Macarons with Lemon Curd

These taste like sunny lemon meringue pie bites without the crust!

It took me 8 hours, but I created a 100% vegan petit fours tray with amaretti, macarons with lemon curd, and choux pastry with orange crème patissiere and chocolate ganache.

The theme I chose was “tea with my grandmas” – for my Italian grandma, I have the amaretti and the choux pastry bigne that she used to make. For my British grandma, I have the lemon curd macarons and the classic chocolate orange flavor combination for the choux.

Here is the recipe for macarons with lemon curd. The amaretti are here.

This was the showstopper challenge from the great British bake-off, season 1, episode 2. Phew!

I don’t know how they did it in 4 hours, but then again I was inventing vegan versions of the recipes as I went, with 3 kids, a dog and a puppy running around. Needless to say, the tray got polished off pretty quickly!

Great British Bakeoff Vegan: Season 1, Episode 2, Showstopper

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Ingredients

Macarons

• 150 g reduced aquafaba, divided into two
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup water
• 200 g granulated sugar
• 200 g icing sugar
• 200 g almond flour
• Pinch turmeric (for color)

Lemon Curd

• 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• Pinch turmeric (for color)
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• ½ cup lemon juice

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Directions

For the macarons, I follow this excellent recipe – https://www.cookingoncaffeine.com/vegan-italian-macarons-aquafaba/ – my modifications are that I add a pinch of turmeric to the macaron batter for colour, and I make small macarons so I only bake them for 15-16 minutes instead of 20.

For the lemon curd, whisk all the ingredients together in a small pot over medium heat until it’s almost thick and just starting to bubble. Then remove the pot from the heat and keep whisking for 1 minute. Let the curd chill in the fridge before using it, if you have time.