These Gluten Free Lemon Curd Macarons are soft, pillowy bites of heaven; light and airy vanilla macarons sandwiched with a fresh lemon curd and a lemon zest buttercream. A taste of spring!
ME BEFORE THE RECIPE…
We just returned from a whirlwind vacation up north this weekend. Whirlwind as in we drove 7 hours Thursday night and then returned home via the same “trail of tears” Sunday afternoon. That’s the name we’ve assigned to this frequent road trip we make to Utah. You can take a wild guess where the tears come from. I’ll give you one clue, the majority of whining is not echoing from the girls or me…BEN!!!
Just kidding, as much as Ben complains, he is quite the trooper on road trips. He’s our designated driver. In fact, if it weren’t for Ben, I don’t know that we would ever make it more than an hour outside of the city. You guys, I can NOT stay awake while driving. It’s utterly impossible. It’s like the long stretches of road coupled with the humming of the engine orchestrate this perfect lullaby that rocks me gently to sleep. I could most definitely NEVER be a truck driver. I would be a complete hazard on the road.
Not only could I not stay awake this trip, but Ben’s eyes were getting heavy as well. We resorted to parking at a gas station literally an hour away from our final destination just to take a cat nap before continuing the last leg of our journey. I’ll just say that stopping at a desolate gas station parking lot at midnight to cat nap with your helpless young family is not necessarily a scenario I would like to repeat.
But as always, the journey was worth it. You see, my brother and sister-in-law live on an actual resort, the Holmstead Ranch Resort, up in the mountains by St. George. While most hosts offer you a guest room when visiting, my brother offers an entire guest cabin. Yes, I said cabin.
And these aren’t your shack type cabins either. I’m talking full kitchen, bathroom, queen sized bed, cable, and WiFi. These are luxury cabins all the way. Plus, they are nestled alongside a man made pond with the most breathtaking views.
In addition to the cozy cabins, the resort includes access to all sorts of animals and activities. We quickly learned that Braelyn may need extra auto insurance once she receives her license because that girl is a CRAZY driver! She couldn’t get enough of cruising the golf carts around the resort, peeling along the curves and flying up and down the hills. I’m pretty sure her driving skills shaved about 10 years off Ben’s life.
The kids also enjoyed playing on the playground, riding the miniature horses, and doing basically anything that involved kicking up dirt and staining their clothes. But with all the fun, I can’t complain.
And it just so happens that a few of the animals at the ranch had just given birth. My girls were able to hold baby lambs and piglets. Let me rephrase that. Emry held the baby pigs. Braelyn more or less freaked out. This is the kid that wants to be a vet. I politely advised her that she may want to rethink her career path. But I’ll tell you one thing, those baby piglets were the cutest things I’ve ever seen, snorty squeals and all!
Being on the ranch and seeing all the animals with their babies, along with celebrating my niece’s first year of life and knowing that Easter is right around the corner, really got me in the springtime mood. I’ll admit, I’ve got some major spring fever happening over here. And guess what? I can because I live in Phoenix and our weather is screaming “SPRING!!!” loud and proud. Winter is well over, for sure.
HERE COMES THE RECIPE…
And if there is one food that is the epitome of spring, it’s gotta be lemon. It’s bright vibrant color coupled with it’s fresh citrus flavor makes it one of my all-time favorite spring foods. Give me lemon for all the things; lemon bars, lemonade, lemon cake, lemon poppyseed muffins, lemon cream pasta, and the list goes on. Pucker up baby!
If you’re anything like me and looking for a light sweet treat this spring, say hello to a dozen or two of these Gluten Free Lemon Curd Macarons.
First off, let me clarify the fact that it’s macarOns and not macarOOns. I recently commented on a food blogger’s picture of some gorgeous macarons and naively spelled it wrong. She, not so subtly, corrected me in my response and I was torn between feeling embarrassed and annoyed at the fact that she didn’t just accept my compliment of her cookies and move on. Snooty food blogger lady.
Anyway, I’ll show her because this food blogger right here can make some pretty epic macarons as well. So there.
In fact, these macarons almost scored me a spot on this season’s MasterChef. For my audition, I made a sweet chili glazed salmon and two different kinds of macarons, one of which were these gluten free lemon curd macarons. The professional chef that tasted my food was so impressed that he signaled over another lady from the production crew to sample my macarons.
Most macarons have a simple filling of some sort of flavored buttercream. What makes these macarons different is the fact that they are filled with buttercream AND fresh lemon curd. The fresh lemon curd gives these macarons an intense burst of freshness that cuts through the sweetness of the cookie and frosting.
