Brainstorming macaron flavours...

Jackie and I at work!

          This Friday is my sweetie pie Jackie's birthday and I decided I would make her a mini macaron tower for her birthday. I also wanted to experiment with inventing and mixing up my own macaron flavours...I really want to try making Red berry macarons (strawberry shell with mixed berry jam), Chai latte (marsala shell with vanilla bean buttercream), I really want to make pistachio but for the sake of the lemons falling off our tree - Lemon tart (lemon shell with lemon curd). Might also experiment with different nut meals, I just read that Australian almond meal has the tendency to be a lil on the wet side and you should dry it out first but to be honest I have never done this and it has caused zero problems for me. Just as it's not necessary to age your whites (dehydrates them), never had a problem either way! Ahhh this week is going to be an exciting week in the kitchen. It is hard to explain the joy I get as I eagerly watch my lil babies growing in the oven! ^_^

Mutant lemons from our tree! They are completely organic and we get
more and more fruit every year, occassionally I bottle my own lemonade
concentrate - perfect summer thirst quencher! Simply boil appox.
1:1 ratio of sugar and lemon juice (depends on your taste and the fruit)

         *Update*
The lemon macarons were lovely but next time I would fill before serving cos the curd made it a bit too moist and delicate. The berry ones are yummy but I ran out of jam and filled some with curd for strawberry lemonade flavoured ones!! The chais did not turn out :( too much air - it grew a foot then kept growing dome shaped and cracked so sad!! T_T they collapsed so I toasted them and made chai snaps - the flavour is to die for but next time I will just grind the spices instead of using the instant chai mix (might work better!) but for now I'm sick of the kitchen lol I have a new hobby instead!