So I’ve been reading a lot about macarons recently, mostly on the amazing http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/ and naturally had to have a go myself. The result isn’t exactly pretty, and the photography leaves a lot to be desired, but they were tasty and I have it on good authority that they tasted like macarons, so, win, I guess. I used not-so-humble’s Italian Macaron with Lemon Mascarpone filling recipe, although I made the filling with equal parts lemon curd and mascarpone and nothing else as my left over lemon curd from the RCPM cake was rather zesty anyway. I did use a drop of yellow food colouring in the meringue, but you can’t tell until you bite into one of the shells (oven temperature too high?). I would like to have another go at these when I get a free afternoon to try and smooth out the flaws. I think perhaps I erred on the side of caution and under-mixed the batter as the ‘nipples’ didn’t disappear into the piped discs. Also, I’m not sure whether it was a consequence of the oven temperature, the batter or the fact that I didn’t insulate my trays with a second baking sheet even though not-so-humble specifically mentioned several times what a difference it makes… but my feet weren’t all that impressive. The one thing I did do right, though, was use Lakeland “magic non-stick liner” instead of greaseproof paper. It really is magic. Not a single macaron stuck and the whole sheet easily slid off the baking tray to allow me to start on the next batch while they cooled. Best of all, you can just wipe it clean and re-use it. So, all in all, it was a fun experiment but the finished product needs a lot of work. See you again soon, macarons.