 150°C.

9. Allow them to cool when done for around 15 minutes.

10. Prepare the lemon buttercream: Whisk butter until fluffy. Then add powdered sugar, cream, lemon juice, lemon zest and whisk all together.

11. Transfer the buttercream into a pastry bag and fill the macarons.

Storage: These are best kept in an airtight container in the fridge and eaten within 5 days.