These macarons almost remind me of a lemon meringue pie. The cookies reflect the flavor of meringue and then you have this tart, velvety curd in the middle just like the pie filling. Plus they’re easier to handle than a slice of pie. You just grab and pop in your mouth. The trickiest thing about eating these macarons is figuring out when to stop.
Before I forget, you can either buy store bought lemon curd or make your own filling. I found a fantastic recipe over at The Food Charlatan’s blog and it worked perfectly for filling these cookies. You can either make her full recipe and have leftover curd, or half the recipe and use up most of it inside the macarons. My advice is to make the full recipe because you’re definitely going to want a few extra spoonfuls to eat in between assembling cookies!
Oh, and after making these the first time and photographing them, I made a second batch to test the recipe. I ended up melting down some white chocolate candy wafers and dipping a portion of the macarons in the white chocolate and then sprinkling them with some chopped pistachios. Highly recommended!!! Dip the cookies about a third of the way in the melted chocolate and lay on wax paper. Then sprinkle with the nuts and chill in the fridge until the chocolate has set. I’m telling you, this is life changing in the macaron arena.
Now before you get all sweaty and anxious over the thought of making macarons, let me assure you that if you follow the directions thoroughly, macarons are not as hard to make as most people assume. My first attempt was a complete success, and I’ve made them various times since with only one failure. And that one failure was just because I measured the egg whites wrong. I added one egg too many.
But seriously, if you want a real confidence booster, go ahead and whip up a batch of these gluten free lemon curd macarons. You’ll be surprised at what “hard” things you can do if you just try. There’s my mini devotional for you this lovely spring morning. Now go off and conquer the day!
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY…
- Gluten Free Sour Cream Lemon Cake
- Gluten Free Lemon Basil Zucchini Pasta
- Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
- Gluten Free Lemon Basil Cupcakes
- Gluten Free Lemon Cheesecake Pudding Cookies
- For the cookies:
- 1 cup almond flour (4 oz.)
- 1¾ cups powdered sugar (7 oz.)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 egg whites (4 oz. or ½ cup)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup granulated sugar (3.5 oz.)
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- For the frosting:
- 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 2 oz. cream cheese, softened
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- For the filling:
- ⅓ cup prepared lemon curd (recipe from The Food Charlatan, https://thefoodcharlatan.com/the-best-lemon-curd-recipe/)
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Begin making cookies. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add almond flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Stir to incorporate. Using a mesh strainer over another mixing bowl, sift dry mixture to remove any larger pieces of almond flour, stirring and pushing against strainer with a rubber spatula. Repeat two or three more times to make sure you remove any larger granules. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add egg whites, and vanilla. Beat until just foamy. Add sugar about a tablespoon at a time, beating constantly on medium speed. Once mixture begins to thicken, add cream of tartar. Increase speed to high and beat for 5-6 minutes until soft glossy peaks, that can hold their shape, form at the end of the beater. There should be no dripping.
- Spoon about ⅓ of the flour mixture into egg mixture. Gently fold flour into egg mixture until just combined. Add another ⅓ of flour and fold until just combined. Add remaining flour mixture and fold until just combined. The batter should be smooth and shiny and have a slight flow to it.
- Attach a medium sized round piping tip to a piping bag. Fill bag ¾ way full with batter. Squeeze 1½" round about 1" apart on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Lift the pans about a foot above the counter and drop vigorously a few times to remove any air pockets in the batter.
- Let pans sit on counter for 30 minutes until the cookies have created a shell and are no longer sticky to the touch.
- Bake cookies for 7 minutes at 325 degrees. Open oven door to release any steam. Shut oven door and bake for an additional 7 minutes. Remove from oven and gently slide parchment paper with cookies onto a cooling rack. Allow to completely cool before removing from parchment paper.
- While cookies are cooling, begin making frosting. In a small mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add pinch of salt and ¾ cup powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Add vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Beat until smooth. Add remaining ½ cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add more powdered sugar, lemon juice, or milk to achieve desired consistency.
- Turn half of the cooled cookies over. Spoon frosting into a piping bag with a medium sized round tip. Once cookies are completely cooled, pipe a circle of frosting about a centimeter away from the edges of the turned over cookies. Fill the center of the frosted circle with lemon curd. Top them with remaining cookies and gently push and twist to secure cookies together.
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container in fridge for up to 1 week, or in freezer for up to 3 months.
