Making macarons has become a little bit of free therapy for me. Methodically measuring out ingredients, piping, baking, filling… it is comforting and relaxing. I find the same type of satisfaction when making lemon curd. Sure, you can buy it already made at the store. But making it at home means you can probably make a lot of it very cheaply. And there is something about separating egg yolks and whisking that mixture until it thickens and becomes unctuous and delicious that simply makes me happy. All for the price of sugar, eggs, butter, and lemons. And lemon curd is versatile, you can make lemon meringue tarts, lemon ice cream, cookies filled with lemon curd, serve it along some pound cake, fill cupcakes with it, and of course, fill macarons with it.
I haven’t made macarons for the blog since October, so I was excited to participate in the MacAttack 15 Challenge. Jamie & Deeba of Mactweets challenged us to enjoy the comfort of a favorite dessert, something that would inspire us to create a macaron. So my comforting dessert definitely is lemon curd. The best part about making lemon curd is that you have egg whites left to make macarons.
Right now it is still cold, and there are snow flakes falling every other week. I wanted to make something with tropical flavors, that reminded me of the beach and the sun. Finally the idea came to me: passion fruit curd. I easily found passion fruit concentrate at a grocery store that carries a lot of Latin American products. If you find all natural frozen concentrate, that is best. But you can also use the bottled kind (sadly not all natural) but it works equally well here. Just make sure you pick up concentrate and not juice or nectar.
Recipe for macaron shells here.
Passion Fruit Filling
8 oz white chocolate
3 ounces heavy cream
4 oz passion fruit curd
1 to 2 tablespoons passion fruit concentrate
1. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a boil.
2. Melt chocolate over a double boiler.
3. Pour cream in two additions over the white chocolate. Whisk until well incorporated.
4. Whisk in passion fruit curd. Whisk in 1 tablespoon passion fruit concentrate. Taste and add 1 more tablespoon if desired.
5. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Passion Fruit Curd
(recipe from Martha Stewart)
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup passion fruit concentrate
• 6 large egg yolks
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
1. In a medium saucepan, place the sugar, passion fruit concentrate and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. This should take about 15 minutes. Turn heat off, and add the butter pieces one by one until all the butter is incorporated. Let cool and refrigerate until ready to use it. Makes about 2 cups.
Finally, I have some news to share with you. The lovely Mayi from the beautiful and inspiring Heartmade Blog asked me to write a special recipe blog post for her readers. Heartmade is all about creativity and inspiration. I was extremely flattered that she would ask me and wanted to create something extra special. Hopefully I will be working with Heartmade throughout the year, contributing fun and delicious kitchen projects. So here is a little preview of the yummy passion fruit meringue cupcakes I made.
Please stop by Heartmade and check it out. After all, if you decide to make the passion fruit curd, you will have enough for macarons and cupcakes and I have no doubt that you will love all the inspirational content at Heartmade!
One Vanilla Bean 
Hola check La Prensa site en los suplementos A LA MESA y salen los Macarons de un restaurante francés la verdad
las fotos y la receta (explicaciones etc.) no le llegan a los tuyos. Vuelvo y repito los tuyos son fabulosos!
I love your pictures!
Very cool to see another DC-area MacTweeter! I love macaron fillings that lean towards tart; they’re such a good contrast to the sweet shells. Your pictures are beautiful and the feet are perfect.
Your macarons are brilliant. I find them entirely charming, perfect in every frame, and very inspired. congratulations on being invited to write for Mayi. That does look like a wonderful recipe to contribute. Thank you for joining us at MacTweets Cecilia.
What beautiful yellow macarons. Just looking at them puts me in a sunny mood. The cupcakes are lovely as well.
those cookies look very good. hopefully i will taste them someday.
If this is a beauty pageant, your macaron wins Miss Universe. I’ve never said that to any macaron. Ever.
These passion fruit macarons really look amazing and I love the photos that are displayed. Very nice post.
Your macarons are flawless and beautiful. Where would I find something like passion fruit concentrate? Is that a refrigerated item? A canned item? Please let me know. I LOVE passionfruit but don’t know what section of the store I would find that in.
Gio–Mil gracias por tus lindas palabras. Besos!
Laura–Thank you for stopping by!
Victoria–Yeah, I always lean toward tart fillings. Love the contrast!
Deeba–Thank you so much for your kind comments. You are such a sweetheart!
Lora–I was really going for sunny yellow! You can’t really see it in the picture but the passion fruit curd was such a vibrant yellow color.
Annapet–Thanks! Yay, I will have to rename these Miss Universe macarons!
Babygirl–Thank you hon!
Lola–Thank you!
Fifteenspatulas–It depends, you can find it in the freezer section, or in the Latin American food section. This time the one I bought came in a bottle. It will say Maracuya or Parcha.
That macaroons look perfect, Yummy!
Oh dear these look just amazing! I should really get myself together and make my own macarons once! As much as i was spoiled with them in Brussels, now in Budapest they are impossible to buy:(
Passionfruit is also one of my favourites, these i guess just taste delicious!
Such a happy-looking, delicious-tasting macaron! Love the passion fruit flavoring all around.
Pretty and perfect Cecilia! I love making my own curd too, and would vouch for the yumminess of passionfruit. I’m lucky that passionfruit grows quite easily in Australia, in fact I have a vine in my tiny garden but so far no fruit yet 🙂
These look delightful, I so love passionfruit flavoured things. Lovely looking macs!
stunning. love the first photo and the one w/the brown & pink napkin.
Your macarons look perfect and just like the ones I enjoyed in when I vacationed in Paris.